Ada County Commissioner Vernon L. Bisterfeldt represents all taxpayers on the Ada County Board of Commissioners. Commissioner Bisterfeldt was first elected to the board in January 1987, and served four additional terms until he retired in July 1999. Commissioner Bisterfeldt left retirement in 2001 when he was elected to the Boise City Council, where he served until 2011. After having been reelected to the Ada County Commissioners in November, 2010, he took office and began to serve a two-year term that commenced in January 2011.

 

Commissioner Bisterfeldt’s public service spans over a half-century, including service in the military, as a Boise City Council Member, an Ada County Commissioner, and 28 years as a member of the Boise Police Department.

 

He chaired the Ada Planning Association Board (now COMPASS), the Ada City-Council Emergency Management Board, and the Commissioners and Clerks Association of the Idaho Association of Counties. He is a founding member and first President of the Treasure Valley Partnership and co-founder of the Treasure Valley Hydrologic Study.

 

Commissioner Bisterfeldt has completed course work at Boise State University and the University of Virginia. He completed the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and graduated from the FBI Academy and the National Intelligence Academy. He taught at the Idaho Police Officers Standards and Training (POST) Academy and served as director of the City/County Vice and Intelligence Squad. 

 

He is a Police Medal of Honor winner and in 1999, he was honored by having the Vernon L. Bisterfeldt City-County Law Enforcement Building named for him. He is active in the Grandparents as Parents organizations.

 

He and his wife, Shirley, have three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.