Boise has two openings on the City Council. Find out who applied for the seats

Ian Max Stevenson

In the past month, 52 Boiseans have applied to fill two seats on the City Council.

The applicants include well-known locals, including previous candidates for other elected offices and Lisa Sánchez, whose vacant seat is one of the two that Mayor Lauren McLean is looking to fill for the rest of the year. The city announced the applicants in a news release Wednesday.

Sánchez inadvertently lost her seat in January when she moved out of her district, the city attorney concluded. Since then, she has moved back into District 3, according to a letter from her attorney.

Elaine Clegg became CEO of Valley Regional Transit, the agency that operates the Treasure Valley’s public transit, earlier this month. She previously told the Statesman that she plans to resign in the coming months.

Boise City Council Member Elaine Clegg participates in a council meeting earlier this month.
Boise City Council Member Elaine Clegg participates in a council meeting earlier this month.

District 3 covers Northwest Boise and the North End. Applicants must live in the district in order to be eligible for the seat. Clegg’s seat is at-large, meaning any eligible Boise resident could hold it.

Besides Sánchez, the applicants to fill the District 3 or at-large vacancies include:

  • Katy Decker, president of the Veterans Park Neighborhood Association. She has been a vocal opponent of the planned new homeless shelter along State Street.

  • Michelle Doane, who ran for a council seat in 2017.

  • Latonia Haney Keith, chair of the board of Boise’s urban renewal agency.

  • Tom Helmer, president of the Sunset Neighborhood Association.

  • Greg MacMillan, who ran against Sanchez for the District 3 seat in 2021.

  • Tony Roark, a philosophy professor at Boise State University who serves on the Boise Ethics Commission.

The other applicants are eligible only for the at-large seat, and they include:

  • Grant Burgoyne, a recently retired state senator.

  • Chris Blanchard, a member of Boise’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

  • Crispin Gravatt, a 2021 candidate for the City Council.

  • Colin Nash, a Democrat in the Legislature representing parts of West Boise and Garden City.

  • Patricia Nilsson, who ran for the Ada County Commission last year.

  • Britney Scigliano, who ran for City Council in 2019.

  • Caile Spear, an emeritus professor at Boise State’s Department of Community and Environmental Health.

  • Rob Stark, vice president of the Barber Valley Neighborhood Association.

McLean will begin interviewing “her top choices” this week, according to the release, and plans to announce her decisions in early March. It will then be up to the council to approve her selections.

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