Cd'A back in election suit

COEUR d'ALENE - The city of Coeur d'Alene is back in, the suit isn't dismissed and the next step could be a trial.

At his first hearing since being appointed to the election challenge suit, First District Judge Charles Hosack brought the city back into the case with City Council Seat 2 incumbent Mike Kennedy.

The reason, Hosack said, is because "it makes good sense."

"They have an interest in the lawsuit," he said before a crowded courtroom Friday afternoon. "The city has a role in the case where the remedy would be."

That remedy could be to redo the election or just throw out inadmissible votes as they pertain to the Seat 2 race, but the city should stand by as the case moves forward.

Jim Brannon, Seat 2 challenger, was happy with Hosack's decision.

"It's what we wanted all along," he said as he left the courtroom following the two-hour hearing. "The city provides the remedy."

But Hosack also squashed Starr Kelso's argument that the city didn't have the proper authority to contract Kootenai County to hold the election. He said he saw the merit in Kelso's argument that found an exemption prohibiting municipalities from contracting out the work, but it didn't hold up on the entirety of the statute.

But the real suit at hand pertains to the Seat 2 race, Hosack said, not the entire election. Nevertheless, the city should be there if a new election is ordered.

"It sounds to me he wants someone here from the government, the city, to effect a remedy, if or when it gets that far," said Mike Haman, the attorney representing the city, saying the city would be there for nominal purposes, pending a few follow up motions.

Hosack also denied Kennedy's motion to dismiss the suit. Kennedy was not in the courtroom.

Kennedy's attorney, Scott Reed, argued that it should have been based on the relief Brannon's suit sought: An entirely new election.

To have grounds to throw out all the legitimate votes with the inadmissible ones, wide range malconduct or fraud needs to be proven, Reed said. Other than a "minor" number of possible mistakes, Brannon's suit doesn't have the cause to seek that remedy.

Hosack agreed, saying that "democracy will come to a quick halt," if elections are overturned by a few possible mistakes. But, he added, the judge wasn't going to cut off any of the court's options before getting that far.

Hosack, who was re-appointed to the case by the Idaho Supreme Court, also declined to add another bond to the suit with the re-introduced city.

That leaves both counsels time to do more research and go over documents. They could file summary judgments - essentially present the judge their evidence - which Hosack could review and decide if the suit goes to trial.

If that step is skipped, the case could proceed straight to trial. A timeline for that is still up in the air.

The courtroom was filled with spectators during the roughly two hour proceeding.

City Attorney Mike Gridley agreed with Haman, saying he understood the court's view that the city should stick around pending any possible outcome.

The city has spent around $17,000 up to this point in the suit.

After filing the suit six months ago, Brannon suffered a number of setbacks early on. He was denied his request to appoint the winning City Council members, pending the litigation, rather than install them back in January. Then the court dropped the city from the suit and set his bond at $40,000, which Brannon said he wouldn't post.

Brannon then requested First District Judge Benjamin Simpson remove himself from the case, which was also denied.

Simpson did reduce the bond to $5,000 shortly after and then removed himself from the case.