The Road to Hell in Boise

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Boise is living proof.

On the surface, Mayor Lauren McLean’s gestures look noble, promoting inclusion, accountability, and progress. But the results tell a different story: taxpayer dollars wasted, civic unity fractured, and our capital city used as a political foothold for national agendas.

Lawsuits at the Taxpayer’s Expense: The fallout from the Boise Police Department under former Chief Ryan Lee has cost the city dearly. Nearly $850,000 in settlements for one officer, additional confidential payouts, and even more litigation revived this month. Instead of direct leadership, City Hall turned to lawyers and settlements, a strategy that drains our coffers and solves little.

Flags as Division, Not Unity: When City Hall chooses which cause flags to fly, it is not inclusion. It is favoritism. On the day of the flag protest, I went down at 6 a.m. as a pseudo correspondent for KIDO Radio with Kevin Miller. I held a simple sign: This flag is your flag. This flag is our flag. The point was clear: the Idaho State flag already represents us all.

Listeners of the Kevin Miller show on 580KIDOam radio came down to stand with me, pick up the sign, and share in the message. Even a member of the Attorney General’s office stopped by to say hello. That kind of support highlighted the reality: this was not a fringe position. Many Boise residents want their leaders to represent all under one flag. But it also underscored the divisive nature of the mayor’s gesture. For every supporter, there was someone in opposition, neighbors pitted against neighbors over a flagpole. Later that afternoon, when CBS2 aired my interview, my words were reframed to make it look like “our flag” excluded others. I had made it clear on camera that this issue had nothing to do with LGBTQ rights and everything to do with professional leadership, governance, and the civic responsibility of government. Yet CBS2 still painted me as anti-LGBTQ, twisting a message of civic unity into a narrative of division.

And that is the deeper concern: this was not just about a flag. It was a pure example of the mayor using a civic building, a taxpayer-funded institution meant to represent everyone, to promote a national political agenda. To many, it looked less like civic responsibility and more like self-promotion, an attempt to align Boise with national headlines and position herself for a larger stage. That is what happens when civic symbols are politicized: they stop uniting and start splitting the city in two.

The Blind Police Investigation Perhaps the most troubling example was the mayor’s sweeping investigation of the Boise Police Department. It was launched as a probe into “systemic racism,” yet it was triggered by a single account from a private forum, not a verified pattern across the department. Instead of addressing the matter directly, McLean turned it into a full-scale inquiry that consumed $500,000 to $750,000 of taxpayer money. The result? Nothing. No findings that justified the cost, the scope, or the public suspicion cast over an entire department. A qualified leader would have begun with her own eyes and ears, walking into the department, meeting with officers, and gauging the culture firsthand. Instead, Boise got a blind attack that looked more like a bid for national attention than a step toward genuine accountability. That by itself should alarm every Boise resident: when half a million dollars can be spent to “come up with nothing,” we are not being led. We are being used.

The Pattern: Put it together and the picture is clear: Boise is not being governed responsibly. It is being staged as a political platform, one that advances a national agenda while leaving many of its own citizens unrepresented.

The Tip of the Iceberg: If these lawsuits, flag controversies, and costly investigations are what we see above the surface, then what should worry Boise residents even more is what we do not see. A city run with this much divisiveness and disregard for civic balance likely has far more brewing beneath the waterline. Contracts, hiring, backroom decisions, how many of those choices are being made with the same partisan instinct rather than with civic responsibility? Given the brazen nature of these visible decisions, it is hard to believe this is the full picture. Boise taxpayers deserve to know whether these are isolated missteps or just the most visible cracks in a much larger iceberg.

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions. But Boise should not have to walk it.