Hayden City Council Candidates at KCRWF

The candidates for Hayden City Council spoke at the September meeting of the Kootenai County Republican Women Federated.

Ed Depriest, running for reelection, spoke first. He said that his accomplishments are: better management of Hayden, no approval of high density, and zone changes. Depriest said that Hayden has $55 million in infrastructure needs that should be started in the next 5 years. He believes there is misinformation online regarding a lot of Hayden issues.

Dave Erickson spoke second. He talked about his family and his Christian values. He said that Hayden is at a crossroads and that he is running to represent young voters in Hayden. He is currently on the Hayden Planning and Zoning Commission. Erickson is a Real Estate Broker.

Luke Sommer spoke next. He wants better transparency, efficiency, and decorum on the Hayden City Council. He pointed out that the city clerk was 16 meetings behind on city council meeting minutes at one point. He pointed out that the people pushing back against Robert's Rules in Hayden don't realize that Robert's Rules for small groups is 2 pages long. Sommer also mentioned his concern about the legality of the 8/29 meeting of the Hayden City Council. Idaho statue states that the Mayor can not break a tie when there is a tie regarding executive session.

Sommer is an experienced parliamentarian and is a Realtor.

Sandy White, running for reelection, spoke last. She talked about her marriage of 44+ years, her life long involvement in Christian ministry and her family. She said that she has accomplished getting more video taping of meetings and assisted in getting a consent agenda passed unanimously through the Idaho Legislature. White expressed concern over years of records being removed from the city webpage in the last year. She wants the residents of Hayden to have access to original records. The original records were replaced with a written summary by the Mayor, which she thinks is not the same as the original records.

Once each candidate was done speaking there was a Q&A time. Some of the questions asked included - slow growth, tiny homes, city police vs sheriff, concerns over porn in the Hayden library, and Hayden's crime rate.

These are not exact quotes from the candidates and I may not have caught all of what each candidate said. I am hoping that Kootenai County Republican Women Federated will post video from their luncheon so that we can all listen and decide for ourselves.

Ed Depriest and Luke Sommer are running for Hayden City Council Seat #2.

Dave Erickson and Sandy White are running for Hayden City Council Seat #4.