Candidates pitch their vision for Sandpoint at forum

SANDPOINT — From Parks and Recreation to downtown traffic, the four candidates for Sandpoint City Council pitched their vision of the town’s future at a Monday candidate forum.

All the candidates — Joel Aispuro, Rick Howarth, Joe Tate and Joshua Torrez — spoke about their love for the city during their opening statements, citing that love as a primary reason they chose to run. The forum kicked off with a question focused on rebuilding Parks and Recreation programs that have been lost, like the lifeguards at City Beach. 

Aispuro, who attended the forum over Zoom, said that it’s his goal to work with city staff to return those programs, while being careful not to overwhelm them. Howarth said that the city attempted to recruit more lifeguards this year, and while unsuccessful, he’d like to see them return. 

"There are many entities within the community already doing a really good job at putting sports programs together,” Howarth said. “As a city, we need to go find the areas that are not being represented and those ought to be the ones we focus on.” 

Torrez said that he feels sports are very important to building confidence in the area’s youth, citing his experience as a youth soccer coach. He also said he’s in favor of lifeguards at City Beach. 

Tate agreed with Howarth’s suggestion of searching for more partnership in the community but said the city should ensure those programs are affordable. He challenged the city on not being able to find lifeguard candidates. 

"We didn’t shoot high enough and look at what happened to our City Beach lifeguard program. It fell short, I think that’s a direct result of inaction on the city’s part,” Tate said. “We are getting the response, and I think we need to listen to the city [residents] and make some changes.” 

The candidates were asked about the city’s $130 million bond and what they would do if the initiative is voted down by voters Nov. 4. All candidates said they hope it doesn't fail, but if it did, they would seek to learn why it failed by listening to the public. 

Howarth said he’d work with Mayor Jeremy Grimm to explore every option, including potentially having a private company come in to build and operate a plant. Aispuro said he would consider the option of judicial confirmation of the bond. 

The forum broke into the liveliest discussion of the event when discussing downtown traffic, parking and development in the city. Citing the Farmin Flats development, Torrez said the lack of parking will become an issue for residents and that he is committed to developers paying their fair share.  

"I live a couple of blocks from the Farmin Flats and how I got into this situation is, I can’t park in front of my own apartment,” Torrez said. “I want developers to pay for parking, if you want the space, you’re going to have to pay for parking.” 

Both Howarth and Aispuro said the city needs to walk a tightrope when it comes to development, encouraging growth while maintaining the city’s character. Aispuro said that the city is playing catch-up after the city’s population boomed during the COVID pandemic. 

Tate said that the Farmin Flats development was an example of developers skirting around city building code and that the council will need to learn from its mistakes. 

On the topic of housing affordability, Howarth said that it's a supply-and-demand issue, and Sandpoint needs a much higher supply. He said that the raise in the city’s development impact fees was “unfortunate” because the city needs all the growth it can get. 

Aispuro said he believes what small town governments can do to help affordable housing is limited and that it is a much deeper issue rooted at the federal level.  

Tate said he’d like to examine the city’s zoning to incentivize an increase in the number of duplexes and triplexes in town.  

Torrez said he feels that there is an ample supply of housing in Sandpoint, but that too much is being used for short-term rentals like Airbnb. He said he’d reevaluate the city’s law surrounding those so residents can live in those homes. 

During the forum, the candidates were asked what they would do to bring OB-GYNs back to Bonner General Health after strict state laws led the hospital to close its unit.  

Howarth said that while he’s not educated on the topic, he believes the city could meet with the hospital board to work toward a solution. Torrez said he supports women and would work to do what he can to get the staff back. 

Tate said he was unsure what the city could do, but that the way the Idaho Legislature voted was “disgusting.” Aispuro agreed that it was not a city issue and said that he wouldn’t be focusing on it. 

When asked about improving the roads, all candidates said it was primarily a problem of lacking funding. Torrez said if elected he’d push for two grant administrators whose job would be to find outside funding for city projects, like improving the roads. 

Howarth said that the city is always searching for new funding sources, like a local option tax. Tate said that he’s focused on fixing the roads because the residents have made it clear that it should be a priority. 

Aispuro backed city staff and said they are hard at work attempting to fix these issues, but that the city can only do what it has the money for. 

"If you came to meetings, you’d see how hard our staff works to get this done,” Aispuro said. “To say that we are not listening to the community or we have other priorities, it’s just not true. We just don’t have the money to fix every road.” 

The forum was streamed live and can be listened to at krfy.org. 

    Aispuro