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City of Eagle files lawsuit amid Arts Commission controversy

The Eagle mayor had previously alleged that a former arts commission member negotiated contracts without city approval.

EAGLE, Idaho — Beautifying the bedroom town of Eagle takes a whole team of creative volunteers – many of whom served on the now-dissolved Eagle Arts Commission.

“The art commission ... promotes arts within the city,” former commissioner Jim Macfarlane said. “We would also sponsor and sort of champion art projects.”

After abruptly disbanding the commission on Sept. 20, the City of Eagle filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against one of the former members and several companies. 

The lawsuit alleges that specific member entered into contracts with those companies without city approval.  

Mayor Jason Pierce previously made similar allegations during an Oct. 11 city council meeting that one of the former members negotiated contracts without city approval. He did not specifically state who.

“We needed to make sure that we got more control over what was going on in this committee,” Pierce said during the meeting. 

The city’s attorney also sent a demand letter on Oct. 18 regarding the potential contracts. 

Since the city took legal action, Pierce said he cannot comment. During the September meeting, city officials said they were “restructuring” the commission, like they had previously done with the Historic Preservation Commission.

Several weeks later, city councilmembers officially approved an ordinance restructuring the commission on Oct. 11. The commission is now called the “Eagle Arts Advisory Committee,” and has some different responsibilities.

The ordinance also decreased the number of members down to three. Previously, there were anywhere from five to seven members on the commission at any given time. 

Further, the new committee is now only required to meet semi-annually instead of nine out of 12 months.

Macfarlane said the announcement about restructuring took the former members by surprise.

“It looked like the city wanted to make us go away and take complete control of, you know, all the art projects, even though they chartered us to do that,” Macfarlane said.

Pierce initially made the allegations against one of the former commissioners during the Oct. 11 meeting.

“We are now being asked to pay these bills that we have not negotiated,” Pierce said during the meeting. “We always have to approve as a council, as a whole, to be able to go into contracts with folks.”

Macfarlane said the allegations about entering into unapproved contracts are untrue and that money was never paid out.  

“To be accused of doing something when you didn't do anything wrong …  to do that to a volunteer who's working on a project that the city council supported, just didn't seem right,” Macfarlane said.

Additionally, Macfarlane and the other commissioners sent a letter to the city on Nov. 29 before the lawsuit was filed. They asked the city to go on record and say everything the commission did was by the book.

On Wednesday, KTVB filed a public records request for the lawsuit and the city’s demand letter.

KTVB also reached out to the commissioner the lawsuit was filed against, who said he could not comment. 

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