Hammond calms the waters

COEUR d’ALENE — Jim Hammond has been a trainer, a principal, a planning and zoning commissioner, a senator, a mayor and a metropolis administrator.

So, you’ll determine he has handled just about each state of affairs and encountered each type of person who comes with being in cost in public posts.

Not fairly.

His first yr as mayor of Coeur d’Alene was an awakening.

“It began out fairly difficult,” Hammond stated.

In January, the Coeur d’Alene Metropolis Council voted to simply accept $8.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. A number of individuals opposed it and weren’t shy about letting the council comprehend it. About 20 individuals who attended a metropolis ARPA Jan. 4 workshop have been described as loud and disruptive.

“Folks from throughout North Idaho got here to Coeur d’Alene to inform us how we ought to control ourselves,” Hammond stated.

The 72-year-old helps individuals sharing opinions with elected officers, however is agency that it’s accomplished respectfully.

So when some within the crowd yelled throughout council conferences, or tried to speak over council members, Hammond made it clear that was unacceptable conduct.

“We didn’t interrupt you whenever you spoke. You’ll want to let the council categorical their ideas as effectively with out interrupting them,” he stated throughout a Jan. 18 council assembly. “There’s some widespread courtesy anticipated right here. We afforded you that courtesy. We ask you to please do the identical for us.”

There have been different conferences when Hammond threatened to have individuals eliminated in the event that they insisted on speaking out of flip. And, in a single case, he did so.

However issues subsided, and by summer time, the conferences have been typically peaceable.

One other key subject earlier than the council in 2022 and arising in 2023 is Coeur Terre.

The Kootenai County Land Firm is planning about 2,000 housing items, companies, outlets and eating places, 18 acres of parks, 4 miles of trails and land for 2 public faculties.

The property is north of Interstate 90, south of west Hanley Avenue, east of Huetter Street and west of Atlas Street.

Many residents of neighboring Indian Meadows oppose it and shared their considerations with the Metropolis Council.

Hammond stated they have been respectful about it.

“I very a lot admire that,” he stated.

He stated the difficulty of short-term leases within the metropolis is one other instance of individuals on either side being respectful and providing options, reasonably than being combative.

“That is all we ask,” Hammond stated. “We wish to hear individuals’s opinions and to be concerned in governance, however in a respectful method.”

In his earlier expertise operating for public workplace, opponents may nonetheless be buddies.

However his marketing campaign for mayor of Coeur d’Alene included what he known as some “nasty occurrences,” with accusations and name-calling.

“That was a bit disheartening,” Hammond stated. “I by no means anticipated that.”

He stated coming in as Coeur d’Alene’s mayor, he was maybe “a bit extra naive than I ought to have been.”

Good governance, he stated, requires civility. So shouting and snide remarks throughout council conferences have been strongly discouraged by the mayor.

“In the event you tolerate that type of incivility, you may’t actually govern correctly,” Hammond stated.

However he finds steadiness and avoids overreacting.

When one particular person leaving a council assembly referred to Hammond as a tyrant, he smiled and chuckled.

His expertise made the distinction, as he was a relaxing, steadying affect.

“A few of it is simply my temperament,” he stated.

Hammond stated town’s opening of invocations earlier than council conferences to all faiths, reasonably than persevering with the long-running custom of Christian religion pastors solely, was an vital transfer.

“If we really are a Christian neighborhood, meaning we do not reject sure individuals,” he stated.

“The welcoming of anyone into the neighborhood has come a good distance from final yr,” he added.

Hammond stated town wants to seek out a solution to the expansion of short-term leases, as some metropolis blocks have a number of STRs.

These with STRs wish to maintain them, however he stated town wants to keep up the integrity of neighborhoods.

“That is obtained to trump all the pieces else,” he stated.

Town in 2022 concluded robust negotiations with each police and hearth unions that Hammond stated will allow it to maintain and appeal to first responders.

An enormous focus has been inexpensive housing and he expects that to proceed in 2023.

“We have to draw extra younger individuals in our neighborhood,” he stated, including they’re wanted to fill open jobs within the metropolis and surrounding areas.

“We’re attracting too many elderly individuals, like me,” he added, laughing.

As mayor, Hammond usually talks of neighborhood. There is a motive for that.

“You probably have a robust sense of neighborhood, then you are going to be supportive of what is going on on in that neighborhood,” he stated.

That results in assist of colleges, companies, church buildings and looking for one another — even when you differ on politics and religion.

Hammond believes authorities’s function is not to resolve each downside, but it surely should not be an impediment, both.

“If we will respectfully disagree, then we will nonetheless work collectively,” he stated. “That is simply important.”