Incumbent, newcomer running for ACHD Board’s Seat 3
This fall, voters have two candidates to choose from for the Ada County Highway District Commission’s Seat 3.
Miranda Gold, the incumbent and current commission president, is running for reelection to the seat against Sean Sundwall.
ACHD’s subdistrict 3 comprises the northernmost portion of the district, covering parts of Boise, Eagle, Garden City, and Star.
The commission’s fourth seat, which is being vacated by Kent Goldthorpe, is also up for election this year, with five candidates vying for one seat.
This year, voters in the entire county have the opportunity to vote for one candidate in each race up for election due to a law passed by the Idaho Legislature earlier this year requiring countywide elections for the highway district, as BoiseDev reported. The law also specifies that starting in 2028, races will be partisan, as BoiseDev reported.
BoiseDev caught up with Gold and Sundwall to learn about their views and what issues they’d prioritize if elected.
Gold: Project prioritization, major corridor improvements
Gold, 43, was first elected to the commission’s third seat in 2022. Previously, she was elected to the Eagle City Council in 2017. She said she’s seeking reelection to her ACHD commission seat to keep building on the work she’s done over the previous four years.
She said her work during that time has included shifting ACHD policy regarding how projects are prioritized. She pointed to a change in how the agency approaches its five-year plan, which outlines road projects the agency intends to accomplish over the next five years. The plan used to be “over-programmed,” showing way more projects than could be completed in that timeframe, she said. Now, the commission focuses on listing what it can finish in five years, and asks cities, school districts, and its other partners to share their top three priorities.
“I just want to continue that trajectory and continue to build relationships with our partner agencies so that we’re working in alignment, and share the same priorities and goals,” Gold said. “That’s really been my effort for these years, and I think that’s shown to be effective.”
Gold said that the agency also created a rapid project team over the past couple of years to focus on the quick implementation of neighborhood safety projects. She said she worked closely with Star Mayor Trevor Chadwick to get a new pedestrian crossing prioritized and completed at Star Rd. and W. Hidden Brook Dr.; the intersection of Lancaster Dr. and Hill Rd. in Boise will begin construction in October, she said.
At the same time, the agency is also focusing on prioritizing more major corridor improvements, she said. Both the City of Star and members of the public requested widening Star Rd. from Highway 44 to Chinden Blvd. She also pointed to projects along Linder Rd. and State St., as well as corridor enhancements beyond the area she represents.
“Other cities outside my subdistrict have also prioritized corridor improvements, and finding an approach to be able to advance the various types of projects the community is asking for and to keep those moving forward is definitely an accomplishment,” Gold said.
She credited her successes with being “deeply embedded in the community,” and working closely with local leaders, understanding where concerns are coming from, and where there are areas for improvement.
“Understanding the agency and how we work and how we spend our money and all of those details definitely sets me apart from (other candidates),” Gold said.
Sundwall: Traffic, improved integration
Sundwall, 53, said he believes that local politics is where decisions are made that affect people on a daily basis.
Sundwall said he’s an insurance agent, operating one business in western Washington and planning to open one in the Treasure Valley. He served on the Snoqualmie City Council in Washington State for four years. Now a resident of Star, when he thought about getting involved in politics, he wanted to address traffic.
“I just think it’s being mismanaged, mishandled, and so I said, ‘I can do better. I’m going to throw my hat in the ring’” for ACHD commissioner, he said.
Sundwall said ACHD should focus on building roads that move people and commerce. He said it took legislation to require ACHD to spend money on projects that prioritize vehicle traffic over bike and other kinds of traffic. He pointed to a 2025 law that sent the highway district back to the drawing board for a State St. project that would have reduced a section of the roadway from four lanes to three to add bike lanes, wider sidewalks, and bus pullouts. The law says highway districts can’t reduce lanes of traffic when roadways are reconstructed, as BoiseDev reported.
“The state had to step in and say, ‘ACHD, you’re not using funds as they’re designed,’” Sundwall said. “We need commissioners who are focused on moving traffic and not on ideological pet projects focused on solving problems for a comparative few.”
Sundwall said he also wants to see ACHD work better with cities. He said he has met with four out of five of the county’s mayors to discuss this, except for Boise Mayor Lauren McLean. The mayors he spoke with “would like to see better integration with ACHD,” he said.
If elected, he said he would meet with McLean, but feels that attention needs to be given evenly to projects across the county.
Sundwall also called for more transparency on ACHD spending. If elected, he said he would release a report “five minutes after taking office” detailing how dollars are spent and where in the county.
He also questioned the growth of ACHD’s budget, saying the budget had grown 75% since 2022.
“There may be a time when we need to go to voters and say we need more money, but I can’t fathom giving more money to ACHD,” Sundwall said. “The budget has grown 75% … and I don’t see 75% extra roads being built, or widened, or any of that.”
BoiseDev researched ACHD’s budget growth since Fiscal Year 2022. The budget has grown 73.31% since 2022, according to financial budgets approved by the Ada County Highway District in 2021 and 2026.