COUNTY: Sealing critical documents
A friend recently asked me to help him understand how to resolve Kootenai County's refusal to issue a building permit for his property above Silver Beach. He has already spent well over $100,000 in required site improvements to comply with the ever growing list of demands by the Kootenai County Community Development employees. A new problem that my friend is expected to fix involves "unstable soil conditions." A 30-year-old home above his property started sliding down the hill this winter and was condemned by the county in February.
In order to understand how to help him, I asked to see a copy of the condemnation file and the report from the engineer that the county reportedly hired to determine why the house had slid down the hill. And that is where things get interesting. Community Development has sealed the file, claiming that they are a "Law Enforcement Agency" as defined by Idaho code, and releasing the report or any other part of the file would "interfere with enforcement proceedings" and "disclose investigative techniques and procedures."
A more likely reason is to protect the reputation of Community Development and the director, Scott Clark. A hike up the hill from the home that was condemned revealed a newly completed subdivision developed by local commercial developer Charlie Nipp. According to this subdivision's file, the storm water plan calls for collecting the road runoff water in perforated pipes that are set in gravel in the ditches and discharging it at the bottom of the development, just up the hill from the now condemned house and my friend's property.
How this plan ever received approval is beyond me. Even more dismaying to me is the fact that the system, as constructed, does not even comply with the approved subdivision plans. Two of the three county commissioners that were in office when the subdivision was approved have been replaced, but the main problem here seems to be Community Development. Gross incompetence in administration of the subdivision ordinance is one thing, but sealing an embarrassing file that should be an open public document in order to save face is completely unacceptable.
LARRY SPENCER
Hayden