BOISE, Idaho — Voters will see two candidates on the ballot for Ada County commissioner District 1.
I'm your neighborhood reporter Jessica Davis talking with the Republican incumbent Ryan Davidson and Democratic challenger Jonathan Lashley.
- Republican incumbent Ryan Davidson andDemocratic challenger Jonathan Lashley are running for Ada County Commissioner District 1.
- Both candidates discuss their experience, growth in the county, and taxpayer dollars.
- County growth and budget management are key issues, with Davidson focusing on low budgets and Lashley advocating for diversified revenue streams.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Ryan Davidsonhas served as Ada County commissioner for District 1 for nearly four years.
He's been involved in a number of projects, including improving juvenile services and plans to revamp the land surrounding Expo Idaho. He feels his experience has prepared him for another term.
Davidson says, "When I first got reelected I realized what a steep learning curve it was. There are so many different facets of county government that you really don't know about until you get in the office, so it definitely takes you a while to get up to speed, and I think my experience serving will prepare me for the next term."
Davidson is being challenged by democrat Jonathan Lashley.
Lashley is a father, who brings nearly 20 years of experience working in public higher education and says he has very strong opinions about the character he'd like to see from elected officials.
"Being able to represent not only younger people and working people in the state but also having empathy and especially believing in nonpartisan support of public programs and services and use of taxpayer money— I've just witnessed firsthand the insidiousness or maybe the ugliness of Idaho politics that's emerged as a part of this national push to make every issue a partisan issue," says Lashley.
County growth also goes hand and hand with commissioners.
Davidson says although it's hard to build in unincorporated areas, with more development in those areas, he says housing costs could lower with an increase in supply.
"To pay for growth we're trying to adopt impact fees so everywhere in the county when you build a new property, you'll pay a small impact fee and that'll go to help pay for Ems, the coroners facility sheriff's office, and the Ada County jail just those core Ada county services that we all depend on that should have growth pay for them," says Davidson.
Lashley wants to build trust with city leaders catering to their specific needs, whether its housing, growth, roads, or traffic.
Lashley says, "The county is the glue that holds everything together and just because we have the ability to develop in unincorporated parts of the county doesn't means that's always prudent for us to do so. It puts unnecessary strain on utilities, on first responders, and there's still a lot of creative growing and development that can happen with the city, but we have to show up and talk to them."
How taxpayer dollars are spent is a big part of a commissioner's role in overseeing county budgets.
Lashley is confident with his experience developing and managing budgets for two decades and says the most vulnerable people in the community are often the most impacted by budget cuts.
"Every year in my career whether it was in Idaho or anywhere else I have to do more with less and what that means is diversifying our revenue streams and so it can't just be relying on taxpayer funding that is allocated to us but also thinking about where can we work with private industry to build private-public partnerships, where can we recognize that maybe we have some redundant services that are better handled by the public sector."
Davidson wants to focus on keeping a low budget and says that during his term, commissioners cut the budget by 12 million dollars.
"After that we've been able to keep it under control. Last year we didn't raise it over 1.3 percent. We're very proud of that. We undertook an exhaustive process to review all county spending and to cut line items that were able to be cut, and I want to keep focusing on keeping the budget low in my next term," says Davidson.
