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Former manager, city council members stand by decisions
MICHAEL WELLS | May 17, 2007
THE STAR NEWS

Key people who were in charge of McCall city government when contractor and bonding agent filed a lawsuit against the city over the J-Ditch sewer pond said this week they still believe they were right.

Former city manager Robert Strope stands by the city's position on the case, which resulted in a $5-million judgment by a jury in May 2004 and an additional $1.5 million in attorney's fees and interest.

Strope still disagrees with the jury's verdict. Strope was city manager when the city fired St. Clair Contractors Inc. in 2001 and later a contractor hired by Employers Insurance of Wausau.

Strope left the city in July 2004 to take another position in Long Beach, Wash., two months after the case was decided in federal district court.

"I believe that the decisions that were made at the time they were being made were the right decisions based on the information people had," Strope said in an interview Tuesday. At the end of the day a jury did not find in the city's favor; I think that's unfortunate. I don't particularly agree with it, but you can't control a jury."

Strope is now the city manager in Cheney, Wash., but still owns a home in McCall.

"I don't necessarily agree with what the jury determined," Strope said.

"We had a very tight window to get a job done; the contractor knew that going in," he said. "Our position was we were holding the contractor responsible for the contract that he signed."

"I'm not going to fault the jury. I disagree with the outcome because I think that we did the appropriate things at the appropriate points," Strope said. "I thought there were legitimate reasons for not making certain payments at certain points."

Confidence, but some hindsight
Former council members Allan Muller and Kirk Eimers would not comment on the past. Muller did say in an interview Tuesday that he had confidence in the current city council to make the right decisions.

"I really think they will do a good job," Muller said.

Former councilmember Ralph Colton said he has his doubts about the city's current direction and the amount of money paid to attorneys in the case.

"This continuing interest and using attorneys, and I don't like those attorneys, we will use some other attorneys," Colton said. "The only people who have profited out of this has been the attorneys."

"We thought at the time that we were doing right, whether we should have pursued it like we did, is probably a good question," said Colton, who was a council member for 10 years. "In hindsight, obviously we should have accepted some offer and left."

Former council member Marilyn Arp believes it is time to move forward and solve the problem.
"I'm somewhat disappointed in the meeting last night," Arp said in an interview Tuesday about the city's town hall meeting at The Hunt Lodge on Monday. "I feel like there was a clear march toward bankruptcy."

She also wants the city to provide a clear way for citizens to help the city make future decisions concerning the payment of the judgment.

No finger pointing
Current city council members did not want to point fingers at their predecessors.

"We're in a very tough situation, that I wish we were not in," council member Laura Scott said.

"We're here and we are not going to change what happened in the past, and we've got to go forward balancing an obligation that we have and that the judge has affirmed against fiscal responsibility to the people who pay us, our taxpayers," Scott said.

Council member Bonnie Bertram said the situation is "sad." "I wasn't in those shoes in those years," she said. "I would hate to judge what happened in those years. I know that all the people that sat in those chairs made the very best informed decision they could. It just didn't work out the way they thought it would work out."

"So we have got to now stop and get it done because we can't continue to drag the city through hell," Bertram said.

Mayor Bill Robertson acknowledged the difficulty facing the city, but he did not resent the decisions of former city councils.

Council member Michael Kraemer also noted the difficulty of the situation, but said this is what the council was elected to do and that prior councils made the best decisions they could.

"It is unfortunate that we were put in this situation," Kraemer said. "I don't think previous councils put us in this situation on purpose. They had no way of knowing what the repercussions would be."

Members of the city council at the time the contractors were fired were Muller, Colton, Eimers, Ray Venable and Arp.

Lawsuits were originally filed in the case in December 2001. At the time, current Boise mayor Dave Bieter and Susan Buxton of the law firm Moore, Smith, Buxton & Turcke were the city's attorneys.

Bertram was appointed to the council in late 2003 to fill a vacated seat of David Kaiser who joined the council in 2002.

Robertson joined the council at the beginning of 2004.

In September 2003, the city passed up an opportunity to settle the case for $500,000.

The city council at the time of the judgment was made up of Eimers, Bertram, Robertson, Muller and Jerry Greer. The city had the same city manager and attorney through July 2004.

Since July 2004, Lindley Kirkpatrick has been the city manager. The city hired the Boise law firm Trout Nemec from June to October 2005 before hiring its current contract attorney, Nampa law firm White Peterson.

Kim Trout remained as an attorney for the city to appeal the Wausau judgment. He also is the city's lead attorney in a dispute with the Payette Lakes Recreational Water & Sewer Board over ownership of capacity at the city's waste water treatment plant.

McCall Idaho Headline News

Former manager, city council members stand by decisions MICHAEL WELLS | May 17, 2007 THE STAR NEWS

Former manager, city council members stand by decisions
MICHAEL WELLS | May 17, 2007
THE STAR NEWS