COEUR d'ALENE - Woody McEvers swears he's not feeling the heat.

Not the kind in his Rustlers Roost kitchen, where the 30-year restaurant owner can be found nearly every day, cooking, cleaning and otherwise running the Hayden breakfast and lunch spot off U.S. 95.

It's the heat that can come through the front door of the tidy restaurant the Coeur d'Alene City Councilman swears isn't affecting him.

Because when some customers pull up to the counter or plop down at a table, they bend McEvers' ear on all things political - like McEuen Field.

"Yeah, I've heard that: 'You're the swing vote," McEvers said Friday in his office at the back of the restaurant. "What the hell is a swing vote?"

A swing vote is a vote than can go either way.

McEvers knows that.

He just doesn't know why that label, or perception, has been attached to him heading into the City Council's Jan. 17 vote on whether the conceptual plan for the possible multi-million-dollar McEuen Field redesign project should be put to a public advisory vote.

"Why me?" he asked. "Why can't it be any of the others?"

Perhaps because McEvers, unlike other council members, hasn't drawn that hard line in the sand.

Council members Mike Kennedy and Deanna Goodlander, and Mayor Sandi Bloem have stood firm that they don't feel an advisory vote is the way to go. On the other hand, council members Dan Gookin, Steve Adams and Ron Edinger are unwavering that it is.

But for Bloem to even vote would mean McEvers voted against an advisory vote. If he votes in favor, she won't get to vote.

McEvers hasn't said that's what he'll do. He's raised questions about the precedent a public vote could set, but he's also said he's open for discussion.

So one of the most talked about, polarizing city topics in years can come down to one man, and one vote, some feel.

By not emphatically stating his stance, McEvers could have picked up the 'swing vote' perception, according to Adams, who won his November bid for council in part because of his pro-public vote campaign.

"It seemed to be just be the buzz through the whole entire election. Whoever you talked to. When you knocked on doors," he said. "They'd say: 'How do you think Woody will vote?"

The idea of putting the downtown park's design to a public advisory vote all but died in 2011 as the controversial topic worked through the design process. Then came the November election. When Adams and Gookin won seats, it ensured the council would have to vote on the fate of the plan.

McEvers said the pressure won't sway him. It's just another vote in his 10-year council career, but at the same time he recognizes the mood is different.

Around six to eight customers per day, maybe more on weekends, will talk to McEvers about local politics while they dine. Most are friendly, some are not.

"I've had people stop coming - one a great customer," he said of his stance on McEuen Field, and urban renewal, which would likely be a financial supporter of the project.

The customer used to show up every Sunday "to give me a rash of (stuff)," McEvers said, but finally stopped coming altogether. When McEvers saw the former patron at a store while running errands, the councilman struck up a conversation.

"I sure do miss you," McEvers said, but the customer didn't respond.

McEvers had to cut ties with one other personal relationship because of McEuen Field, he said.

When Friday's article in The Press ran, which outlined McEvers' lack of support for a vote, online comments threatened that withholding business from Rustlers Roost may be the way to convince McEvers to switch.

"I think it is time for the locals to boycott the Roost to remind McEvers just who he is supposed to be representing," a post by 'concernedcitizen' read.

Other posts called that extortion.

A comment by 'COG777' then stated: "I can understand CC desire to not use a person's business if CC feels as if they have abused the public trust. Not spending your money at someone's business does not equal extortion."

Goodlander said the vote likely wouldn't pass without McEvers as the fourth vote. The friendly, easy-going demeanor the restaurateur brings to the council could lend itself to the perception he can be swayed, she said.

"I feel sorry for him. He's in the public and he's just such a nice guy and everyone tries to convince him of their ways," she said. "They just hammer him."

But McEvers is a strong councilman, she added, who votes on what he believes is right, not according to pressure. She said she doesn't believe McEvers will swing in favor of a vote. Added to that, she said the likelihood of the boat launch being incorporated into the McEuen Field redesign plan is looking more like a possibility, as providing equal or better value for its replacement seems to be less feasible at this time.

Proposing to move the boat launch was a political hot potato, she said. And compromising to keep it in could tweak how some people think of the need for a public vote.

"It really became a major issue for people," she said. "It definitely played a part in the public vote."

Team McEuen, the park's designers, said Thursday they're holding still until they receive direction from the council.

Direction could come after the Jan. 17 meeting.

Gookin, meanwhile, said he hopes all the discussion is done in public, one that focuses on ideas, rather than rhetoric.

Withheld business, threats of recall elections - that should be left at the door, he said.

"I know this from personal experience, unfortunately," Gookin said. "If you start off extreme, people will stop listening."

For McEvers, it's one more vote - albeit big - in his career.

He remembers the council meeting in May when the City Council adopted the park's conceptual plan. Before that vote, people in the audience called to McEvers by name to second Edinger's motion for a public vote. McEvers never did. It was an uncomfortable experience, he said, but so be it. So be it if there's a perception that he's a swing vote, too. He said he'll listen to the discussion and make his decision.

It won't be based on threats or pressure.

Caving to threats, he said, "seems like a piss-poor way to be a politician."