Hayes picks new official

COEUR d'ALENE - Pat Raffee, former executive director of the Post Falls Urban Renewal Agency, has been named as the next Kootenai County chief deputy clerk.

Raffee was selected by incoming clerk Cliff Hayes, who will be sworn in next week.

"I am very impressed with her experience and administration abilities," Hayes said Monday.

Hayes, who served Post Falls for 22 years as chief of police, said he has known Raffee, a Post Falls resident, for 20 years.

Hayes said Raffee also owns a consulting business, Raffee Co.

She was founding executive director for Concerned Businesses of North Idaho and served the North Idaho Building Contractors Association.

The most recent chief deputy clerk, longtime Kootenai County employee Sandy Martinson, has been accused of embezzling $139,000 from the county during a 10-year period.

County auditors did a routine review of Martinson's records after her late-November retirement and discovered "irregularities."

Coeur d'Alene police detectives received financial records dating from January 2000 to Oct. 31 for review.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall is looking at the results of the police investigation and said Monday he hopes to make a charging decision by the end of this week.

Marshall said in this type of case the most applicable charges would be grand theft or misuse of public funds or both.

Though Marshall is handling the case, he said all hearings and court filings would be in Coeur d'Alene, if charges are filed.

Bonner County is handling the prosecution because Martinson was a Kootenai County employee for almost 35 years.

Kootenai County Clerk-Auditor Dan English said her retirement plans had been in the works for a year.

Martinson was chief deputy clerk and auditing supervisor before English was appointed in 1995.

Hayes beat English in the November election.