SANDPOINT — In hopes of gathering more public input, the Sandpoint City Council voted 4-1 to table a proposal that would add a corporate pass to the James E. Russell Sports Center.

The proposal will allow a business to purchase a yearly pass for four employees at $1,500 with the ability to add an unlimited number of additional employees for $300 per person. Planning and Community Development Director Jason Welker said the JER Center has received requests for a corporate membership from Bonner County businesses who have employees outside the county. 

"We expect to sell a couple of these immediately,” Welker said. “These local businesses have just been waiting for this to be approved by council so that they can give us their money and start bringing their employees in after work to play.” 

To add the new pass, the city’s fee schedule must be amended, which prompted a public hearing. Nobody signed up to speak during the public hearing, which prompted concerns from several councilors about the public not being given enough time to give input on the proposed pass. 

Councilor Kyle Schreiber said typically a staff presentation lays out the details, and then the public hearing follows at a future meeting, not all at once. Zachary Jones, the city’s legal counsel, said the city followed the legal requirements for a public hearing.  

"There was a pretty quick turnaround for community members to learn about this and make their voices known,” Schreiber said. “I imagine the newspaper will probably write an article on this and maybe people will read that article and have some opinions. Once they’re done with their holiday travel maybe they’ll have some thoughts for us.” 

Schreiber said he was concerned about the JER Center becoming too overcrowded, and regular members being pushed out by the corporate pass holders. Under the proposed pass, a maximum of eight players can use the pass at one time, but each pass holder can bring three guests in for a discounted rate of $10.  

Councilor Pam Duquette said she wanted more time for the increasing user base at the facility to be able to give their opinion. She said when she spoke to three avid racquet sport players, they felt that the corporate pass was too much of a deal for out-of-county residents. 

Councilor Rick Howarth echoed the concern of the pass’ discount, citing the price for a single county resident at $539 a year, compared to the $375 for one corporate pass member. Howarth said he didn’t want the facility to lose potential revenue with the corporate pass. 

"The immediate impact of this is that we are going to bring in members who otherwise would not be members,” Welker said. “To compare what they would have to pay if their employer wasn’t buying it is fine, but realistically, they were just not going to pay that.” 

Welker said staff sees the pass as a way to entice businesses and increase revenue to get the facility closer to cost-recovery levels. He said he felt the facility is at its best when it’s full and that the ability to reserve courts days in advance is a significant driving factor toward membership sign-ups. 

Howarth also questioned whether a family could take advantage of the pass to lower their annual rate. Welker said staff would be checking to ensure only businesses were using the pass. 

“They would first have to file an LLC with the state of Idaho,” Welker joked. “This is not a family pass ... it has to be in the company’s name.” 

When asked about the downsides of delaying the proposal to allow for more public input, Welker said the facility would not sell the passes he was certain would be sold if they were approved, losing out on the revenue generation. 

The public hearing will resume at the council’s Jan. 20 meeting, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall in council chambers. The full Dec. 17 meeting is available for viewing on the city’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@cityofsandpoint.