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  Who is Behind the Sheriff's “Free” Helicopter.

  Jul 22, 2024

  Many questions have come up relating to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Helicopter.    In the first article, Questions about KCSO's  "Free" Helicopter, we consider the purposes of the Sheriff’s helicopter, and investigate other options for Search and Rescue and L.E. air support.  In this article we will look at the donors who are supporting KCSO's privately funded Air Support program, and try to understand their motivation for doing so.

  Private Foundations and Public Agencies

  NISGR has several concerns about the Sheriff’s helicopter program, but our main concern is that it is that private foundations attached to public, tax-payer supported agencies have a strong tendency to become vehicles for influence peddling.

  Thousands of public institutions throughout the United States have non-profit corporations attached to them by which wealthy donors fundraise on behalf of the public agency.   The major donors to these foundations are generally considered “philanthropists” whose private gifts benefit tax-payers, but in reality, wealthy elites often use their donation dollars to purchase influence over public officials and institutions.  This is a common practice.

  NISGR has exposed this type of systematic corruption of public agencies by private foundations in several other articles, most notably the Kootenai Health Foundation which recently took full control of the KH hospital and healthcare network;  and the NIC Foundation, which has long served as a shadow government for the college.

  Both NIC and Kootenai were both founded with public funds, and are supported primarily by tax-payers, yet the taxpayers have little say over how they are administered.  Instead, self-appointed, wealthy elites, who have bought their way into power call all the shots.   

  Because the Sheriff’s helicopter is associated with a privately controlled non-profit organization, and because the major donors are wealthy stakeholders, the risk that the Kootenai County Air Support Unit could serve as a conduit for undue influence over the Sheriff’s office is very real.   Several conflicts of interest among helicopter donors have already been identified, and who knows how many more may be found in the future.  

   

  Who are the Sheriff’s Helicopter Donors, and Why are they Donating? 

  At the February 28, 2023 BOCC meeting where the Helicopter program was discussed,  KCSO Lt. Mark Ellis presented a slide disclosing the major donors of the Helicopter Program.  They included:

  • Todd Stam of Aspen Homes
  • Terry Forester of Labor Consultants International
  • McIntire Family of Super One Foods (also of Hayden Urban Renewal Agency) 
  • Chris Findlay of Findlay Motors 
  • The Coeur d'Alene Tribe (Controlled by Casino)
  • An Anonymous Donor (Don Ahern)
  • Plummer Forest Products (Brinkmeyer Family, Idaho Forest Group)

  The anonymous donor is Don Ahern, a Las Vegas Hotel owner and billionaire, whom we will learn more about later. For now, let’s look at a few of the other major donors and try to determine what may have inspired their generosity.

  CDA Tribe—Law Enforcement Autonomy and a Rezone

  The CDA Tribe—which for financial purposes means the CDA Casino—is one of the major donors to the Helicopter program, and shortly after it donated $200K, Sheriff Norris began negotiations with the CDA tribe over who would have primary responsibility for patrolling land within the CDA reservation.  

  But there is more. The CDA tribe also requested a rezone of all rural land within reservation boundaries to agricultural, so that property owners would not be able to subdivide their land into parcels smaller than 20 acres. Even though this clearly violated the rights of existing property owners, Commissioner Mattare took up the tribe’s cause. 

  The entire episode involving the CDA Tribe donation to the helicopter fund has been thoroughly documented on Dan Wilson’s campaign website, and it demonstrates the problem of potential conflicts of interest among donors.

  There are several notable things about this case.   First, what the  CDA Tribe requested from the sheriff’s office was not additional resources, but rather for the cession of law enforcement authority.  It is significant that what some “special interests” want from the sheriff’s office is not more attention, but more autonomy.   It is also notable that, due to Mattare’s close relationship to Norris—helicopter donors may have undue influence over county commissioners as well as Sheriff Department officials. 

