CALDWELL, Idaho —
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
In 2017, Nampa resident Leslie Van Beek filed to run for Canyon County commissioner, and was seeking a campaign treasurer. She soon connected with ElJay Waite, the former financial director for the city of Caldwell.
“He has served my campaign well,” Van Beek said in a written statement to the Idaho Press.“The only stipulation he had was that I appoint God as my campaign manager. It has been a great working partnership ever since.”
But recently, some Canyon County elected officials were surprised to learn that Van Beek and Waite had continued to communicate extensively even after she took office. Dozens of emails between Van Beek and Waite surfaced during a public records request searching for communication between the two of them.
The emails include many forwards from Van Beek to Waite, and include Van Beek seeking edits on questions or statements she would make to other elected officials and asking for Waite’s opinion about budget items and appropriate employee compensation increases.
The public records request obtained by the Idaho Press for emails between the two totals 410 pages and goes back to 2020. Van Beek was first elected in 2018.
After reviewing the emails, Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue said in an emailed statement, “It was surprising and somewhat disturbing to see the sheer volume of emails between Commissioner Van Beek and Eljay (sic) Waite, who she commonly referred to as ‘boss’ in her emails. Most concerning to me is that the emails appear to give the impression that (Waite) isn’t just acting as an advisor to (Van Beek), but instead as a shadow commissioner telling her what to say, what questions to ask, and even how to vote on certain issues.”
Van Beek said that she often communicates with a group of informal advisors, and that her communications with Waite were focused on “how to lower property taxes, evaluate historical salary trends, identify revenue sources to fund capital improvement projects, as well as information related to budgets and levies.”
“We share a common goal of good government and fiscal responsibility with a high level of transparency to the taxpayer,” she said in the statement.
In a phone interview, Waite said, “(Van Beek) has never asked me for what she should do. She’s always said, ‘I have a question, and I’d like to know your position on it.’”
News of the emails is the latest development in a string of conflicts in the county, which include a lawsuit accusing certain elected officials of violating a severance agreement, and a letter signed by eight of the nine Canyon County elected officials expressing no confidence in Van Beek and asking her to resign. Subsequently, Commissioner Keri Smith and Commissioner Pam White were not reelected to their positions. Van Beek was not up for election this year.
THE EMAILS
One broad category of emails is Van Beek’s forwarding of information or communications she has received to Waite.
On Sept. 14, 2021, Van Beek forwarded an email from Commissioner Keri Smith that appears to discuss a proposed resolution to update the employee compensation plan.
Waite responded, calling the proposed raise in pay “unbelievable,” and questioning a proposed 7.5% cost-of-living increase for the human resources director.
“Try to get 7.5% down to 6.1,” he said. “But don’t vote for it in any case. I’m available if you want to call.”
In another instance, Van Beek forwarded Waite a copy of audited financial statements for Caldwell’s urban renewal district.
“FYI if you are interested...or maybe you already have them ;),” she said.
Waite replied, “Thanks. I serve on the Caldwell audit committee but do not get copies of the final reports.”
In November 2021, Sheriff Kieran Donahue wrote an op-ed in the Idaho Statesman saying he was not informed about plans by Van Beek and Smith to create a new urban renewal district to fund a new county jail. In early December, Van Beek appears to have forwarded the article to Waite.
Waite replied, “It is obvious the sheriff does not know enough about urban renewal or what it does to make any kind of statement on the matter.” After sharing a paragraph of thoughts, Waite said, “I hope these comments help with your interview tomorrow.”
On Dec. 8, Van Beek forwarded Waite a link to her appearance on KBOI, a local radio station.
Another broad category of emails entails Van Beek emailing Waite to ask for editing on the wording of emails she would be sending to other county staff and officials.
“How do I ask if an expenditure for a vehicle or an IT upgrade can wait?” Van Beek wrote to Waite on July 1, 2020, sharing an email draft she planned to share with several county departments.
