Rick Hogaboam - In Memorandum

Here we have Idaho is sponsored by First Class Cleaning, Tom Luna and Victor Miller.

Welcome to Here We Have Idaho. A local show focused on celebrating Idaho and all it makes Idaho

great. Here we have Idaho will highlight important issues and events that impact Idaho's

citizens and families. Each week we will visit with those people who are writing Idaho's

story and keeping the spirit of Idaho alive and well. Just like our state song says,

there's truly one state in this great land of ours where ideals can be realized.

The pioneers made it so for you and me, but legacy will always provide. Here are your hosts,

Victor Miller and Tom Luna. Good afternoon and welcome to this special episode of Here We Have Idaho

with Tom Luna and Victor Miller. As many of you know, we lost your great patriot and public servant

this week with the passing of Nampa mayor Rick Holgoboom. We had the privilege of recently

talking with the mayor. He shared with us his thoughts on public service, his plans and ideas

for making life better for those living in Nampa. Our hearts go out to mayor Holgoboom's wife and

his five beautiful children at this very, very difficult time. As a tribute to the mayor, his family

and those who left him, we share again with you our conversation with mayor Holgoboom.

Our prayers are that God watch over the mayor's wife and his children now and going forward

and bring them peace during this most difficult time. Welcome to another episode of Here We Have Idaho.

You're listening to KSPD 790 AM 94.5 FM. I'm Victor Miller, one of the co-hosts. Our good friend

Tom Luna is traveling with his dear wife abroad and so we're sending him travel emergencies and

he says a warm hello to our guest and you're probably wondering who our guest is. Well, our guest is

none other than Rick Holgoboom and Rick is the county clerk of the district court for the great

county which is called Canyon Canyon County and he does court operations, order, elections,

recorder passports. He's clerk of the county commissioners. He's also been the chief of staff

for NAMPA, the mayor, current mayor, Mary Debbie Kling for four years through 2023. He was previously

elected as a councilman and you've served as a lead negotiator for the collective bargaining

agreements with the NAMPA Police Association. We know that this public safety is a big thing for

you and you're also a trustee who was one of the three trustees on the NAMPA employee health trust.

So he's been around the block a little bit. Welcome Rick Holgoboom to Here We Have Idaho.

Good to be here Victor and hopefully Tom is enjoying his travels with his wife.

Oh, he is. So Rick, let's talk about I'm sitting in the empty restaurant here at the Riverside Hotel

and why are you at the Riverside Hotel this week, Rick? Yeah, we are having the Idaho Association

of counties is having their annual conference and it's three days and it's today tomorrow and

Wednesday and it's great to connect with a lot of the elected officials and staff from the 44

counties throughout the state. We got, you know, this is an important time for us to gather and

talk about issues that are mutual concerned all of our counties and so it's great.

We have a full schedule of these three days and a lot of fraternizing as well as policy making

as well as training so it's a good time together. So who would count as the commissioners,

sheriff, prosecutor? All of the above. Yeah, all of the above and the committee staff as well.

Some of the senior staff and it's great, you know, each county has nine elected officials.

You just rattled through them the three commissioners plus, prosecuting attorney, sheriff,

coroner, treasurer, assessor, clerk. So, you know, we're, we're, there's a lot of representation

here from the 44 counties throughout the state. Well, Rick, you know, we spent a lot of time with

legislators, especially during the sessions, but also between the sessions and we know that

the legislators have a lot of power in changing how we live as Idahoans and we're great for

living a conservative state. But there must be for you as the county clerk and as one of the officers

in Canyon County, there must be issues that you want to bring before the legislature, legislature

every year. So is that, are those ideas born in in something like this? And can you give us some

insights on some of the burning topics that you feel that you want to bring the legislature

in 2026? Yeah, great question, Victor. We, we do have subcommittees and I'm part of two subcommittees

that met this morning. One is revenue and taxation and one is intergovernmental affairs and all of the

elected officials from the 44 counties can submit to the Idaho Association of Counties draft

resolutions for legislative proposals and we met this morning and went through a lot of those draft

resolutions and into your question about maybe burning topics. I'll say that some of the common

themes that we've seen is a lot of the services that the county provides are mandated by the legislature.

