Church could have avoided a lawsuit

Dear editor:

What an absolute shame to waste around $81,000 of the taxpayers' precious money over something that could have be resolved over a cup of coffee.

There was no intent by the mayor and city council to discriminate against the No-Limits Christian Ministries church, or any other church for that matter over the past 11 years, by requiring them to obtain a Conditional Use Permit as required by City Ordinance.

They, along with many small communities, knew nothing of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUlPA") of 2000. Should they have? Certainly. Should they and their legal counsel be a tad embarrassed? Sure. Should their ignorance of that law generate a $75,000 lawsuit resulting in the waste of $81,000 of the taxpayer's precious money? Absolutely not!

The honorable thing that former Mayor Joe McNeal could have done when he got involved in this and learned of that law was to pick up the phone and call Mayor Rist. The conversation should have gone something like this:

"Good morning Mayor Rist, this is Mayor McNeal. Could I come down to your office for a cup of coffee? I just learned that under my former administration, and now yours, that we've been requiring churches over the past 10 years to obtain Conditional Use Permits, and that is against RLUIPA enacted back in 2000. We've been handling this wrong for quite awhile, and I am equally to blame. Can we have a cup of coffee and talk about how to quickly fix it? "

That would have been the honorable thing for Joe to do. But nope, let's file a lawsuit instead, claiming a violation of rights as defined in the First Amendment (freedom of religion and assembly), Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection under the law) of the Constitution, and parallel rights under RLUIPA, rub the mayor and council's face in it, and waste $81,000 the city doesn't have.

Who lost here? Not Mayor Rist and the council. The losers are the taxpayers and city programs that are either cut back or cut out. And Joe claims to love Mountain Home and its citizens? I think not. Joe and his cronies are the ones that should be embarrassed and most certainly ashamed of themselves.

What a waste of money over something that could have been resolved over a cup of coffee.

Also, if you don't think that Joe was involved in this from the start, take a look at the city's counteroffer letter to the Chicago law firm dated June 23. It can be found at: http://churchandstateidaho.blogspot.com/

Alan Bermensolo

Editor's note: The specific references to former mayor McNeal are contained in the city's counter offer found on the website at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_JEuafp0RlbM.... The website was created by Councilman Geoff Schroeder, who was one of the named defendants in the lawsuit, and represents primarily his perspective on the case.