Lewiston City Council names Wilson to airport board post

The Lewiston City Council appointed Laurie Wilson to its open seat on the Lewiston-Nez Perce County Airport Authority Board on Monday night, bringing the panel to its full complement of five members.

Wilson is the director of sales at the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston. In nominating her for the position, Councilor Bob Blakey said he liked that Wilson is a Lewiston resident, that she focused on the airport’s potential to increase tourism in the area and that she would be a “fresh face” that can bring a new approach to tackling problems at the airport.

“She showed a level of enthusiasm that was different than the other applicants,” Blakey said.

The only other nomination came from Councilor John Bradbury, who favored former airport board member Joe Gish for the position. Gish resigned from the board in 2018, in part because he was unable to access the information from airport management that he needed to oversee the facility.

Bradbury acknowledged that “baggage,” but said that as a former Boeing employee and commercial airline pilot, Gish has the aviation knowledge the board needs to operate effectively.

“If you look at who’s qualified ... Mr. Gish stands head and shoulders above everybody else,” Bradbury said.

The council interviewed four applicants for the position last month, including Wilson and Gish. That open session was conducted Oct. 10 via videoconference because of COVID-19 concerns, and was the subject of a citizen complaint that the council violated state open meeting laws by muting the microphones of councilors while Mayor Mike Collins asked the same list of prepared questions of each candidate.

“The intent behind this action was to follow best practices by ensuring that each applicant was asked the same interview questions and, thus, to conduct the interviews fairly and consistently; and, further, to avoid improper or illegal lines of questioning by city councilors who are not trained in human resources law,” Collins read in a statement that opened Monday’s council meeting.

Collins’ statement also acknowledged that muting the microphones did constitute a violation. But he said the city council would “cure” that violation by disregarding candidate answers from that meeting and only consider the “applications submitted, input from the public and other city councilors, and personal knowledge or experience” when considering the appointment.

The Oct. 10 meeting was the council’s second attempt to conduct interviews after the first attempt was invalidated by another open meeting law violation. The council has been bombarded with such complaints this year, many stemming from the various measures the city has taken to attempt to mitigate the dangers of transmitting the coronavirus at council meetings.

In other business:

The council had a lengthy list of measures to consider regarding an application by 4 Renegades LLC of Moscow to rezone and annex land near the top of Gun Club Road so the company could build a mini storage facility there. But councilors faced a steady drumbeat of opposition from residential and commercial neighbors to the proposed development.

But after city staff and some councilors proposed different zone change options that would have limited the developer’s options for the site, 4 Renegades submitted a letter to the city withdrawing its requests for rezoning and application so they can pursue their options under the county zoning regulations that already govern the property.

The council got a report on the close of the 2020 fiscal year from Administrative Services Director Dan Marsh, who projected a $1.85 million surplus for the city budget. The surplus is the result of higher-than-expected revenues from sales tax and other state pass-through funds, property taxes and fees from the Community Development Department.

The additional revenues in those areas were more than enough to offset lower revenues from public safety, Parks and Recreation and other areas, Marsh said, adding about $559,000 to the city’s general fund. That extra revenue can be added to about $1.3 million in savings that largely came from less spending on gas and travel because of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus several staff vacancies.

Marsh said the surplus could be used for several purposes, including tax relief, the creation of a budget stabilization fund that could cushion future fallout from things like COVID-19, repaying city debts or increasing reserve funds.

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