Drama On State Street: This is the Hill That Senate Pro Tem Chuck Winder Said He’ll “Die On”
The 2024 legislative session ended with a lot of drama. Two big private sector deals, both involving the State of Idaho and Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Winder, fell apart. Both deals, determined not to be in the best interest of Idaho tax payers, were undone by the legislature. This was done over the antics and objections of Senator Pro Tempore Chuck Winder, who said "I will die on this hill" in his attempt to push these deals through. Why expend all your political capital on one deal? Is there a conflict of interest?
One was the attempted purchase of the University of Phoenix (a bailout in reality) by the University of Idaho's president Scott Green for $685 million. Senator Winder tried to rescue this deal with Senate Bill 1450, which died on the Senate floor on a 14 to 19 vote.
The other deal was the $51.75 million buyout of the Idaho Department of Transportation's headquarters 44 acre property on State Street in Boise which was declared to be surplus by the Idaho Transportation Board at their August 5, 2022 meeting. That action served to transfer the property to the Department of Administration for either disposal or sale to another state agency. The opportunity for another state agency to buy the property was extended for only 7 days, which is not a reasonable timeframe. Could it be that insiders wanted to shop around a private deal?
The property was appraised at $38 million, agreed to be purchased for $51.75 million and a year later was said to be worth $102 million. It was probably the most desirable Boise property for sale to real estate developers, yet the Transportation Board said it was "surplus property." Idaho Code at 51-331 states surplus property is "no longer useful or usable..." yet this property is prime real estate and has many potential uses, as was proven by those who bid on the property and prepared a master plan.
On November 9, 2023, the Legislature's Finance and Appropriations Committees (JFAC) toured the ITD headquarters building. On the tour, Idaho Department of Administration Director Steven Bailey told legislators, “In September, the state sold the property to a joint venture between The Pacific Companies, The Hawkins Companies and FJ Management…. for $51.7 million." Legislators were lead to believe the sale to be a done deal, which frustrated many as the legislature had no voice in the process.
Later it came out that the deal was never signed and no earnest money had changed hands. Upon that realization, legislators started looking at alternatives. House Bill 409 was a result of these investigations, and on January 23, 2024 the House voted 70 to 0 to pass the bill. House Bill 409 was going to create a separate review process for such a property to insure all alternatives were considered.
House Bill 409, when it was sent to the Senate, never got a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee. That committee is controlled by the Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Winder. Reportedly, it was Winder that directed HB409 to be placed in the committee drawer. Many Senators thought a bill that passed the House on a 70 to 0 vote should at least get a hearing in the Senate.
Senate Pro Tempore Chuck Winder makes his living as a commercial real estate professional, and has so for decades. Senator Winder is a ‘Director’ at Cushman & Wakefield’s Boise office. You can read about Senator Winder’s real estate qualifications here.
Senator Winder’s son, Dave Winder, is also a ‘Director’ at Cushman & Wakefield’s Boise office, and you can read about Dave’s qualifications here.
The senior Winder, Chuck, has been active in Boise real estate for most of his adult life and is well known in that community. Senator Winder also served as chairman of the Idaho Transportation Board before he was a member of the Senate.
Winder should also be well known to the Boise based Hawkins Companies, one of the three joint venture buyers to the ITD 44 acre headquarters property. The Hawkins Companies just closed a $56 million financing deal for a multi-family housing project in Boise, and Cushman & Wakefield brokered that financing deal.
At no time in the multiple bill process concerning the sale of the Idaho Transportation Department’s headquarters property did Senator Chuck Winder declare that he had a conflict of interest. Yet his Boise office of Cushman & Wakefield just closed the $56 million financing deal noted above for one of the joint venture partners of the ITD headquarters purchase.
What was the duration of the negotiations on this $56 million funding package? Were either of the Winders involved in that $56 million financing deal? Was there a conflict? Idaho’s Attorney General should investigate. Senate Rule 39h requires that a Senator declare a conflict whenever a vote on the Senate floor may have an impact on that Senator. The Senator is welcome to vote, but he just must first declare the conflict. It is the practice of Idaho Senators to declare a conflict when there might be only a perception of such.
