Mayor Staples casts deciding vote to change the vision statement

BONNERS FERRY — City council was split to pass an update to the city’s vision statement; Mayor Dick Staples made the final decision by approving the motion presented by Councilman Ron Smith.

The agenda item 11 was labeled as an action item in old business. It attracted many county residents, showing up in force to present support for and against the current vision statement.

The anticipation of large crowds saw the city council moving their meeting to a larger venue at Becker Auditorium at Bonners Ferry High School.

Public comments were dominated by complaints about the vision statement’s ending sentence, but many opposed the ‘sexual orientation or gender identity’ portion of the statement.

In an early discussion, Councilwoman Valerie Thompson gave a speech in support of the vision statement, detailing that the vision statement was never meant to promote any perverse motives or liberal agenda.

“The vision statement reminds this council of our legislative and judicial responsibilities to act without prejudice,” Thompson said in a passionate speech to the public.

Councilmember Smith presented the motion to change the current vision statement to remove “regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity and encourages participation in city government and city programs.”

Councilmember Rick Alonzo seconded the motion presented by Smith to allow discussion of the agenda item.

“Someone said look up ‘all’ in the dictionary,” Alonzo said, “To me, the words ‘all people’ means just that, without having to list all protective classes, and it doesn’t leave any person or group out.”

Valerie Thompson and Adam Arthur, who offered no additional discussion on the vision statement after the motion was put forth, quickly voted no; the final decision was made by mayor Staples.

“The decision is mine, yes,” Staples said.

After the decision was made, many began clapping and shouting, leading to disruption of the meeting and having the mayor ask people to take conversations outside.