Right. And some of the revenues that can be collected for those services remain in a fixed

amount based on, you know, statute. So I think that one of the themes that I see is to have the

legislature revisit maybe exploring raising some of those fixed fees because we don't want

to subsidize those services. I think the logic is that there are fee for service. So everything

from recording a document to a marriage license, you know, these sort of activities that if what

we're collecting doesn't pay for providing the service, then it's going to be subsidized on the

back of property taxpayers at the county level. So that's one thing. Right. Yeah. And another big

theme is local option sales tax. And I know that that's potentially a controversial thing because

no one likes another new tax. Correct. However, you know, when you talk about maybe trying to fund a

jail bond, somebody saying there was legislation 20 years ago that allowed it, let's say a local

option penny tax and as pursuased it, Kutney County used it. And by the way, it goes on the

ballot and I think they had 80, 85% approval when they did a local option sales tax to pay one extra

penny for 10 years to fund the jail. The other half of the revenue offsets your property tax bill.

So I think what we're we're hoping for is to at least allow that option to put in front of the

voters and to be clear, it's not imposing it on the voters. It's giving the voters if you don't want

to do bond financing through property taxes. Do it your sales tax and the one cent sales tax

for 10 years, which is a use tax. Yes, a use tax. Right. As opposed to a taxing the place you live in

and you are sitting there, you bought a house for 250,000 all of a sudden it's worth 800,000

dollars and your property tax bill is going up and you're just sitting there. Yeah. But if you

if you're consuming, use that that incremental tax that penny tax to help do the same thing

exactly without raising your property taxes. Exactly. So that is something that was discussed.

Yeah, that was one of the things that I had a sheriff's association brought and it was met with

good acceptance and one of our committee meetings this morning. So there may be some legislation

that comes possibly addressing that topic. We might see. Okay. Yeah. So the other way, of course,

there's two other ways and obviously you're you've thrown your hat into be the mayor of NAMPA.

We should say that. So now putting on your city hat and your county hat, both of them,

House Bill 389. We did interview a lot of the mayors and a consistent theme was that some of them

would be appreciative if that was looked at again. Like now there were a few years down the road.

We see the impact of it, especially for high growth cities. So talk about what you think about House

Bill 39 and whether you believe it merits a revisit. Yes, it does. And by the way, thank you for

interviewing a lot of the mayors in the community. I think the podcast you have is really

the show you have is really important in helping bring out diverse perspectives. And I think

you're accurate in sensing that there is a consensus opinion that there's some challenges with 389.

I would say that it does need to be looked at. We want growth to pay for growth, especially

public safety. And so hopefully I can get a sit down with Speaker Moil and we can evaluate.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. But if I should join the fraternity of local mayors,

one of the meetings that they have every month is the Treasure Valley partnership. And so that's

the local mayors as well as the county commissioners they meet monthly to talk about shared concerns.

And I hope to join that conversation if I'm elected mayor to try to find a way that we can

get some some changes of 39. Hey, if you're just joining us, you listen to here, we have Idaho.

You listen to KSPD 790 AM 94.5 FM. And we are being joined today by the Canyon County Clerk

and his name is Rick Holgoboom. He's also running for mayor of the great city of NEPA.

So let's let's talk a little bit about there's the concept of impact fees.

Some places like star have been very successful in in using them. Some cities haven't don't really

believe in them or don't really want to go down that route. What's your thought about impact fees,

especially relative to like schools? And as you said, trying to make sure we have enough police

first responders. Yeah, your thoughts. Great question.

And impact fees require several components and brief. One is you need to measure what the

current level of services. And then the logic is as you grow what increment or proportion should

the growth pay for the capital stuff that's needed, right? To not go backwards on a quality

of life issue. So I think impact fees are good and so far as they are accurately reflecting

what the level of services you can't charge new construction, new growth to make up existing

deficiencies. It's just to maintain its proportionate share. So if you have so many park acreage per

capita and you continue to grow, you need more ball fields and soccer fields. So you can charge

the new construction is if you have 10 ball fields in the growth shows, you're going to need two more

over 10 years. You're charging the cost of those two new ball fields and divided out over per

application. And so so yes, impact fees are an important way to make sure that we preserve

quality of life. You mentioned schools that that's a controversial discussion and the impact fee

realm because you know right now new schools are approved by bonds by the public and sometimes

public doesn't want to prove the bond. And yet you have the growing pain of overcrowded schools,

maybe like Middleton school district and value view school district is a fast growing school

district. So I think those are discussions that I think do need to be had. Where's the right balance?

