News
Heneage and Whitfield retain seats through county commissioner election
Bob Heneage and Mike Whitfield will retain their seats as Teton County Commissioners
November 16, 2022
Connor Shea, Teton Valley News
After the final results finally came out on Wednesday, November 9th, incumbents Bob Heneage and Mike Whitfield overcame challenges from Republicans Pete Moyer and John Smaellie.
Heneage ran against Moyer in District 3 and Whitfield against Smaellie in District 2. Heneage had no clue what to expect heading into Election Day.
“I didn’t know what to think. Mike and I had been out visiting with voters for 3 months and based upon feedback that we were getting on people’s doorsteps, the new LDC and other things we had been working on had been well received,” said Heneage.
Whitfield anticipated the results would be close based on early voting statistics.
“I thought it would be very tight because it looked like the turnout was not great. Usually, Democrats tend to do well when there is a high turnout, and we didn’t have the kind of turnout that we had two years ago. We expected a tight result, and that is what we got,” said Whitfield.
Moyer knew he had a tough task but expected it to be close.
“There weren’t any surprises, I figured Bob Heneage was going to be a tough candidate to beat,” said Moyer. “I knew it was close.”
By the end of Election Night, every one of the candidates’ gut feelings was spot on. Unofficial results posted on November 8th showed a margin of only 8 votes favoring Heneage, holding onto victory over Moyer by a thread.
“I suspect whether eight votes short or eight votes above, I think we probably would have challenged the vote and had a recount,” said Moyer.
Whitfield’s initial margin of victory was much wider than Heneage’s, at 228, but everything was cast into doubt the following day.
In a shocking development on November 9th, the County Clerk’s office shared a press release that explained they had ‘missed’ an entire box of absentee ballots. The ballot box remained sealed, holding 402 ballots inside.
“That opened the door to possibly being able to pick up 8 or 9 more votes, whatever it took,” said Moyer.
“I thought, you have got to be kidding me,” said Heneage.
Instead of swinging the races, the forgotten ballot box would only widen the margins of victory.
“I assumed that it may jump in Bob’s favor a little bit and anyway, I was kind of shocked that the difference wasn’t a little closer,” said Moyer. “When they tallied those absentee ballots that somehow they missed, I guess we’ll find out how they missed those and how that went down, but I don’t think it is possible to make up 121 votes at this point. I don’t believe I will challenge it or ask for a recount.”
Moyer pointed to the Secretary of State potentially ordering an audit but does not expect much to result from that.
“The secretary of state may order an audit so we’ll see how that goes and see what they find out. I am not expecting a lot to change,” said Moyer. “I would have been very happy to have won, and I feel like I would have done a very good job for the county, but the voters have spoken and that is pretty much that.”
Heneage was “obviously relieved” to have seen his margins widen instead of disappear, even if the race was still tight.
“It seems pretty unlikely that there will be a recount now. I think percentage-wise the margin was 2.5% percent and that, if you look nationally, is about what elections are, two or three percent. They are all tight,” said Heneage. “I would classify this as still a tight win. 121 votes out of around 4000 cast is not that many people. It is enough of a percentage win that it is a clear win and that’s better than the position I thought I was in.”
Whitfield was stuck in traffic when he heard about the ‘missing’ ballots which certainly added to the stress of the situation despite wider margins heading into the counting of the forgotten ballots.
“I was not very happy to learn that the outcome was uncertain. It was not a good situation, but I trusted that they would do a good job professionally to take care of it, and that’s what happened,” said Whitfield.
“Typically in our county, Democrats tend to vote early more so than the Republicans. I felt it might go that way and it did. I was certainly happy that it was a little wider margin,” Whitfield continued.
Smaellie did not return a request for comment to the TVN.
Looking Forward
Both Whitfield and Heneage thought that the election was a de-facto referendum on the new Land Development Code, with Moyer and Smaellie voicing their disapproval for the LDC in campaign messaging.
“It was billed that way,” said Whitfield about the LDC’s effect on the campaign trail. “Certainly our opposition was making that (the LDC) the central issue.”