  Finally it is notable that two of the largest donors to the KC Deputy Sheriff's PAC,—yet another Norris Mattare front group,—are also located on Reservation land.  These woud be Black Rock Golf Course, and Black Rock Marina.    And coincidentially, the Findlay Motors family just happens to own over a dozen resort properties at Blackrock.    Why are the Findlays and Black Rock Golf Course so interested in supporting a Sheriff's Office that does NOT patrol their neighborhood.      

  Labor Consultants International—Low-paid, Foreign Workers  

  Another potential conflict of interest among helicopter donors, involves Terry Forester, CEO of Labor Consultants International.  LCI specializes in providing H-2A and H-2B visas for Idaho employers who want to hire foreign laborers for seasonal work.   In Kootenai County, this would include tourism and hospitality, forestry, construction, and landscaping. 

  What does any of this have to do with the Sheriff’s office?  Well illegal immigration is a very controversial issue among Kootenai residents so Norris needs to sound “tough” on illegals to please his constituents.  But at the same time he needs to be supportive of local corporations who hire seasonal foreign workers to please his donors.   The problem, of course, is that temporary work visas for low-paid workers, facilitate illegal immigration, depress wages, and take jobs away from Americans.

  How does Norris manage to balance these opposing goals?  In his March 28 Testimony to the Idaho legislature, Norris spoke in favor of H 753, a bill that would supposedly provide “more tools to combat illegal immigration”, and had this to say (time-stamp 2:50)”:

  “We need to make it comfortable for people who come here legally, and very uncomfortable for people who come here illegally.   I'm very much in support of the H-1, H-2A,  H-2B (guest worker) programs that the federal government has.  We have many employers that take advantage of them."  

  So Norris not only provides Forester and his clients reassurance that he will not go after local companies that harbor illegal immigrants, he commends the H-1 and H-2 visa programs.    And how much does anyone want to bet that Plummer Forest Products, also a helicopter donor, is an H-2B customer of Labor Consultants International?

  Las Vegas Billionaires and HURA Love Helicopters.   But WHY?  

  Now we get to the really fun and speculative stuff.    It’s not to hard to see how the CDA Tribe, Labor Consultants International, and Plummer Forest Products benefit from having a compliant Sheriff, but why does Don Ahern, a Las Vegas Billionaire whose primary residence is Henderson, Nevada, want to fund a law-enforcement helicopter for Kootenai County? 

  We love mysteries and this is a big one.   Let’s follow up on some clues.

  We will start the story with a seemingly unrelated event—the proposed expansion of Hayden’s Urban Renewal Agency (HURA)’s District. (Randy McIntire, another helicopter donor, happens to be on HURA). 

  Astute observers could not fail to notice that, in addition to already developed properties along Government Way that were needed to improve intersections, the HURA expansion proposal included two undeveloped properties north of Lancaster, far away from the city center, with no explanation for why they were included.  This article discusses the details of the proposed expansion, and explains why the inclusion of the properties north of Lancaster are probelmatic.

  When the city of Hayden held an open house to discuss the expansion in late 2023, several curious residents attended, and asked for an explanation of why these properties were included in the district.  However, city officials stonewalled questioners and refused to provide direct answers.  And their behavior was so peculiar and defensive, that at the following city Council meeting, a Hayden property owner commented on their strange and suspicious evasiveness.    

  So who owns these properties, what do they plan to do with them, and why are Hayden officials so tight-lipped?   A little investigation showed that one of the properties north of Lancaster had previously been owned by KCSO helicopter donor Todd Stam, but was sold in 2022 to RAD Properties, LLC of Boise.   

  At the same time, RAD Properties LLC, bought up several other parcels in the area, including 75 acres directly adjacent to the Airport and Shriners Club on Lancaster, which were already included in the HURA’s district.   So Rad Properties appears to have big plans for Hayden.  

  And who owns RAD Properties LLC, currently registered at 7126 W. Victory Road, in Boise?   Let’s take a look!

  Ahern Rentals,  Snorkel, and Extreme manufacturing, all happen to be owned by Don Ahern, Las Vegas Billionaire, anonymous donor to the Sheriff's helicopter program, and friend  and major donor to both Bob Norris and Bruce Mattare.   