“I think you ask each department head which expenditures can be deferred to a future year,” Waite replied. “Let them decide and make it known.”
In another email, later that summer, Van Beek provided a list of six reasons she voted no on the fiscal year 2021 tentative budget, and Waite replied with highlighted edits.
OFFICIALS REACT TO EMAILS
On June 8, 2022, shortly after the city of Middleton declared a building moratorium, Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Taylor said that the city’s mayor had acted on “erroneous information” provided to him “by Commissioner Van Beek in particular.” He proposed that the elected officials start regularly keeping track of questions that arise from Van Beek’s actions. Van Beek is included on the email.
In one section of the list that appears to center on decision making on compensation, Taylor brought up Van Beek’s communications with Waite, saying, “I am aware of public records … that suggest you have contemplated, with non-County personnel, advocating for changes in budget or approach that you had no intention of actually executing.”
Donahue replied to Taylor’s email, saying the emails between Van Beek and Waite were “beyond comprehension … of what she has been doing and the amount of information she is sharing with Eljay (sic) Waite, in addition to his instructions to her on how to cast votes in the (Board of County Commissioners), etc.”
“Completely deplorable,” Donahue said. “We should all be outraged.”
Smith told the Idaho Press in an emailed statement that she was aware of the relationship between Van Beek and Waite when she, Smith, ran for office in 2020, saying Waite was, “clearly leading (Van Beek’s) campaign and a lot of the information she was sharing came directly from him in the beginning.”
Smith said she felt Van Beek became biased against Clerk Chris Yamamoto because Waite did not get along well with Yamamoto or other elected officials.
“I would go as far as saying that Waite’s bias toward Clerk Yamamoto was what started Commissioner Van Beek’s mistrust of the County and began the start of the turmoil that revolves around the County Budget, Commissioner Van Beek and the Clerk’s office,” Smith said.
Yamamoto, for his part, told the Idaho Press in an emailed statement, “It is obvious to me that Commissioner Van Beek has little understanding of County finance and budgeting, and relies solely on direction from (Waite).”
Yamamoto also noted that Van Beek’s typical procedure is to ask for lots of information on financial matters “which typically feature repeated requests for more and more time to review and ask questions beyond the point of due diligence or reasonableness.”
“I guess that’s because she’s buying time to talk to (Waite), but when it came to Waite’s Urban Renewal plan, she was already clear on her marching orders,” he said, noting Van Beek pushed for “an expedited yes vote when there were obvious flaws to the plan.”
But Van Beek sees things differently. She says she, Waite, and others she consults have the taxpayers’ best interests in mind.
“Meanwhile, an ‘inner cabal’ made up of the prosecutor, the sheriff and the clerk, has successfully strong-armed and demoralized both elected officials and employees for nigh next to two decades,” Van Beek said in her written statement.
“This posture of poor governance has kept Canyon County gridlocked in a political power play marked by high turnover, interrogation tactics and eradication of those who do not bow to their personal agendas and political ideologies,” Van Beek said. “The Cabal’s regime, led by the Prosecutor, who bemoans the difficulty of retaining employees and says he is woefully behind in his work, finds enough time to pursue a witch hunt against me which he stated months ago was in excess of $50,000 in hard costs to the taxpayer. His insidious and toxic pursuit of a fellow elected, female commissioner has returned nothing; it is a relentless and costly pursuit to save face.”
Taylor, the county prosecutor, declined to comment on this story.
Waite said the work Van Beek is doing and the reaction she is getting from other elected officials is noteworthy. There has been “nothing substantial” to come from the no-confidence letter, and the officials are “still grasping for straws.”
“Why would they do that to her?” he said. “I think it’s because she’s a great commissioner and she’s doing the job she should be doing, she’s asking the questions that nobody’s been asking before that need to change.”
Erin Banks Rusby is a reporter with the Idaho Press. She covers Canyon County, including agriculture, education, and government.
This story originally appeared in the Idaho Press. Read more at IdahoPress.com
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