The infighting that has plagued the Pocatello City Council since Christine Stevens, Claudia Ortega and Roger Bray won their respective council races in 2019 appears to have come to a head with the resignations of all three at a Friday afternoon press conference.
The unprecedented resignation of what amounts to half of the City Council’s six members will leave the city without a quorum on the council, a legal requirement to pass resolutions and ordinances.
The city issued a short news release early Friday evening stating that it would be working with the Idaho governor’s office on reestablishing a quorum so the council could continue to conduct official business.
The mass resignation of half of the City Council comes following months of divisiveness between the two council factions and weeks of ugliness following statements at two July council meetings by Bray regarding how the city’s lack of crime and diversity compared to some other communities should factor into the Pocatello Police Department’s staffing level.
Some in the Pocatello community said Bray’s comments were racist and demanded his resignation and an effort was launched by a newly formed citizens group to recall him, Ortega and Stevens from office, accusing them of bringing dysfunction to the city.
Ever since the incumbent Bray and political newcomers Stevens and Ortega won their council races in the November 2019 election, the three have clashed with Mayor Brian Blad and council members Josh Mansfield, Linda Leeuwrik and Rick Cheatum.
There are common themes in the reasons that Bray, Stevens and Ortega gave for their resignations during Friday afternoon’s press conference at Caldwell Park such as a feeling that Blad has stonewalled any effort by them to bring transparency and accountability to the city’s government. Their resignations are effective Sept. 1.
Bray, a local pastor who’s served on the council for more than 10 years, said his resignation is in response to a May 19 City Council meeting during which Ortega “was not allowed to function as an equal council member. Her efforts were turned aside by questionable, if not planned, procedures. Those actions prevented her from serving according to her oath and the position the voters elected her to fulfill.”
Bray and Ortega walked out of the May 19 council meeting because of the unfair treatment they said she was receiving from Blad and other council members. Stevens was not present at the meeting.
Bray said the negative experiences Ortega and Stevens have had on the council have prompted them to sell their homes and relocate from the community.
In his resignation letter, Bray said, “Over the last few years, overt and covert practices have thwarted our participation in the full scope of council responsibilities.”
The “our” collective Bray is referring to in his letter refers to himself, Stevens and Ortega.
Bray added, “City staff has indicated that any time they talk to one of us, they are required to report that conversation to the mayor. This ‘policy’ has the unfortunate effect of stifling staff members from considering us and having essential discussions. The antipathy this creates is underscored by some staff sharing how other elected officials speak in derogatory, misleading terms about us. Former and current staff members speak of how they are encouraged not to provide accurate information to us and therefore, the public.”
Bray also brought up the need to reform the city’s financial reporting policies and how Blad has said he would form a group to review those policies but that hasn’t happened.
Bray mentioned this year’s city budget deliberations and said, “I registered that it is not responsible to develop budgets without determining all income sources available. I pointed out we needed to know how the Northgate (tax increment financing) district is performing according to the projected paybacks for the city included in the initial proposal. I was assured that information would be forthcoming. Nothing has been provided.”
Bray said it’s difficult for a lone Pocatello City Council member to get information from City Hall.
“Recently we were told that a single council member has no right to expect their request for information to be met,” he stated in his resignation letter. “The threshold now requires multiple council members to request information. We were also informed that a council member could not request things be looked into if the mayor disagrees with the request.”
Stevens said in her resignation letter that she has “never felt the least bit accepted at City Hall.”
She added, “I have known that I am a pariah from the get-go and a walking target.”
Stevens said Pocatello’s city government is definitely on the wrong track.
“My goal has always been to do good in this community,” she stated in her resignation letter. “I can no longer achieve that goal in a city government that has lost its moral compass. A city government that refuses to plan and spend responsibly, attacks elected officials who voice the concerns of their constituents, and values appearance over truth. I hope that ripping aside the veil of secrecy has allowed the citizens of Pocatello to learn much more about how this city and City Council actually operate. If I have helped achieve that, I have done the job I set out to do. What happens after this is up to the voters of this community.”
Stevens also outlined a path forward for reform to come to City Hall.
“The various political factions in Pocatello who oppose how our city government operates need to temporarily set aside their differences and form a voter coalition to bring forward honest, responsible candidates for mayor and City Council and vote them into office,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “If that does not happen, the current status quo will continue. Godspeed on a worthy mission!”
Ortega provided the Journal with a lengthy list titled “Reasons for Resignation” with over a dozen bullet points to explain her departure from the council.
She stated as some of her reasons: “Lack of accountability by the mayor, Cheatum, Leeuwrik and Mansfield. The fact that one of our former CFOs has told me they were instructed by the mayor to withhold information from us. The fact that any communication between (city) employees and any of us must be reported to the mayor immediately. The fact that the mayor has now decided that sitting council members cannot request information from employees as we have done in the past. Now we must file Public Records Requests to get information on which to base important financial decisions.”
She stated that other reasons for her resignation include “the fact that alleged questionable behavior by favored employees is ignored” and “the blatant lies that have been told about us and perpetuated by the mayor, police chief, other council members, fire union members and police union members,” and “finally, the fact that the local media doesn’t report fairly.”
Ortega also mentioned multi-million-dollar lawsuits that have been filed against the city but have been “kept quiet by the regime” and she was critical of Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei for using language in a federal grant application that she calls “hateful and discriminatory against a group of people but the mayor and his buddies circle the wagons around him to protect him.”
The language Ortega is referring to is a 2020 federal COPS grant application requesting additional police officers in which Schei wrote, “the influx of a transient population of construction personnel involved with the build up (of the Northgate development project) has and will continue to place an ever increasing drain on our current resources.”
Blad, Mansfield and Schei have not yet commented on the resignations of Bray, Ortega and Stevens.
Cheatum in a statement sent to the Journal regarding the resignations said, “I regret this has happened. Our city and our citizens need to begin a healing of the divisiveness that has gripped our town and move forward to build a community looking to the future.”
Leeuwrik said in a statement she provided: “I’m hopeful that we can get back to a City Council that functions properly, treats staff and each other with respect, and works together with civility and professionalism for the good of our city and all the people who live, work and visit here. The six members of the council can disagree, have different views and ideas, and even ask tough questions, but debate should always be constructive and handled with a level of decorum befitting the office.”
Bray ended his resignation letter by expressing gratitude for his many years on the council.
“I thank all the people who have supported me over the years and those who recently offered words of encouragement and hope,” he stated. “I thank all of Pocatello for the opportunity extended to me. I always have tried to stay the course and represent all the people of Pocatello to the best of my ability. When council members Stevens and Ortega decided they had to leave Pocatello, I knew that my role on the council was ending. Therefore my resignation is concurrent with theirs.”