College of Western Idaho trustees won’t vote on the controversial Idaho Center acquisition until November at the earliest.
CWI is in a holding pattern while the Nampa City Council continues to look at the no-cash transfer. The council is scheduled to take up the issue again on Nov. 3, BoiseDev reported earlier this week.
CWI trustees discussed the transfer during their Oct. 13 public meeting, and “will likely review the topic again during (their) next public meeting on Nov. 13,” college spokesman Ashley Smith said Friday.
College trustees met in a closed-door executive session Wednesday, but did not discuss the Idaho Center, Smith said. According to the meeting agenda, trustees met with legal counsel to discuss pending or potential litigation.
CWI President Gordon Jones had hoped to wrap up the transfer in October, after the City Council’s divided Oct. 6 vote to turn over the 100-acre complex to the college. But the City Council is working on revisions to the transfer, and voted to roll the issue to its Nov. 3 agenda, BoiseDev reported.
Meanwhile, Canyon County Prosecutor Chris Boyd says the City Council’s closed-door discussions of the transfer might have violated state law.
Acting on a citizen’s complaint, Boyd sent an Oct. 10 “courtesy letter” to City Hall, outlining two possible violations of open meetings law, BoiseDev’s Erin Banks Rusby reported Thursday. The first violation involves the council’s motion to enter executive session, and minutes from the meeting. The second issue, Rusby reported, involves the closed discussions themselves.
“Our preliminary investigation suggests that discussions, debates, and ‘temperature checks’ on individual council members were held on a substantive policy matter — the transfer of Idaho Center to CWI,” according to Boyd’s letter.
Under open meeting law, a public agency cannot make any decision in a closed executive session.
City officials don’t believe they violated the law, Rusby reported.
The open meetings issue is just the latest wrinkle in what has become a contentious process. Several Canyon County legislators have openly criticized the transfer — saying the city is giving away the Idaho Center, and questioning whether the college can afford to subsidize operations and assume the estimated $25 million in deferred maintenance costs.
CWI has said it can take over the Idaho Center facilities — a multipurpose indoor arena, outdoor amphitheater and horse park — without raising property taxes or student tuition and fees.