  And not only did Ahern donate generously to the helicopter program, he recently donated over three thousand dollars to Robert Norris's campaign, not only in his own name, but in the name of companies he owns, including Xtreme Manufacturing ($1000, March 18), and the CEO of Xtreme Cubes, Brandon Main ($1000, March 21).       What a coincidence!

  HURA, Ahern, Rock and Robinson

  But the tangled web of special deals, for special donors gets more complicated yet.   Erik Rock, "Man on a Mission", recently released a short candidate interview with Norris.  But who exactly is Erik Rock?  None other than the son of multi-millionaire, Alan Rock, founder of Consignment furniture, Norris donor, and Ahern business partner.  (RAD stands for Rock-Ahern Development).  The Rocks own most of the HURA property at the corner of US-95 and Lancaster, and have sold key parcels of to Don Ahern.   In fact almost all the property West of US-95 is owned by the Rocks, the Aherns, or Kirk Robinson, yet another Las Vegas millionaire in the Norris/Mattare circle.

  So what is going in North Hayden near the Airport?   We still don’t know, but Norris, Mattare, Don Ahern, Todd Stam, and Randy McIntire,  all associated with the Sheriff's helicopter program seem to be "in on it,"  along with Norris/Mattare donors Rock and Robinson.  But whatever it is, they aren’t telling the citizens of Hayden, and Don Ahern, who owns a luxury hotel in Las Vegas, and recently sold his rental business for $2 Billion dollars cash, seems to have boatloads of money to throw around to help grease the skids. 

   

  The Sheriff, the Commissoner, and the Billionaire

  Both Norris and Mattare recently posted pictures of themselves at Ahern’s private fundraiser with Trump in Las Vegas only last month.  Ahern, of course, owns a luxury hotel in Las Vegas, and is an outspoken supporter of Trump who courts conservatives and evangelicals, and tries to pass himself off as a MAGA conservative.

  But billionaires who want to win the trust of MAGA patriots, need to be more careful in their business dealings.  The week after his private fundraiser for Trump, Ahern was sued for fraud over a deal in which Ahern Rentals raised millions of dollars for “mobile solar generators” that were never built, and then transferred millions of assets out of the company before selling it in 2022.

  Much of Ahern’s empire is built on special relationships, and backroom deals, and although he has not been indicted for criminal activity himself, his business partners in the solar generator scam, for which he is now being sued,  were convicted of wire-fraud and money laundering.  And the entire Ponzi scheme was based on ill-conceived, fraudulent Obama-era solar energy tax credits, that are an abomination to true conservatives.   

  And this is not the only example of Ahern wheeling and dealing with politicians, and trying to get a cut of federal largess.    In the final days of 2020, lame duck Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin tried to make a deal to spend millions of Idaho’s CARE Act funds, on “walk through disinfectant cubes” built by Xtreme Cubes, one of Ahern’s Nevada Corporations.

  The deal never went through, but the point is, this type wheeling and dealing with politicians to divvy up federal funds is the opposite of conservative, and Ahern is not the type of businessman that Norris and Mattare should be associating with.   And it is now obvious why he sought to maintain anonymity in his dealings with the Sheriff’s helicopter.

  Stam, Findlay, Forester, McIntire, and Rock are all local well-known businessmen, with long-standing ties to the community.  This does not absolve them from any charges of having suspicious motives for their donations, but they are, at least, actual residents with a real stake in the community.   

  But Ahern appears to be a Las Vegas power broker with billions of dollars to invest and a history of dubious deal-making.  His generous support the Sheriff’s helicopter, and of Norris and Mattare, and his involvement with HURA do not bode well.

  Having a billionaire sugar-daddy involved with the Kootenai Sheriff's Office will certainly do more harm than good, and Don Ahern is exhibit A, of why private foundations associated with public institutions should be looked upon with extreme skepticism.   

  And Stam, Findlay Motors, Forester, McIntire, Rock, Robinson, Trafficom (Dan Edwards), Blackrock Golf Club (John Magnuson), and Plummer Forest Products (Brinkmeyer Family), are exhibits B throught J.  

   

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