The City of Nampa held a town hall meeting on August 11, 2025, to gather public input on a proposed conveyance of the Ford Idaho Center property to the College of Western Idaho (CWI). Mayor Debbie Kling opened the meeting, stating that no decision has been made and that the process is transparent. The meeting included a summary of facilitated community discussions, a legal presentation on the city's authority to convey property, and over three hours of public testimony from approximately 30 speakers. Topics included the center's deferred maintenance costs, potential funding options (including a possible levy override), economic impact, and community concerns about transparency and rushed process.
Thank you. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you guys for joining us tonight. I really appreciate everyone being here this evening. We have a full evening ahead of us, and thank you all for being here. So this is a town hall. It is not our normal city council meeting, so I'm not going to open it with roll call because it is a town hall meeting. Um so the one thing I do want to do as we get started is first and foremost say thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for using your voices, thank you for being engaged. It is greatly appreciated. So tonight, as we get started, we're gonna have each person's gonna have three minutes. Now, some one of the things that was communicated was that people are frustrated with only three minutes. However, by the time we do three minutes, if we let someone go on longer, then maybe the people at the end wouldn't have the opportunity. We do want to ensure that we end by 10 o'clock tonight. One of the things that we have learned just historically is anything that goes after 10, it just gets really tough because we're all tired. And so that'll be our we want to end by that time frame. Um tonight, after you speak for three minutes, and I think you'll see it on the other side of the, you'll see it when you're standing up there speaking. We will have an opportunity if you have a question for the council, then there can be a response from council, and I've encouraged us all to be really short with our comments so that we don't go on too long. So we'll have maybe a minute for response or question. I appreciate President Gordon Jones being here, um, so that if there and then his team is also here. If there is a question that is focused that is an answer that needs to come from the College of Western Idaho, then they would be available to answer that question. So we can do that. Um at the very end, council then is going to have an opportunity, they're each gonna take three minutes and provide a closing comment this evening when we get to the very very end. Council will provide that for you. Um I don't we've had so many questions. One of my thoughts tonight was I could answer some of those questions so then you don't have to ask them and then us in turn answer them. However, this evening is about you, and so I don't want to take up a lot of time at the beginning answering all the questions. I will say a couple of things. There have been some comments that it's a rushed process, that there's a lack of transparency, and and that we've already made the decision. So I just want to let everybody know. The other thing I want to say though also, we have had some excellent questions that help us move to a better decision. And I can tell you I greatly appreciate that. Thank you for those that that have asked good questions and that have helped us along in this process. It's really appreciated. So um just a real quick note to say, a decision has not been made. This has been um really a very transparent process. It's not done yet. If it needs to go on, it'll go on. If we've answered the questions, then we may come to a decision. Um that said, on the realm of transparency, it's not very often that you post a contract online when you're in the process of negotiating. And our our contract's online. So our financials are online. We are really working diligently to answer every question that's out there. It's just hard to keep up with the pace because there's a lot of nuances and questions that maybe you ask it a little different way, and so then we're trying to get responses. So our intent is to provide responses and to be transparent, and the decision has not been made. We do have one deadline, and that is next Monday night, the 18th, we have a city council meeting. If we were to consider a levy override, that is the final date that we could vote on it. So you will see a levy override on the council agenda for next Monday night the 18th, and that'll be an opportunity for council to consider that and to have discussion.