Right. And that bill that the legislature did pass to do a billion one roughly of school

infrastructure certainly is going to help it is Canyon County where there's a lot of it's a big

population you'll get a nice I imagine you did get a substantial sum of money that can be invested

in the schools which will help with the whole bond issue where taxpayers really don't want to

you know necessarily take on a bond or a levy you're right. So let's talk also about again you

were a negotiator for the collective bargaining agreements with the NAMPA police association you are

a very uh security minded person public safety minded person yeah one of the other things that

that is difficult is that every thousand people roughly should have another police officer those

types of ratios I don't know what it is for Canyon County or for NAMPA but how does that come

into the picture of of paying for incremental public safety as the population of NAMPA or

Canyon County grows yeah great question I think NAMPA is you know somewhere on 1.28 1.25 per

thousand so as you approve say a subdivision um the the thought is that subdivision gets added

to our budget capacity or our tax property tax levy capacity and you need to be able to fund

ongoing cost out of that tax increment one of the challenges of 389 as you mentioned earlier is

what if you can't keep up so what if the tax base is not growing as you mentioned with fast

gross community fast growth communities uh the big concern is we don't want it to undermine public

safety um the one thing I'll say about negotiating with the police association the one thing that

NAMPA has is great morale right you you can have all the money in the world and what not but you

can't replace healthy culture and good morale and I I could just say as mayor uh 100% believe

in the men and women of our police department and I will be a mayor who 100% backs our law enforcement

our dispatchers all the admin staff and so the one thing I think it's important from a leadership

standpoint is to just let the men and women know that you believe in their mission you're with them

and and so I think that that that's an intangible bond and connection that I hope to have as mayor

with our law enforcement personnel but also make sure that we can keep the community safe as we

grow impact fees as you've asked 389 all of these things kind of all affect um this issue moving

forward and we we got to be smart with how we grow um police we have utilized maybe smarter ways

of policing that might not require as much staff but inevitably you do have to have boots on

the ground right to police the community and so while we might get smarter and more efficient you

will inevitably have to hire more more police so we just got to make sure that we grow in a way

that we can maintain our public safety so our being joined by Rick Hogan boom was um

candid for mayor and navel and currently the canyon county clerk so a lot of times we when

someone wants to run for a different office and they've currently held you'll get some insights on

the way they'd govern by how they're what they're doing their priorities their agenda their

accomplishments in the current role that they're in so maybe you could talk to us a little bit about

what you think your major accomplishments have been since you've been the canyon county clerk

yeah that's a great question I would point let me do three things uh rapid fire here I think one

the canyon county the budget process for the last two budget cycles have been um very um

informative very transparent and I will continue to push for transparency as a mayor especially

on all financial matters I have a good relationship with the concerned citizens of canyon county they're

kind of a watchdog group um I believe in having watch dogs uh keep it close to eye on what we do

right we do a sherry standpoint um secondly when it comes to elections we added more polling locations

and recruited more poll workers to better serve the public and so I think part of that is a testament to

just providing um leadership from the top that inspires attracts people that want to help and

support the mission so I I'm very happy with our elections team and taking some steps forward on

that and then thirdly I know this is not maybe a very big deal but in the recorder's office we've

tried to mainstream um create some efficiencies in how we serve the public um and improve processes

so that it's easier to process the business of the people and then not only is it easier for them

but we can do a higher volume and that is a fee for service type enterprise that goes on so the more

we do the more revenue we're generating so that that's an example where there are fees for service

efficiency actually leads to happier citizens because they're being service quicker and higher

revenue because we're we're doing higher volume in a more efficient manner so those are a few

things that I'd point to is clerk that I think um I could bring into the mayor's seat as far as

you know efficiency transparency and uh you know inspirational leadership that helps get people

on board and excited with the mission hey if you're just joining us just into here we have I know in

790 am 94.5 FM and Victor Miller co-host Tom Luna traveling with his dear wife and uh he says hello

to everyone and we are with uh Rick Holgoboom Rick is the current canyon county clerk he is running

for the mayor of nampa um you know I was struck by something I read on your website what your

