Saundra McDavid

Eagle is a conservative city in a conservative state. Its leaders should be following conservative principles which mean less government regulation. But alas, they are not.

Eagle has the aviation community up in arms over its proposed ordinance that would prohibit helicopter landings in Eagle. It stemmed from a one time incident in which a resident landed a helicopter in a vacant lot next to a field in Two Rivers Subdivision. The perplexing question on many people’s mind is why is the City spending resources and time drafting an ordinance based upon a one time incident? Mayor Bandy claimed the pilot was inexperienced and thus an ordinance should be enacted to prohibit inexperienced recreational pilots from landing helicopters in Eagle. In reality, the pilot is a commercially licensed pilot with over 350 hours of flight time, who was flying with another commercially licensed pilot holding over 300 hours. Mayor Bandy then claimed that the FAA never investigated the incident. In fact, the incident was investigated, and the pilot found innocent of any wrongdoing. The FAA declared that there had been no safety violations. So it makes me wonder why Mayor Bandy continues to spend the city’s time and resources in drafting this ordinance. Could it be because the pilot in question has publicly expressed his dislike for Mayor Bandy?

Other council members expressed a desire for the ordinance to protect the residents against unsafe behavior. The council heard testimony from the Administrator of the Division of Aeronautics of the Idaho Department of Transportation that the FAA and the State of Idaho already regulate the safe flying of aircraft. Helicopters are aircraft regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Pilots go through strict licensing procedures in order to fly an aircraft, and abide by a thick code of Federal Regulations in the operation of the aircraft. Safe operation of the aircraft is regulated by the FAA and reckless flying is punished by the FAA. If a pilot is found flying recklessly he or she will be punished by both the state and federal government. Councilman Guerber claimed that he was told by a FAA representative that the FAA never enforces the rules. I’m sure the airlines that had their planes grounded last week would comment otherwise.

There are already agencies regulating the safety of aircraft flight. Eagle does not need to duplicate the efforts; especially in light of the fact that a city employee testified that the ordinance would not be enforced for the first offense. It would be used as a warning. My question is, then why have an ordinance if it will be selectively enforced?

Where is our city of Eagle headed when we begin making ordinances based upon personal vendettas disguised as public safety issues? Last year I wrote on another ordinance recently passed by Mayor Bandy (acting as Councilman), Senator Bastian (acting as Councilman) and Councilman Guerber. See “She’s Gone.” It appears the questionable motivations of using our city code to advance personal agendas did not end with the previous administration.

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