Idaho lawmakers have 'targeted' Boise, mayor says. She's pushing back

Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman on Apr 18, 2025

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BOISE, Idaho — At a Monday-night Bernie Sanders rally in Nampa, the crowd roared its approval when a speaker alluded to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean’s decision to keep flying an LGBTQ+ Pride flag outside of City Hall — despite a new state law banning the display of non-”official” flags.

But McLean’s move prompted a letter of rebuke from the state’s attorney general and an influx of complaints to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office.

McLean told the Idaho Statesman that the city would not take down the Pride flag because the law’s lack of an enforcement provision meant that flying it “is not a crime.”

“That flag, we’ve flown for nearly a decade. It has not been an issue in Boise,” McLean told the Statesman on Thursday. “In fact, it is beloved in Boise, because it is a symbol of how we put people first, and everyone in this community matters.”

Days after the law took effect, the city also hung a second unofficial — and therefore illegal — flag at City Hall in honor of organ donation month, displaying the flags prominently on social media.

McLean acknowledged that the city had received letters from Attorney General Raul Labrador and Sheriff Matt Clifford. Clifford’s admonished lawmakers for passing a bill without “clear direction” for enforcement and said his staff was struggling to handle the volume of residents’ complaints about the flag.

“We’re taking (the letters) into consideration and analysis,” McLean said. But “at the end of the day, they, too, were clear that this law isn’t enforceable, and it’s not a crime.”

The flags have become a flashpoint amid the longstanding tension between the heavily Democratic city and overwhelmingly Republican state Legislature. Labrador told McLean in his letter that lawmakers were already discussing adding enforcement provisions to the law next year.

McLean has also pushed back, to varying degrees, against other bills this year that, she said, specifically targeted Boise.

After Gov. Brad Little signed into law a bill to ban homeless encampments in large Idaho cities, McLean’s office released a statement repeatedly referring to it as “the Galloway law,” referring to sponsor Sen. Codi Galloway, R-Boise. On Thursday, McLean used the same language, seeking to distance the city from the law, which will require Boise police to double down on patrolling homeless encampments rather than focusing on the other initiatives, such as ticketing speeding drivers, that Boise residents have sought, she said.

“I want to be clear on that one,” she said. “Boiseans have demonstrated time and time again that we’re not going to make the mistakes of other cities. We’re going to collaborate, we’re going to innovate, we’re going to partner to come up with long-term solutions to prevent and end homelessness. This bill doesn’t help us do that.”

Lawmakers for years have been at odds with Boise leaders over the city’s approach to homelessness, affordable housing and transit, among other issues. Though lawmakers often express support for the idea of “local control,” they have increasingly sought to curtail local governments’ powers, limiting local increases to property taxes or minimum wages, and blocking cities from banning plastic bags, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.

On Tuesday, Jamie Heinzerling, the director of the city clerk’s office, offered to speed up a presentation she was giving to Boise’s City Council about the effects of a new state law moving responsibility for child care licensing in the state’s hands. Boise, along with several other Idaho cities, does its own licensing and has held city day cares to a more stringent standard than what the state requires.

McLean urged Heinzerling to take her time explaining the implications of the law, including laying out the locally popular initiatives to increase child care access that it would end.

“Oh, you don’t need to talk fast,” McLean said, to laughter. “The public needs to understand.”

She told the Statesman that “it’s very important that we’re transparent about the good work we are doing to deliver for our residents, particularly when that is taken away by new bills in the Legislature.”

“I don’t want Boiseans to think that Boise doesn’t care about licensing and we’re just giving it up,” she added. “I want to be clear that this is not our decision.”