Rick Holgoboom from mayor website or for nampa and you talk about data driven governance I have

never ever heard that those words put together what is data driven governance Rick yeah great question

um I would say it's utilizing hopefully bringing an objectivity to our decision-making that's

data driven and not just emotional driven um so we want to make smart decisions and I know you have

great background in probably looking at numbers and having to make wise decisions based on you know

maybe numbers tell a story numbers tell a story yes yes and so I think um it's it's really a

commitment to making sure that we're we just don't function on anecdotal wisdom but that we're

willing to test our theories with data and uh invite scrutiny um and and hopefully it's it's a

hard science where again you're having people look at the way in which we're trying to grow and so

one thing could be as simple as what is the tax revenue to be collected from that subdivision how

many officers do you need to hire do those numbers balance if they don't then you know you're going

to have a service level deficiency so um but maybe you have other types of growth industrial growth

or commercial growth that is contributing a lot more to the tax base than the services it requires

so maybe what we need to do is incentivize more of that growth um when we talk about impact fees

and stuff we certainly don't want it to be a deterrent to the type of growth we got to remember

once someone develops something in our city they pay taxes every year forever so sometimes we

get obsessive over just what the immediate impact is right lose sight of the big picture and so

we want to attract investment into our community that pays over and over and over again to our

benefit and so you know in a trying to conceptualize this that's that I think the data like you said

numbers will tell the story you know having a pro forma on what the anticipated tax revenue from

a certain development is relative to the services it requires and if it's a net positive then

it's like let's do everything we can to get that development into the city so that would be an

example of how data driven governance would guide our decisions to make sure that we're making smart

decisions that pay off in the long run so if you've done anything as clerk that you'd say is an

example of data driven governance maybe you mentioned with your quick three top it should dress but

would you say there's anything that kind of brings that to light you know maybe not on the large

scale like um because at the city level I think when you're talking about like a comprehensive plan

or a future land use map that's a very big level but at the cable level I think you use a lot of

those principles and and how how quickly are we servicing people in the recorder's office what can

we do to more efficiently turn you know so I have some training and a lean sigma principles of

just process improvement continuous improvement um elections where is there a bottleneck right

some precincts have higher voter turnout than other precincts so just because you have the same

number of registered voters in both you see a pattern that emerges that is pretty predictable

so maybe we need to one thing I want to do um whether I'm clerk in January or not it's a project

that I because if I'm elected mayor I'll be stepping out but I'm already putting things in motion

right now to split some precincts because we only we actually had more precincts years ago we

consolidated all the precincts so that was a decision that I inherited that was before me and

that's longer lines we do have some gain points and some of the middle 10 precincts and there's

a couple called well map a precinct so we really need to split those precincts but splitting them

is only good if we can secure another voting location and there is a statutory provision for

splitting a precinct but I our team has found some locations in middle 10 that I think will allow

us to split hopefully in January so in the midterms next year because we're going to have a

spirited primary in May and then uh in the November election I'm hoping but that's just you know

simple data just looking at you know bottleneck looking at the numbers right saying what what do we

need to do to adapt to it better it's an important part of a decision making process absolutely definitely

not I have to know the numbers and the data and the financially impact of everything you do

let's talk about um another something it would be related to a data driven governance and that's

the balance of the property tax base being from businesses from agriculture from individuals

and and obviously business development is very critical because you know it lessens the tax burden

on the individual yeah so maybe talk about that because that's one of the things you talked about

in your uh in your um website was what you call it smart economic growth or what you

called thoughtful sustainable strategic growth well you've you did your research so what is it

what does that what does that look like you know victor it's something I referred to earlier about

you know looking at the pro forma on what the tax revenue is relative to the cost of services

and making sure that we don't should shoot ourselves on the foot by deterring or disincentivizing

growth so as you said you mentioned business uh development growth industrial development growth

is important to add to the tax base we also need to be mindful I know we have property rights but

some of our aglan is on precious soil and so we we well we want to respect the rights of

those property owners to make decisions my hope is to also look and explore the possibility of

agriculture that you know there there was some legislation passed this past year agricultural

protection areas and we need to look at ways in which we can maybe even have agricultural easements

and ways to preserve aglan where it makes sense um but right now when you advertise that you're going

to convert aglan into residential the you know prospective developers are buying that land already

because they're taking us to be true to our blueprint and say that we're going to annex when

there's an annexation pattern so I think part of the challenge is to what extent is the city's

area of impact actually incentivizing the conversion of aglan preemptively because we're advertising

our blueprint that we're going there I guess the concern I have is we need to measure

if we grow residential heavy into a certain area can we even provide the services

and maintain our quality of life and if not then maybe we need to curtail some of that residential

growth or maybe we need to rezone the way in which we grow just to make sure our quality of life is

preserved so you know when you talk about cities or counties you know they compete too they compete

for new businesses they compete for development dollars they compete just like anybody else does

yeah so as you look at Canyon County and you look at Napa what do you see as the natural competitive