The result of the election gives the BoCC the opportunity to fine-tune and adjust the LDC as needed, proceeding where Whitfield and Heneage had left off.
“It gives us an opportunity to put the code in motion and fine-tune it, make necessary amendments, and make it work and add the necessary incentives to make it work,” said Whitfield.
Besides the Land Development Code, Whitfield will be focused on the issues of housing, road infrastructure, the water system and wastewater treatment plant, TCSO staffing, and the new regional solid waste facility near Newdale.
“We have a lot of immediate issues that require both near-term and long-term solutions. Of course, attainable housing for the people that live and work in Teton Valley is at the top of that list,” said Whitfield. “We need to deal with the emergency dispatch services. We have got a lot of applications recently but I think ultimately we are going to need a more regional approach.”
Heneage mentioned a list of the top three issues he will be working on.
“Top of my list, we are going to work on Area of Impact negotiations with the three cities. Number two, we need to continue talking with the Idaho Transportation Department to get the safety features that the community wants on these highways,” said Heneage.
The Grand Targhee expansion is not forgotten by Heneage, who promises to do his best to come to a compromise that won’t compromise Teton County Idaho’s constituents.
“Third, we have joint meetings where we are going to have probably the latter part of this winter with Grand Targhee, Caribou Targhee National Forest, and Teton County Wyoming together with Teton County Idaho. Those will be the four major players at the table and we want to negotiate a final configuration for the Grand Targhee Expansion that we can all live with and that doesn’t leave this county high and dry,” said Heneage.
Both Heneage and Whitfield will not forget the margins of their votes and the supporters of their opposition when crafting policy.
“I’ll be reaching out to folks like John and Pete and others, we have to find ways to work together. I believe, in my heart, when you get past the political differences we all share a lot of common ground and we need to work from that,” said Whitfield.
“We live in a really special place and our agricultural lands, our wildlife habitat, our recreational opportunities,’’ Whitfield continued. “We won’t retain those unless we are intentional in working to keep this place special.”
Heneage echoed that sentiment.
“I am acutely conscious of the fact that I represent everybody, not just the people that voted for me but also the people that didn’t vote for me too. I want to listen to everybody and I hope that the solutions that I come up with to resolve problems reflect a fair compromise of everybody’s point of view. It’s gratifying work, I really do enjoy it, but it is stressful for sure.”
Bob Heneage and Mike Whitfield will retain their seats as Teton County Commissioners
November 16, 2022
Connor Shea, Teton Valley News
After the final results finally came out on Wednesday, November 9th, incumbents Bob Heneage and Mike Whitfield overcame challenges from Republicans Pete Moyer and John Smaellie.
Heneage ran against Moyer in District 3 and Whitfield against Smaellie in District 2. Heneage had no clue what to expect heading into Election Day.
“I didn’t know what to think. Mike and I had been out visiting with voters for 3 months and based upon feedback that we were getting on people’s doorsteps, the new LDC and other things we had been working on had been well received,” said Heneage.
Whitfield anticipated the results would be close based on early voting statistics.
“I thought it would be very tight because it looked like the turnout was not great. Usually, Democrats tend to do well when there is a high turnout, and we didn’t have the kind of turnout that we had two years ago. We expected a tight result, and that is what we got,” said Whitfield.
Moyer knew he had a tough task but expected it to be close.
“There weren’t any surprises, I figured Bob Heneage was going to be a tough candidate to beat,” said Moyer. “I knew it was close.”
By the end of Election Night, every one of the candidates’ gut feelings was spot on. Unofficial results posted on November 8th showed a margin of only 8 votes favoring Heneage, holding onto victory over Moyer by a thread.
“I suspect whether eight votes short or eight votes above, I think we probably would have challenged the vote and had a recount,” said Moyer.
Whitfield’s initial margin of victory was much wider than Heneage’s, at 228, but everything was cast into doubt the following day.
