Regan critical of Stewart

COEUR d'ALENE - Former Coeur d'Alene School Board Trustee Brent Regan took aim at human rights advocate Tony Stewart on Wednesday, calling him out for publicly opposing two mayoral candidates who do not support the city's anti-discrimination ordinance.

In what he described as "An open letter to Mr. Steward (sic)" Regan posted the following comment under the online version of Stewart's My Turn column.

"Tony, During our conversation at the CDA Library I chastised you for falsely and publicly characterizing a person's position without doing the due diligence of first talking to that person. You apologized and assured me it would never happen again and yet here you are doing EXACTLY the same crime," Regan wrote. "If you are to lead the Task Force on Human Relations then perhaps you should invest in the 'relations' part and actually talk to people before you start squawking like Chicken Little."

The problem is, both Stewart and Tom Carter, director of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said on Wednesday that conversation never happened.

Carter said at the meeting that Regan references in his comments he saw Regan approaching Stewart, so he walked over to the two of them to support Stewart.

"I was standing right behind Regan and he said 'Tony you have no integrity,' and Tony responded telling Regan that they did not ask him to resign," Carter said. "Then Tony said 'when you apologized we accepted your apology.'"

Stewart said Carter's recollection was accurate. He made no apologies to Regan at that meeting.

"I said Mr. Regan we did not ask you to resign, and when you apologized, we accepted that. Then I went and took my seat." he said. "I am so fortunate to have a witness."

Stewart said that is the only conversation he has ever had with Regan.

In January, Regan apologized to the school board and the community at large after making what critics called "racist" remarks during a gun rights forum earlier that month.

At that forum, Regan shared part of a conversation he'd had with his wife: "I said, 'They can't figure out what an assault weapon is - it's just black and it looks scary.' And she looks at me and says, 'Well, so is Obama.'"

Regan later apologized for the statement saying he didn't realize how hurtful the remark was until he talked with someone who had been personally affected by discrimination.

The public apology came on the heels of a press conference Stewart and two other members of the human rights task force held to specifically call for Regan's apology.

On Wednesday, Regan said he stands by the comment he posted on Stewart's My Turn column.

"When I talked to Tony, we were alone," Regan said, adding that Carter must have mistaken him for someone else. "That's not what happened. What he said doesn't even make sense.

"You tell me ... is that the way a conversation goes?" he continued. "I am sticking by my story, and I have an excellent memory."

Carter said if Regan is willing, he would be happy to take a lie detector test with him.

"Because I know who would win," he said.

Regan said the bigger point he was trying to make with his comment is that Stewart didn't bother to discuss his opinion with Coeur d'Alene mayor candidates Mary Souza and Joe Kunka before publishing his thoughts in The Press.

"He is certainly entitled to his opinion, but not to his own facts," Regan said. "What he wrote is not only false, it's total speculation."

Stewart said the main point he was trying to convey with his column was the importance of the anti-discrimination ordinance, and the comments each of the mayoral candidates made about the ordinance in a story published by The Press last week.

"I spent my life trying to be an ally to those who face discrimination," he said. "That's who I am and that is what I am trying to do."

Stewart said the ordinance is very important and obviously needed. While he declined to release the details, he said the ordinance has already resulted in protecting an individual in Coeur d'Alene.

"We've already had one case since that ordinance passed and we were able to resolve it in four hours," Stewart said. "We couldn't have done that without that ordinance."