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Trustee district bill created

by MAUREEN DOLAN
Staff Writer | March 11, 2010 8:00 PM

COEUR d'ALENE - A bill aimed at creating sub-districts for Idaho community college trustees was printed Thursday by the House Education Committee.

Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, introduced the legislation that calls for the establishment of trustee districts within each community college taxing district, and requires that trustees live within the areas they represent.

"The purpose is to assure district-wide representation on the governing body that determines tax levies, expends public money and acts on other management issues of these publicly owned educational institutions," Henderson told the committee.

The change is fundamental to the concept of representative government, Henderson said in a telephone interview from Boise. It would make the governing structures of North Idaho College, the College of Southern Idaho and the College of Western Idaho consistent with county commissions, school boards, highway district commissions and the state Legislature.

"They all impose specific residency requirements on candidates for election," Henderson said.

Henderson called the omission of such a requirement an oversight in the existing statute that guides the creation of community college districts.

For North Idaho College, the proposed legislation would create five sub-districts determined by the NIC board in cooperation with the Kootenai County clerk and the county elections office. Designation of the districts, each with equal population, would follow an analysis of the 2010 Census data and the state's revision of legislative districts.

"North Idaho College is very important to Kootenai County and North Idaho," Henderson said. "The more diverse trustee representation that will result from the use of sub-districts should enhance public confidence in its programs and financial management. Everyone will gain with this change."

John Martin, spokesman for NIC, said college officials saw a draft of the bill for the first time last week.

"Our initial reaction, since Rep. Henderson has not talked directly to us, is we're not sure what he's trying to fix because the system has worked pretty well in Kootenai County and for NIC for the last 76 years," Martin said.

When legislators created each of the existing community college districts, Martin said they did it the same way, without trustee sub-districts.

"We'll have to see what comes up in debate," Martin said.

The new law would be effective Jan. 1, but will not impact trustee elections until 2014.

For community colleges in the south, with taxing districts that comprise more than one county, the new legislation guarantees one trustee per county.

Henderson said he worked with representatives from CSI and CWI while drafting the bill.

Rep. Marge Chadderdon, R-Coeur d'Alene, supported introduction of the legislation.

In a phone interview from Boise, Chadderdon said she thinks it's important for all areas of the county to have representation on the NIC board.

The current trustees reside in Coeur d'Alene or Hayden Lake, while all Kootenai County residents are taxed by the college.

"The original founding of NIC was very Coeur d'Alene-centered," Chadderdon said. "As we are growing, we have the Workforce Training Center in the Post Falls area, and now we're probably going to have the Pro-Tech division in the Rathdrum area. We've become a little more diverse."