‘Outwardly discriminating’: Mountain Home official tried to halt city funds for shelter

Mountain Home City Councilor Daniel Brennan defended himself this week after he made four motions to try to reject or stall funding for a domestic violence shelter, saying he had concerns for the shelter’s support of those who “identify as female.”

The motions played out during a council meeting on Sept. 26. None of Brennan’s efforts were seconded, and other council members, as well as the city attorney, were critical of the attempts to scuttle a previously approved service agreement to provide $5,000 to the Elmore County Domestic Violence Council.

According to the organization’s website, the Elmore County Domestic Violence Council serves all individuals, “with no relation to education, sexual orientation, marital status, gender, national origin, race, age, relation or color.”

In an email to the Idaho Statesman, Brennan said he motioned to deny the funds because he was listening to constituents.

“My comments and subsequent vote about withholding a monetary payment relating to an agreement from the city to the Elmore County Domestic Violence Council came out of concerns brought to me by numerous citizens throughout a several month period after they heard comments from the director of the council that they allow anyone identifying as a female to be served by their shelter,” he said in the statement.

Brennan said a person identifying as a woman could pose a safety concern.

“The Evans Harmony House (shelter) is a secure facility to keep women and children safe,” he said in an email. “Understanding that this is a shelter for women and children, I wanted to make sure that they are not housing adult biological males with biological women and children at a time in which they are most vulnerable.”

Brennan said he supports shelters that protect women and children from domestic violence, and would support a separate shelter for men experiencing domestic violence.

Mountain Home City Attorney Paul Fitzer said during the meeting that denying funds to the organization because of its open-gender policy would be discriminatory.

“You’re putting on the record something that is outwardly discriminating against a group that is legally protected,” Fitzer said.

Brad Stokes, who has served on the Mountain Home council for about three years, said the service agreement for the shelter offers support to all domestic violence victims.

“Government entities should never be discriminatory towards any individual on a basis of gender and sex,” Stokes told the Statesman in a phone interview.

Brennan’s final motion on the funding was to table the discussion, but the other three members of the Mountain Home City Council did not support it.

“I believe that everyone has a right to a safe place, regardless of sexual identity,” Brennan told the Statesman. “I also feel that victims of physical and sexual violence may not want to be in a place of safety with a stranger of the opposite biological sex. I understand that the shelter has secured hotel rooms in the past as a short-term option, of which I totally support for any individual, at any time.

“My motions were an attempt to learn more about the shelter’s safety procedures. Ultimately, the remainder of the Council members decided to trust the unknown practices and procedures of the shelter rather than verify the same at the time of our vote.”

Becky Garvey, the only woman on the Mountain Home council, said that the Elmore County Domestic Violence Council plays a vital role in the community and that government entities should not let biases intervene.

“While you may not agree with a person’s way of life, I feel like that doesn’t mean that we just completely shut off an organization that primarily helps women and children,” she said in a phone interview. “A human is a human no matter their race, gender or what they identify as.”

Brennan is in his second term on the City Council, having served for about five years. He is an Idaho State Police trooper, patrolling Ada County, according to the Transparent Idaho website. A prominent program backed by ISP is the STOP Violence Against Women Act, whose goal is to support the development and enhancement of victim services in cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence.