Hayden chamber president’s future unclear

A controversial plan to pay off $130,000 the Hayden Chamber of Commerce still owes from a 2004 air show has apparently created trouble for Chamber President Robbie Canfield.

On Tuesday, the chamber’s board of directors will meet to discuss the unpaid volunteer’s future with the chamber.

Jeri DeLange, secretary for the board’s executive committee, said she couldn’t discuss the nature of the meeting until all of the board members had been notified, which won’t happen until today.

According to Canfield, however, the meeting is a follow-up to the executive committee’s request for his resignation last week. He has refused to resign.

Earlier this month, Canfield floated a complicated plan for paying off the debt from the Thunder Over the Prairie air show.

His plan would have worked like this: The debt would be transferred to a shell company owned by Canfield called Canfield Development Corp. The 27 creditors would own a minority stake in the company; Canfield would be the majority owner. The company’s only asset would be his real estate office at 10264 Government Way in Hayden.

Canfield proposed using the shell to start a business, perhaps a Hayden newspaper. Within two years, he said, he hoped to generate enough profit to buy out the creditors and perhaps raise money for a 2009 air show.

“I feel misunderstood,” Canfield said. “People looked at it as Robbie doing something for himself. … I was basically taking their dead credit and turning it into an asset.”

Canfield said he withdrew the plan when it became clear the executive committee didn’t support it.

“My passion moving into the chamber’s presidency has been to find a way to pay off the air show debts,” he said. “The chamber doesn’t have a lot of integrity with our creditors. … We have people who were deeply hurt in the pocket.”

Canfield’s elected term runs through the end of the year.