Council approves resolution to use Ada County Prosecutor's Office for criminal prosecution; one abstention

Garden City on Monday approved Resolution 1258-26, authorizing the city to obtain criminal-prosecution services from the Ada County Prosecutor's Office.

The city's legal adviser (speaker 4) told the council there is a letter from Ada County Prosecutor Jen Bennett in the meeting packet and said the proposed contract amount is lower this year compared with the prior year. According to the adviser's summary of the packet, the prior-year figure for 2026 was listed as $2,214,006.98 and the current-year figure was listed as $202,007.23; the adviser noted the packet language and recommended the county contract be approved.

The legal adviser also described the contract's section 1.3 (referred to in the transcript as a "Waddam's clause") and summarized its discretion for handling cases: "which says I can keep things in house if I want to, or if the police ask me to, I can keep it in house. Or if I just feel like going to trial, that's all in my discretion." The adviser praised Ada County Prosecutor Jen Bennett's office for its work and said there was no reason to return prosecution work to the Boise City attorney's office.

A motion to approve Resolution 1258-26 was made and the council approved the measure on a roll call vote; the transcript records Council member Page as abstaining while other members voted yes.

The contract text and the packet cited by the adviser (page 69 of the meeting packet, per the transcript) should be consulted for exact billing and scope language; the transcript contains numeric formatting that appears inconsistent in places and the city packet is the authoritative source for contract figures.