August 3, 2026
Pocatello–In a Facebook post published last Friday, local government watchdog group Pocatello for Accountable Government Entities claimed that Bannock County Commissioner Jeff Hough “leaked [a] privileged document to [a] special interest [group].” The full post says:
Bannock County COMMISSIONER HOUGH leaked a draft of the Land Use & Development Ordinance (LUDO) protected by ATTORNEY CLIENT privilege to 3rd party SPECIAL INTEREST, Balanced Rock Power, through their attorney, Dustin Manwaring. Balance Rock Power is the solar energy company that was seeking a land use permit in 2024 for the 2400-acre Harmon Solar Project. A countywide ban on large-scale solar projects was put in place by a vote of 2-1 (Hough dissenting) in 2024.
The attached email documents the 06/09/26 LEAK of the protected draft Land Use & Development Ordinance (LUDO) legislation.
Many private citizens had requested and were denied this Ordinance draft (including a representative of P.A.G.E.) due to the County’s determination it was protected by ATTORNEY CLIENT privilege.
The Planning Director reported in the 07/14/26 Commissioners meeting that they had received feedback comments from some SPECIAL INTEREST group(s). All feedback was to be reviewed by the Planning Council at a yet-to-be scheduled public hearing meeting. A record request is pending to verify the quantity and content of this feedback – anticipated to be specific to the Ordinance language.
COMMISSIONER HOUGH’S LEAK on 06/09/26 provided the SPECIAL INTEREST early access to the 168-page Ordinance draft – a full 5 weeks (or 35 days) before the Commissioners (as a whole) were apprised of the “publics’ knowledge” of the LEAK essentially forcing the early release of the Ordinance draft to the general public on 07/14/26 with a 15-day comment period. WATCH the video linked below.
Had the leak not become public knowledge, the draft document would have eventually been published with a minimum of 15-day review for public comment prior to a public hearing at a future yet-to-be published date, many weeks after SPECIAL INTERESTS’ access.
COMMISSIONER HOUGH exercised extremely poor judgment in this behind-the-scenes PREFERENTIAL treatment of this special-interest group and compromised the integrity of the process that County Planning and Development Services has worked extremely hard to protect with the ultimate goal of ensuring a legal and fair process for all parties. COMMISSIONER HOUGH’S action opens the door to the perception and belief he has been working behind the scenes to ensure a document favorable to SPECIAL INTERESTS.
The public has the right (and duty) to monitor the actions of their government. It took a few emails and some strongly worded advocation to receive this first responsive record from Bannock County. Additional responsive documents are pending.
The public should ask – had this email NOT (accidentally?) been provided in a public record request creating public knowledge, would this information have been ethically disclosed to the public?
Elected officials should be open to listening to all parties rather than favoring SPECIAL INTERESTS when creating ordinances. COMMISSIONER HOUGH has clearly displayed his allegiances do not lie with the general public and, in our opinion, he cannot be trusted to serve the public as a neutral and unbiased contributor to this Ordinance decision moving forward.
This betrayal of trust and abuse of power is not acceptable from any elected official and yet another example of why the public does not trust their government.
COMMISSIONER HOUGH should RECUSE himself from any further participation, deliberation, or vote in the matter of the Ordinance.
To weigh in on this matter, you can contact the Commissioners and cc: the County Legal Department with your views.
WATCH THE 07/14/26 VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGjAIwwJxqc&t=1809s
P.A.G.E. reached out to Commissioner Hough requesting a response; he gave the following statement:
“As a commissioner, I’ve learned that you can’t control every headline or accusation thrown your way—you can only control your own conduct and your commitment to the process.
My job is to listen to every voice that comes to the table and help build the best policy for Bannock County. No single draft, no early feedback, no outside group—whether a solar company, an agricultural association, or a neighborhood coalition—gets preferential standing in this process. Every page of this 168-page ordinance belongs to the public. That’s why we posted it online and extended the review period: to make sure every resident has the time and space to scrutinize this document and shape the final vote in the light of day.”
The current proposed solar project in Downey is 4400 acres including 1800 acres of BLM land and for comparison Malad city is about 1000 acres Preston is about 5000 acres and Pocatello is approximately 20,000 acres so its 4 times the size of Malad and about the same size as Preston and 20% the size of Pocatello that is enormous now think about that for more than a second because it will take a minute to wrap your head around that . The overwhelming majority of the south Bannock county is opposed to this project .