But not only did Hawkins Companies have a connection to Cushman & Wakefield, so did another of the three joint venture partners, FJ Management. FJ Management is a new owner of a commercial property next to Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City. Just this spring, FJ Management cleared the property and is currently working with Cushman & Wakefield’s Ogden Utah office to develop a highest and best use for the property. The state of Utah is covered by both the Boise office and the Ogden office of Cushman & Wakefield. Did either of the Winder Directors, father or son, have a relationship with FJ Management? Its a reasonable question to ask.
When bids were offered for the Idaho Transportation Department’s 44 acre headquarters property, each bidder offered a master plan concept as to how they would develop the property. Elements of the master plans from the 9 bidders included 1,000 to 1,500 apartment living units, some of which would be low cost housing, 150 to 200 condo's or town house homes, 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of commercial space and so on. Of the potential 1,000 to 2,000 end users, at least a handful of them would likely find their way to Chuck Winder’s office or Dave Winder’s office. This is enough of an appearance of a conflict for other Senators to make a declaration under the 39h rule. Yet Senator Chuck Winder never stood up on the Senate floor to do so.
Senate Rule 39H states:
“A Senator has the right to vote upon all questions before the Senate and to participate in the business of the Senate and its committees and, in so doing, the Senator is presumed to act in good faith and in the public interest. A Senator with a conflict of interest under applicable law shall, on the day of and before casting a vote on the Senate floor, disclose the conflict verbally or in writing to all members of the Senate present. The presiding officer shall ensure that such disclosure is entered upon the Journal....”
After HB409 got drawered, JFAC addressed the sale of the ITD headquarters property with HB723, an appropriations bill with intent language regarding the sale. This was a must pass bill as the entire Transportation Department would be dependent on funding provided by it.
After passing the House floor on a 35 to 34 vote, HB723 failed on the Senate floor with 16 senators voting yes and 19 senators voting no. The Senate spent almost two hours debating the bill. Senator Winder debated against this bill, but did not declare a conflict. In his attempt to kill this bill he even said “This is a hill I am willing to die on.” See the archived tape for Senate Chambers for March 28, 2024 at 2:39:00, 2:49:00 and 3:16:30.
At this late hour in the 2024 legislative session, a replacement bill to HB723 was needed because the Transportation Department still had holes in their budget. Senate Bill 1461 was quickly approved by JFAC and sent to the Senate. As this process took more than a day, and to cause the 2024 legislative session to end with a crescendo of drama, Senator Winder worked secretly with the Senate Parliamentarian to write a letter declaring SB 1461 in violation of Senate Rules.
Lieutenant Governor Scott Bedke, who is the President of the Senate, ruled that SB 1461 was out of order. Senate Majority leader Kelly Anthon challenged the ruling of the Chair, which challenge was ruled to have failed on a voice vote by Bedke. You can hear that voice vote achieved here, April 3, 2024 Senate Chambers at 4:01:15 and 4:05:50 and decide for yourself what the outcome really was. So yet another bill that would have undone the ITD headquarters property sale bit the dust.
It was Winder who stood up to debate against SB1461 and argued that the bill was out of order. But again, Winder did not declare a conflict according to Senate Rule 39h. In a similar situation, any other member of the Senate would have declared at least a potential conflict. Winder also broke tradition and did not forewarn anyone of his preplanned objection to the bill.
Finally, SB1461 was replaced by a hastily regrouping of JFAC who sent newly drafted House Bill 770 first to the House for their floor vote. House Bill 770 passed the House on a 37 to 31 vote. Upon arriving in the Senate, this time there was little debate, as that debate had already occurred on HB 723 and SB 1461 and the Senate Republican Caucus had just met in executive session for two hours. The Senate passed HB 770 on an 18 to 17 vote. The governor allowed HB770 to become law without his signature. By inserting policy language into a budget bill, the legislature overcame Winder’s "drawering" of HB409 and was able to undo the sale of the 44 acre ITD headquarters property.
One way or another, the Legislature was going to hang onto the 44 acre State Street property.
Finally, after Senator Winder burned up his entire store of political capital, and after the other Senators were ready to throw Winder out the window, for now, the 44 acres remains the property of the state of Idaho. HB770 provide $32 million dollars to renovate the headquarters building on the 44 acre property. By holding onto this property, another $56 million will be saved by retaining the existing concrete and asphalt testing labs, instead of building new labs at another location. We hope the voters of Legislative District 20 were paying attention to their Senator's seemingly top priorities.