COEUR d'ALENE - Noel Adam has lived in Coeur d'Alene for more than 30 years, and has been active in the Coeur d'Alene Association of Realtors for many of those years.

His experience there combined with his active role in the attempt to recall half the City Council and the mayor last year helped him decide to run.

"I have always put the interest of the people who sit across from me first and foremost," he said. "And I saw a lot of discontent with McEuen and how it was handled. They didn't listen."

What bothered Adam was that he had voted for a couple of the councilmen who made the decision to move forward with McEuen's makeover without an advisory vote.

He was told by one councilman that he would support an advisory vote on the issue, but that councilman voted against it when it came before the council later that night.

"I don't like people lying to me. I have a real adversity to that," he said. "But probably the thing that triggers me the most is the council meetings, and watching them on TV."

Adam said the current council members have a tendency to belittle each other.

"There is no reason for that. People can have a difference of opinion," he said. "I don't care what the opinion is opposing me. I want to hear them out so I can rationally approach what they are saying and if I can't do that, I shouldn't be there."

One of the biggest issues Adam has is with the budgeting process. He said there needs to be more oversight from the council.

"We put the wolf in charge of the chicken coop, and everything is going to get along fine until all the chickens are gone," he said. "There is a time for trust and a time for oversight."

This year's budget process frustrated Adam. He said Councilman Dan Gookin tried to address the oversight issue, but was belittled by other members of the council who said they didn't need oversight because they trusted the city's staff to do it.

"That worked on me pretty heavily as far as going forward," he said. "Initially, I thought - when I was asked to run - I don't like to get involved in politics, but it's just what I felt I had to do after thinking about it for a week or two."

As a Realtor, Adam said he is hearing from a lot of people who are fed up with the community and are moving out as a result.

"We are real close to a zero growth rate in my estimation, maybe even a little less," he said. "More people want to move out of the city than want to move in. Never in 30 years have I seen that. That tells you something is not right."

Adam served 22 years in the U.S. Navy. He ended his career in 1981 as the computer chief at the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.

"I have briefed Congress and done the million-dollar budget thing," he said, adding he didn't like Washington, D.C., so decided to retire in Coeur d'Alene with his father in 1981. His father passed away two months later.

He got into real estate when others were getting out of it, he said. After sticking it out, he's done pretty well, but his two boys had to move to find work.

Adam puts a high priority on recruiting more business to Coeur d'Alene.

"I would have loved to keep my family here, but they had to go where the jobs are," he said. "I would like to see more of the kids staying here than going away for work."

Adam's position on McEuen is influenced by the fact that no one can seem to tell him what the final price tag is.

"What is it costing? I haven't received an answer on that yet," he said. "I would really like to know what the price is on McEuen Field. They should have a plan on what it's going to cost, but they can't even answer that simple question. I guess I have more questions than answers on that issue."

If he is elected he will get the answers for his constituents.

"When I get involved in something, it's to get the answers and the facts," he said. "I don't care about anything other than that. I don't want anyone snowing me."

Adam said, just off the cuff, it appears the salaries may be too high and that cost of living raises are being awarded to employees who have already surpassed their maximum salary levels.

"I don't know if they are overpaid or underpaid," he said. "For me to give you an honest answer to that, I would have to see what they are tasked with."

That will be a question in his mind if he is elected, he said.

Adam had yet to meet with Lake City Development Corporation at the time of his interview with The Press, so he had not formed a solid position on urban renewal.

"I have heard the negative side," he said, adding that he had a meeting set with LCDC the following week. "Again, I have more questions than answers on that."

Adam was part of the original group that formed the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

"I was with them for about two years until the danger was over, then I resigned," he said. "At the end of that we had and still have the best anti-discrimination laws on the books than any other place in the country that I know about."

He said when a law is passed to elevate one group over another, then he has to oppose that. He says equal protection is for all people.

"I don't believe in discrimination at any level," he said. "And I don't believe in placing one group over another."

He would vote to rescind the city's anti-discrimination law if he had the opportunity to do so, he said.