Gookin, Sayler lead crowded pack

The race for Coeur d’Alene City Council Seat 3 is crowded – two front-runners and three others motivated to run largely because of the decision to update McEuen Field, a downtown park.

The seat became available when Councilman Al Hassel decided not to seek re-election. Whoever wins will serve a four-year term that pays $750 a month, plus benefits.

Best known in the race, for their involvement in civic life, are George Sayler and Dan Gookin. Sayler taught high school government classes for 31 years and served eight years in the state Legislature. Gookin has been an outspoken critic of how the city spends money and of its urban renewal agency, the Lake City Development Corp.

Gookin has run for the council the past two elections, losing to Deanna Goodlander by only 29 votes in 2009. This is Sayler’s first run at a council seat.

Gookin, 51, said he’s the only candidate in his race with a six-year history of investigating city budgets. He said his passion for the city is well-demonstrated.

“Pretty much everyone else in the race is a new guy on the scene,” he said. Sayler, he added, is “well-known, but has had no interest in the city of Coeur d’Alene. He’s like the rest of them; he’s someone new.”

Sayler, 67, disputes that claim. He said he’s lived in Coeur d’Alene for 40 years, taught the city’s children for three decades and represented the area in the Legislature for eight years. He also serves on the Tubbs Hill Foundation out of a desire to protect and preserve the popular nature park.

“I’m running because I love Coeur d’Alene,” Sayler said. “We have had a lot of divisiveness in our community. We need to work together in more positive ways to continue to build our community.”

Gookin said the City Council is not listening to the public and nothing demonstrates that better than its approval of the McEuen Field plan. He’d like to see more oversight of the urban renewal agency, although he said he supported using those funds to build the education corridor infrastructure.

Gookin said a recent decision to give pay raises for city employees was “disrespectful of a public that is struggling.” He said the city has redundant positions and if the council was paying attention, “they would have frozen pay” until more jobs were created for the public.

“The real purpose of running for office is to be the voice of the people,” said Gookin, who also promised to establish office hours if he is elected.

Sayler said he generally favors the McEuen Field plan and wants to see it move forward “in a way the community will support.” He supported city pay raises because he said they were contractual but said the city communicated the raises’ necessity poorly. He wants to protect the trees along the city’s levee, which have been targeted for removal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The city doesn’t have a lot of money for economic development and urban renewal can help with that, Sayler said, pointing to the library and the Kroc Center as important features added in part with urban renewal money.

“I’m not running for any personal agenda of my own,” Sayler said. “I’m running for the benefit of the whole community.”

The three other candidates – Derec Aujay, 41, Patrick Mitchell, 49, and Annastasia Somontes, 44 – all raised the McEuen Field plan as their top issue. Mitchell, however, also mentioned he’d like to find a way to spruce up East Sherman Avenue and bring higher-paying jobs into the community. Somontes, a gas station cashier, wants to use the council position to advocate for the poor.

Aujay, a North Idaho College student, said he believes the McEuen Field remake will result in higher taxes, although city officials have promised it would not. “I figured I can’t afford it. I wanted to see if I can do something about it.”

Mitchell wants the city to leave McEuen Field’s boat launch and baseball fields alone. He said the underground parking is “pretty spendy.” But he said some parts of the plan could be instituted “step by step.” And he thinks it should be put to a public vote.

Somontes said the boat launch should stay because it’s paid for. She said the baseball fields deliver benefit to the community when tournaments come through and use the hotels and restaurants. She too would like to see a public vote.

“If we’ve already got these things, why create an additional expense?” she said. “I don’t need everything changed just to make it more accessible to me. The community is going to pay for this one way or the other.”