In a shocking development on November 9th, the County Clerk’s office shared a press release that explained they had ‘missed’ an entire box of absentee ballots. The ballot box remained sealed, holding 402 ballots inside.
“That opened the door to possibly being able to pick up 8 or 9 more votes, whatever it took,” said Moyer.
“I thought, you have got to be kidding me,” said Heneage.
Instead of swinging the races, the forgotten ballot box would only widen the margins of victory.
“I assumed that it may jump in Bob’s favor a little bit and anyway, I was kind of shocked that the difference wasn’t a little closer,” said Moyer. “When they tallied those absentee ballots that somehow they missed, I guess we’ll find out how they missed those and how that went down, but I don’t think it is possible to make up 121 votes at this point. I don’t believe I will challenge it or ask for a recount.”
Moyer pointed to the Secretary of State potentially ordering an audit but does not expect much to result from that.
“The secretary of state may order an audit so we’ll see how that goes and see what they find out. I am not expecting a lot to change,” said Moyer. “I would have been very happy to have won, and I feel like I would have done a very good job for the county, but the voters have spoken and that is pretty much that.”
Heneage was “obviously relieved” to have seen his margins widen instead of disappear, even if the race was still tight.
“It seems pretty unlikely that there will be a recount now. I think percentage-wise the margin was 2.5% percent and that, if you look nationally, is about what elections are, two or three percent. They are all tight,” said Heneage. “I would classify this as still a tight win. 121 votes out of around 4000 cast is not that many people. It is enough of a percentage win that it is a clear win and that’s better than the position I thought I was in.”
Whitfield was stuck in traffic when he heard about the ‘missing’ ballots which certainly added to the stress of the situation despite wider margins heading into the counting of the forgotten ballots.
“I was not very happy to learn that the outcome was uncertain. It was not a good situation, but I trusted that they would do a good job professionally to take care of it, and that’s what happened,” said Whitfield.
“Typically in our county, Democrats tend to vote early more so than the Republicans. I felt it might go that way and it did. I was certainly happy that it was a little wider margin,” Whitfield continued.
Smaellie did not return a request for comment to the TVN.
Looking Forward
Both Whitfield and Heneage thought that the election was a de-facto referendum on the new Land Development Code, with Moyer and Smaellie voicing their disapproval for the LDC in campaign messaging.
“It was billed that way,” said Whitfield about the LDC’s effect on the campaign trail. “Certainly our opposition was making that (the LDC) the central issue.”
The result of the election gives the BoCC the opportunity to fine-tune and adjust the LDC as needed, proceeding where Whitfield and Heneage had left off.
“It gives us an opportunity to put the code in motion and fine-tune it, make necessary amendments, and make it work and add the necessary incentives to make it work,” said Whitfield.
Besides the Land Development Code, Whitfield will be focused on the issues of housing, road infrastructure, the water system and wastewater treatment plant, TCSO staffing, and the new regional solid waste facility near Newdale.
“We have a lot of immediate issues that require both near-term and long-term solutions. Of course, attainable housing for the people that live and work in Teton Valley is at the top of that list,” said Whitfield. “We need to deal with the emergency dispatch services. We have got a lot of applications recently but I think ultimately we are going to need a more regional approach.”
Heneage mentioned a list of the top three issues he will be working on.
“Top of my list, we are going to work on Area of Impact negotiations with the three cities. Number two, we need to continue talking with the Idaho Transportation Department to get the safety features that the community wants on these highways,” said Heneage.
The Grand Targhee expansion is not forgotten by Heneage, who promises to do his best to come to a compromise that won’t compromise Teton County Idaho’s constituents.
“Third, we have joint meetings where we are going to have probably the latter part of this winter with Grand Targhee, Caribou Targhee National Forest, and Teton County Wyoming together with Teton County Idaho. Those will be the four major players at the table and we want to negotiate a final configuration for the Grand Targhee Expansion that we can all live with and that doesn’t leave this county high and dry,” said Heneage.
Both Heneage and Whitfield will not forget the margins of their votes and the supporters of their opposition when crafting policy.
