Avoiding conflict between my appointment to the City Council and Community Pioneer

Dear community:

Last Tuesday evening, I was appointed by Mayor Pascoe back onto the city council to fill the vacated seat left by Earl Beattie. This appointment will only last until January as the seat is up for election this Fall. However, I plan to run for a new term in this seat.

I left the council in January of 2018 after convincing Leaf Watson to run for my seat. I decided not to run again because the mayor appointed me to the East Idaho Regional Wastewater Authority (EIRWWA) board to help it become a district, which then was taking a lot of my time.

But more importantly, while serving on the council, I noticed the city and the greater northern Bingham County area were suffering from a lack of local news since the Post Register had terminated the Shelley Pioneer. It seemed that people did not know what was going on with the city council, the Kiwanis club, or any school events in the community.

I felt both Firth and Shelley needed a news service to draw closer together as a community. So, I seriously looked into starting an online service to provide the public with such information.

But, I soon realized I would not have the time to start a new business alone, continue my own profitable business, sit on the council and represent the city on the EIRWWA board. So, I left the council.

I realized I didn’t have the experience or expertise to start an online newspaper by myself. I needed to find someone to help me. By a miracle, I ran into Mike Price last October, who had been with East Idaho News. Together, we started Community Pioneer Publications, Inc., in November of last year.

After the unfortunate death of my brother and partner in my real estate business, I moved that business to Shelley and concurrently opened an office for Mike and me to run Community Pioneer.

Community Pioneer and its success are significantly important to me. Its independence and reliability to give the public accurate and honest news are paramount to both Mike and me.

After being asked by the Mayor to return to the council, I felt now I have the time and resources to run my businesses and serve on the council, as I work to move EIRWWA into a district. Once our sewer district is established, I would like to help the greater Shelley area create a recreational district. I think that would benefit the citizens of Shelley and every person living within the Shelley School district.

I don’t want to see this area be developed with homes scattered across the county without local parks and a recreational program that can handle a large population of families. As the area grows, it will be impossible for the city of Shelley to meet that demand through its current recreational program. Even the current issue with the North Bingham County Historical Park suggests a recreational district is needed sooner than later.

As I spoke with the mayor about accepting his offer to return to the council, I concluded there must be complete transparency between my service on the council and my interest in Community Pioneer. Therefore, I am turning over to Mike all editorial control to all political campaigning that may occur at the city or county level, including my own.

Even before this appointment, I made it clear that Mike was to have complete control over all the news relating to EIRWWA and the city’s planning and zoning commission, as I sat on both of these boards. An example of Community Pioneer’s transparency occurred when the planning and zoning board approved a controversial preliminary plat for a large subdivision east of Shelley. Despite my personal feelings about this development, I felt it was my duty under the law to approve it and pass it on to the council for their preview. It would not have been appropriate for the planning and zoning board to deny it when it met all of the city’s ordinances and the city engineer’s modeling plans.

The irony of it all is, if it wasn’t for Community Pioneer and the objective reporting of Mike Price, people in the community would likely not have heard of the development’s approval to express their disapproval of it to the council.

Although it most certainly would have been denied by the council regardless of any public outcry, I was proud that our paper was able to inform people of the decisions made, even if it painted me in a poor light for making the decision that I did.

As for all campaigns, for both city and county offices, Community Pioneer will do one profile article on each candidate. Any critical articles or positions toward any candidate will be left to the public to write on our opinion page. Those will also include any opinions critical of me due to my decisions on the council or comments I make during my campaign.

We will allow opinions for and against a given candidate until two weeks before the election. Then, no political opinions for or against a candidate will be published until after the election.

My editor Mike Price will report on council matters. He has complete authority to write or pursue any story regarding the council without my input, just as he did while I was on the planning and zoning board. Furthermore, Community Pioneer streams on its YouTube channel every council meeting.

The purpose of Community Pioneer is to inform the public and not be political or provocative. Based on this rule, there should be no conflict with me owning part of the newspaper and sitting on the city council. I will continue to write articles and stories of events in the community.

I also plan to do a video series on EIRWWA so the community can better understand what this entity is and why it should be a district. I welcome questions or disagreement of my actions regarding this organization as it moves toward a district.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kelley