The list, posted on this site yesterday of the NIC Foundation members, triggered a question in my mind because many of them seem connected with Mt. West Bank.

Let’s look at the lists, side by side, and you can draw your own conclusions:  

NIC FOUNDATION:

President – David Wold
Vice Pres. – Timothy Komberec
Secretary – Priscilla Bell
Treasurer – Michelle Schini Mitchell
Directors: Michael Armon, Sandi Bloem, R. Romer Brown, Mike Chapman, R. James Coleman, Bradley Dugdale, James Eisses, Mark Fisher, Kimber Gates, John Goedde, Jon Hippler, Stephen Meyer, Claudia Miewald, David Pelz, Ben Rolphe, C. Richard Sams, Bill Tarnasky, Sue Thilo, James M. Thorpe, Tom Torgerson, Marc Wallace, Josephine Webb, Parker Woodall, and John Young

This information came from the Foundation’s 2008 Annual Report Form submitted by Rayelle Anderson (Executive Director) to the Idaho Secretary of State.

MT. WEST BANK BOARD:

DIRECTOR    STEVEN  TESTER
DIRECTOR    DON  SHEPHERD
DIRECTOR    TOM  THILO
DIRECTOR    MIKE  PATANO
DIRECTOR    CHARLES  NIPP
DIRECTOR    STEVE  MEYER
DIRECTOR    TOM  GIBSON
DIRECTOR    JIM  ENGLISH
DIRECTOR    BRADLEY  DUGDALE
DIRECTOR    DENNIS  DOWNER
DIRECTOR    MARCIA  JOHNSON
DIRECTOR    JON  HIPPLER
TREASURER    RONN  RICH
SECRETARY    CAROL  DORRIS
PRESIDENT    RUSS  PORTER

Information from Idaho Sec. of State web site

I count four Mountain West Bank Board Directors who are linked to the NIC Foundation.  That means 1/3 of the Mt. West Bank Directors are connected to the NIC Foundation.  Here are the four:  Jon Hippler, CEO of Mountain West Bank, Brad Dugdale, well-known investment guy, Dr. Tom Thilo, who is married to Sue Thilo, and Steve Meyer*.

*(Steve, of course, is also married to NIC College Trustee Judy Meyer.  He owns a major real estate development company called, Parkwood Properties with Charlie Nipp who sits on the LCDC.  Steve also employs CdA city councilman Mike Kennedy, who is the full-time President of Steve’s technical communications business, InterMax.  Mike got the job after he was elected to city council.  Steve was one of Mike’s major contributors.)

Parkwood Properties owns many / most of the big medical buildings around the hospital, where they lease space to medical groups and government agencies.  Some people think Steve and Charlie are major players behind the Ed Corridor push; they think Parkwood will build the college buildings on the tax-free, publicly purchased land and then turn around and lease the buildings back to the colleges.  Taxpayers will pay for the land and the lease payments!  Then private businesses will lease out retail space for Taco Time or Starbucks, etc. and not have to pay property tax either, so the taxpayers will just pay more and more.  And nearby businesses on “regular” land will face unfair competition.

Your thoughts?