“I’ll be reaching out to folks like John and Pete and others, we have to find ways to work together. I believe, in my heart, when you get past the political differences we all share a lot of common ground and we need to work from that,” said Whitfield.
“We live in a really special place and our agricultural lands, our wildlife habitat, our recreational opportunities,’’ Whitfield continued. “We won’t retain those unless we are intentional in working to keep this place special.”
Heneage echoed that sentiment.
“I am acutely conscious of the fact that I represent everybody, not just the people that voted for me but also the people that didn’t vote for me too. I want to listen to everybody and I hope that the solutions that I come up with to resolve problems reflect a fair compromise of everybody’s point of view. It’s gratifying work, I really do enjoy it, but it is stressful for sure.”
Previous
Teton County adopts new land development code
The Teton Board of County Commissioners held a six-hour public hearing on June 29 to receive comment on the proposed land development code. On July 6 the board voted to adopt the new code.
July 6, 2022 (updated July 13)
Julia Tellman, Teton Valley News
On the afternoon of July 6, the Teton Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the new land development code and new zone map, after nearly ten years of stops and starts in the process of replacing the county's 30-year-old code regulating land use applications.
A week prior, the commissioners had listened to six hours of public comment for and against the proposed code. They decided to continue the meeting to this Wednesday in order to absorb the testimony of the community and deliberate in a more leisurely fashion.
Opponents of the code have said it will drive up property costs and exacerbate the housing crisis, and have expressed concern that it impacts their ability to subdivide their properties. Proponents have said it will curtail speculative development and protect the county's natural resources.
On Wednesday the commissioners spent around an hour and a half responding to some of the comments in opposition and discussing the intended goals of the new code.
“Does the market solve the housing crisis? The market has had quite a while to tackle the crisis and we’re up to our necks in it,” Commissioner Mike Whitfield said in response to concerns that the code would hinder affordable housing. “Please don’t tell me you want the uncontrolled opportunity to get rich off selling your property but at the same time you want affordable housing. Everyone has that issue—I want to be able to do what I want with my property, but I want you to protect my neighbor’s property.”
Whitfield noted that the new code encourages development in the cities where public infrastructure can support it. He acknowledged comments that the public had made about the struggles Victor and Driggs have had with wastewater treatment and water systems, but said he wants to see collaboration between the cities, public agencies, and county to find a more regional, cost-effective approach to drinking water and wastewater.
He added that well sampling from DEQ and Friends of the Teton River suggests that there are increasing levels of nitrates in the aquifer, particularly in areas of denser development, although not yet harmful levels. “The way to deal with that kind of issue is not to wait until it’s a crisis, not to wait until our aquifer is polluted, not to wait until the array of very dense subdivisions proposed have damaged our drinking water, polluted the water our trout spawn in, the whole gamut,” he said about the trend.
This June, after holding one last public hearing in order to make a formal recommendation on the proposed zoning map, the Teton County Planning & Zoning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend denial and asked the county commissioners to perform an economic impact study of the new zones. During the July 6 BOCC meeting, Commissioner Bob Heneage said it was not practical to do an economic impact study of the new code before passing it.
“The new code can and will be modified as need be over the next few years,” Heneage said. He added that the county has essentially seen a 30-year economic impact study on the current code, and said that the code has created an economy that is tightly connected to real estate cycles.
“When the real estate market is booming, Teton Valley is booming. When real estate takes a dive, Teton Valley has a major recession. For too long, three quarters of the valley’s workforce…is somehow involved directly or indirectly with the development cycle.” Heneage said, citing everyone from contractors to brokers to architects. “Because these professionals are all vulnerable to the fluctuations of the real estate cycle, we should make every effort to A: diversify the economy and B: move away from the old land development code that has helped create this situation.”
The commissioners decided to make a few small edits to the code; specifically, they changed the Rural Neighborhood zone in areas east of Driggs from 7.5 to five acres average density, and added detached accessory dwelling units as a limited use in the Foothills zones.