advantages that that Napa and Canyon have relative to others and why you're you know glad to be

representing and would like to represent Napa but you are representing Canyon County now

no that's that's a great question from a business model what are like what are competitive

advantages I'd say are adjacency to ag industry and ag is king ag is resilient people need to eat

whether the economy is good or bad and I think one of our competitive advantages is our adjacency

to a lot of rural ag communities that are in our county and adjacent to our county and I think

we need to when we talk about how we incentivize growth food processing and I think is an incredibly

important piece of that puzzle we also need to look at food processing like if you're talking

about meat processing and other things it requires like a heavy industrial use and so we need to look

when we look at our comp plan our land use do we are we allowing enough heavy industrial

use to meet the demand so that we can keep this rising tide of the ag economy in our area and

and so we all benefit rural ag community as well as a more urbanized context with heavy use on

infrastructure electricity wastewater arterial transportation corridors we need to co-exist

together and I think Canyon County has a huge advantage because of our adjacency to ag

and not just a adjacency having it in our county right in it all is being adjacent so I think

we need to make sure that ag continues to be our our foundation of our economy and continue to grow

let's see w i's a nice I think it's a nice a really nice thing to have in your in your town

so let's by the way if you're just joining us just in here we have Idaho

dr miller co-host 790 am 94.5 FM we're with Rick Hogan boom who is the current

canyon county clerk and is running for mayor of namba so you have been on the council in namba

you have been the chief of staff to the mayor the current mayor so let's talk about the four

dino center I know you can't say hey this is what what's what's going to happen what you think but if

you were an advisor to saying hey to the council saying as a former council person as someone who

was at the highest levels how would you frame what everybody should be thinking about like just

go it that way like what are the what are the many things that people have to put into the stew to come

up with the right solution for this that's a great question I think history is important how was it

built why was it built it was built primarily for the rodeo the stink river stampede and how was

it built it was built with urban renewal dollars of course that urban renewal district expired and

so the city took into its budget capacity the increment and the ongoing obligation of capital

renewal and maintenance and so I think what the city has faced is the situation where there's

when the buildings approaching you know 30-year life cycle on some of those items they're not cheap

and so I think the city is staring at the need for capital replacement renewal so I think it really

starts there that you need to quantify to the public what are the costs what are the needs to

breathe new life there's this 20- or 30-year capital stuff or even to sustain life in a meeting

meeting to keep it viable so when you have a primary obligation to the rodeo and stampede and then

there's of course uses beyond that and we OBG OB group works to try to fill that place up as much

as possible with events that serve the public right and last year's the first year and quite a

while that they actually showed a profit from the operations so they've done a nice job turning that

around so I think those are important as far as advising I think looking at are there is there

highest and best potential that's on is it under utilized or under realized meaning is there more

you can do and if the answer is yes there's usually a money component yes if you spend more money

on enhanced sensor improvement so I think again this should be a data driven decision on what

money needs to go in what can reasonably be expected back over what 10 years 20 years 30 years

do that trade-off scenario cost benefit analysis and then make a decision with your eyes fully

wide open to what the cost is and what the benefits are right and to and to really be very openly

transparent on all these aspects with the citizens so whatever decision is made everyone's like

that makes sense yes yeah that makes sense so let's talk about one thing that you talked about

on your and then we just have about a minute but talking about transparency so

why did you mention that as part of your campaign for mayor local government exist on public trust

and when you lose public trust things go downhill and it's hard to recover and so transparency

is so important it's it's funny bring that up because one of the morning meetings we had I was

sitting next to our controller Brandon Wolfe and he was here and we were talking about

the ongoing efforts at the state level to enhance transparency and it's important to talk about

this so that's why we need to maintain public trust in local governance and transparency is

absolutely necessary component of that relationship and control wolf has done a fabulous job

yes one we are probably the most transparent state in the union yes anyway we are grateful to you

Rick Hogoboom the current Canyon County clerk running from mayor of nampa and here at the

Idaho Association of County's conference we're talking from the here and we're just grateful that

you join us on here we have Idaho and until we see you in our next show everyone as we always say

God bless the great state of Idaho thanks again Rick Hogoboom thank you God bless

thank you for joining us today on here we have Idaho we hope you enjoyed today's show and we

look forward to visiting with you for a half hour each Wednesday and Friday at 4 p.m. on kspd 790

a.m. and 94.5 FM till next time God bless the great state of Idaho