Commissioner Havens takes on political veteran Nesset in District 2

The race for the District 2 Nez Perce County Commission seat features two political veterans who happen to be former Lewiston mayors, but only the incumbent has occupied elected office in recent years.

Challenger Jeff Nesset said he decided to get off the sidelines and apply that experience — which also includes one term in the Idaho House of Representatives — to bring a less political approach to running the county than incumbent Commissioner Douglas Havens, who has been in his position since 2010.

Havens dismissed his reputation as being antagonistic toward the city of Lewiston, adding that he actually works well with other agencies. As evidence, he cited the recent hiring of a longtime Idaho Department of Transportation engineer Roy Hill as the county’s new road department director and his idea to offer more matching funds to federal transportation agencies that helped land the large grant to replace the Cherrylane Bridge next year.

But Nesset said Havens’ vote last year to pull $32,000 from Valley Vision and almost $12,000 from the Clearwater Economic Development Association tells a different story. Havens and his two fellow commissioners decided to direct that money toward the struggling Lewiston-Nez Perce County Regional Airport, but Nesset said those economic development agencies have a strong record of attracting businesses and jobs to the region and deserve the county’s support.

Nesset also drew a contrast with Havens on relations with the city of Lewiston, saying he has maintained the relationships he built during his time on the city council.

“From what I’ve heard, relations could definitely be improved,” he said, noting Havens’ recent threats to move the county courthouse to pressure the city into abandoning the police department and selling the county the land.

The county’s costly lawsuit against the Lewiston Urban Renewal Agency a few years ago was also a sign of poor city-county relations, Nesset said.

Havens stood by his record, however, pointing to this year’s 0 percent property tax increase as a big help during the economic hardships brought by the pandemic. He said leaving property taxes unchanged was the fruit of several years of austere county budgets. That belt-tightening over his 10 years in office allowed the county to repay the bonds used to build the jail in North Lewiston eight years early, saving taxpayers more than $1 million in interest.

Retiring that debt has now allowed the county to start saving for the project to replace the courthouse, Havens said. But on the subject of the commission’s work to keep property taxes flat, Nesset said it could have been much better.

“If you like 0 percent, you ought to love the city’s minus-12 percent for next year,” he said, referring to the Lewiston City Council’s decision to participate in Gov. Brad Little’s property tax relief program.

The program made as much as $200 million from the state’s federal coronavirus relief allocation available to cities and counties to reimburse public safety personnel costs for the next 10 months, as long as they gave the savings to property taxpayers and didn’t increase taxes.

Early concerns about the legality of the program were alleviated by revised guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department, and the city jumped at the chance to secure its $2.8 million share to zero out its 2 percent property tax increase and then reduce taxes by an additional 12 percent. The county stood to get $2.6 million if it had opted in.

Havens said the county opted to not participate partly over fears that the money would have to be repaid if the program was eventually found to be illegal and partly because of a belief that the reimbursements had to be directly related to pandemic expenses. But the revised Treasury guidelines removed that requirement. Little announced Monday that 40 Idaho cities and counties will get a total of $124 million for property tax relief through the program.

But Havens said he never had a good feeling about the program, especially in light of how much pandemic relief efforts have added to the national debt. And the 0 percent property tax increase still kept real dollars in property owners’ pockets.

“We know people have been hurting, and businesses have been really suffering,” he said. “And we just didn’t want to pile on.”

Havens also touted his steadfast support for the airport as a key driver for economic development. He said the county is also now working again with CEDA, specifically on a broadband project to bring high-speed internet to rural areas. And he said voters have him and fellow Commissioner Don Beck to thank for their chance to offer input on the courthouse replacement project through several nonbinding questions on the November ballot.

“It gives people a chance to weigh in,” he said, noting that none of the plan is written in stone. “We are very early in this process.”

Nesset said that when he decided to jump into the race, he asked to see the county’s strategic plan. But he found that no such overarching document existed. Creating one would be a top priority, he said, so future budget decisions could be guided by a thought-out, coherent philosophy. That includes finding areas of overlapping services with the city of Lewiston, which contains about 80 percent of the county’s residents.

“Why in the world wouldn’t you want to get along really well and work closely with the biggest part of your organization?” he said.

Mills may be contacted at jmills@lmtribune.com or at (208) 310-1901, ext. 2266.

Douglas Havens

Office sought: Nez Perce County Commission District 2

Party affiliation: Republican

Age: 61

Education: manufacturing maintenance technician certificate from Lewis-Clark State College

Work experience: Camas Prairie and Burlington Northern railroads, Clearwater Paper, home inspector

Previous public elected office: four years on Lewiston City Council, two as mayor

Family status: married with three children

Website: Re-Elect Doug Havens Nez Perce County Commissioner on Facebook

Jeff Nesset

Office sought: Nez Perce County Commission District 2

Party affiliation: Independent

Age: 68

Education: bachelor’s degree in business management from Montana State University

Work experience: financial advisor, D.A. Davidson & Co.

Previous public elected office: 10 years on Lewiston City Council, eight as mayor

Family status: married, three children

Website: JeffNesset.com and JeffNesset on Facebook