With those minor amendments, and acknowledging that consulting firm Logan Simpson still needs to correct some typos and errors in the text, the commissioners hammered out the motions and voted to approve the code and zone map. On July 11, the board approved the written decision that includes findings and conclusions.
In early August, two weeks after an ordinance summary is posted in the Teton Valley News, the new code will go into effect. Land use applications that are already being processed will be reviewed under the code that was in effect when they were submitted.
The Teton Board of County Commissioners held a six-hour public hearing on June 29 to receive comment on the proposed land development code. On July 6 the board voted to adopt the new code.
July 6, 2022 (updated July 13)
Julia Tellman, Teton Valley News
On the afternoon of July 6, the Teton Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt the new land development code and new zone map, after nearly ten years of stops and starts in the process of replacing the county's 30-year-old code regulating land use applications.
A week prior, the commissioners had listened to six hours of public comment for and against the proposed code. They decided to continue the meeting to this Wednesday in order to absorb the testimony of the community and deliberate in a more leisurely fashion.
Opponents of the code have said it will drive up property costs and exacerbate the housing crisis, and have expressed concern that it impacts their ability to subdivide their properties. Proponents have said it will curtail speculative development and protect the county's natural resources.
On Wednesday the commissioners spent around an hour and a half responding to some of the comments in opposition and discussing the intended goals of the new code.
“Does the market solve the housing crisis? The market has had quite a while to tackle the crisis and we’re up to our necks in it,” Commissioner Mike Whitfield said in response to concerns that the code would hinder affordable housing. “Please don’t tell me you want the uncontrolled opportunity to get rich off selling your property but at the same time you want affordable housing. Everyone has that issue—I want to be able to do what I want with my property, but I want you to protect my neighbor’s property.”
Whitfield noted that the new code encourages development in the cities where public infrastructure can support it. He acknowledged comments that the public had made about the struggles Victor and Driggs have had with wastewater treatment and water systems, but said he wants to see collaboration between the cities, public agencies, and county to find a more regional, cost-effective approach to drinking water and wastewater.
He added that well sampling from DEQ and Friends of the Teton River suggests that there are increasing levels of nitrates in the aquifer, particularly in areas of denser development, although not yet harmful levels. “The way to deal with that kind of issue is not to wait until it’s a crisis, not to wait until our aquifer is polluted, not to wait until the array of very dense subdivisions proposed have damaged our drinking water, polluted the water our trout spawn in, the whole gamut,” he said about the trend.
This June, after holding one last public hearing in order to make a formal recommendation on the proposed zoning map, the Teton County Planning & Zoning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend denial and asked the county commissioners to perform an economic impact study of the new zones. During the July 6 BOCC meeting, Commissioner Bob Heneage said it was not practical to do an economic impact study of the new code before passing it.
“The new code can and will be modified as need be over the next few years,” Heneage said. He added that the county has essentially seen a 30-year economic impact study on the current code, and said that the code has created an economy that is tightly connected to real estate cycles.
“When the real estate market is booming, Teton Valley is booming. When real estate takes a dive, Teton Valley has a major recession. For too long, three quarters of the valley’s workforce…is somehow involved directly or indirectly with the development cycle.” Heneage said, citing everyone from contractors to brokers to architects. “Because these professionals are all vulnerable to the fluctuations of the real estate cycle, we should make every effort to A: diversify the economy and B: move away from the old land development code that has helped create this situation.”
The commissioners decided to make a few small edits to the code; specifically, they changed the Rural Neighborhood zone in areas east of Driggs from 7.5 to five acres average density, and added detached accessory dwelling units as a limited use in the Foothills zones.
With those minor amendments, and acknowledging that consulting firm Logan Simpson still needs to correct some typos and errors in the text, the commissioners hammered out the motions and voted to approve the code and zone map. On July 11, the board approved the written decision that includes findings and conclusions.
In early August, two weeks after an ordinance summary is posted in the Teton Valley News, the new code will go into effect. Land use applications that are already being processed will be reviewed under the code that was in effect when they were submitted.