BOISE, Idaho — Boise City Council unanimously approved a $500,000 contract Tuesday night in relation to the investigation of a former police captain and the entire police department.
The half-a-million-dollar contract will allow the city to hire a law firm out of D.C, Steptoe and Johnson.
A former DOJ investigator at the firm will be hired to investigate if retired Boise Police Captain Matt Bryngelson’s views have affected the whole department or the city after the mayor says Bryngelson was participating in a conference with ties to 'white nationalist views' a few weeks ago.
Tuesday night at the City Council meeting, all members approved the spendy contract, but the price tag did raise some concerns.
“Because of the need for this investigation, I will support this motion but I want to be clear that I am concerned about the cost," council member Luci Willits said. "I think it does have sticker shock and because we didn’t have a comparison publicly, it's very difficult to know whether the price is fair or not.”
Other members felt the price was necessary.
"What brought this to life in terms of our need for taking this very very seriously warrants that we put a dollar amount to it and sometimes to needs to hurt in the pocketbook for people to take it seriously" council member Lisa Sanchez said.
Mclean said Steptoe and Johnson were her top pick for the investigation because of their background in investigating these types of issues.
The investigation should begin immediately and McLean made it clear last night that every contract through the City of Boise has to have an end date. So they chose the end of next year to be the end date, but results will most likely come earlier than that.
