EXCLUSIVE

01/09/2003

Alyson Oüten
Idaho's NewsChannel 7

In an effort to find a new Boise Police Chief, a city recruitment team went to California in 1999. But, you may have paid for their side trip to Disneyland.

Paula Forney, Boise City Council member: "Some of this, it's like, the more we find out, the more questions we have. It's hard to figure out what in the world they were doing, and why."

The latest revelations are coming from the newly released documents on recruitment efforts to hire a police chief and deputy fire chief.

$38,000 worth of travel expenses surfaced this week - expenses from 1999 that the city council knew nothing about. And, it appears the recruitment team mixed business with pleasure on the taxpayer's dime.

Nearly every recruitment trip involved the same three people: former chief of staff Gary Lyman, former personnel director Tammy Rice and the current city attorney Susan Mimura.

And all three were on this trip to San Diego to look for a police chief. But, when we showed some receipts to council member Paula Forney - she was shocked all over again.

Paula Forney, Boise City Council: "I just don't know why this is [stayed] overnight in LA and they spent, obviously, some time at Disneyland everything we're finding out we have more questions than answers."

The main question here is just how much time was spent on business. In July of '99, the recruitment team flew from Boise to San Diego arriving at 9:30pm.

The next day, Susan Mimura says, the team met with several people from the San Diego police department, but by noon they were already back on a flight to Los Angeles.

Their next meeting was in Pasadena the following morning. But, instead of staying at a local hotel they hired a limo service for $92 and headed for Anaheim.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Disneyland. Mimura says everyone paid their own way in, but taxpayers bought their lemonade, corn dogs and strawberry shortcake. Mimura says that's city policy, but the mayor's spokesman says it is not.

The following day, another driver took the recruitment team to Pasadena for a meeting with the police chief. Mimura says the driver was paid to wait and then took everyone to the airport. That cost taxpayers $200.

Forney: "It doesn't seem like an effective or efficient use of their time or taxpayer money to do it this way. I added up the total cost of that earlier and it was over $2,000 to go on this 36 hour trip, four hours of which, possibly, were for meetings.

"I know there are a lot of people in this city that are very disappointed and very angry and, at this point, I say, they have a right to be."

Two of the three people involved in those recruitment trips were asked to resign. Sources say Tammy Rice left in 2001 because she used the city credit card for personal use. Last month, Mayor Coles asked Gary Lyman to leave because the council had lost confidence in him.

This is a story you will find Only on 7 and KTVB.COM. Idaho's NewsChannel 7 will continue to provide the most complete and fair coverage on the Investigation at Boise City Hall.