Judge: Jail plan unconstitutional

COEUR d'ALENE - Plans for a new jail are on hold after a district court judge ruled Friday that the language of a proposed lease agreement between Kootenai County and Rocky Mountain Corrections is unconstitutional.

Judge John Stegner was tasked with determining if the language in a specific portion of the lease, which would bring a privately owned prison capable of housing more than 900 inmates to the county, was a true non-appropriation clause. The county hopes to lease the new facility from the private corrections company.

Since Idaho law prohibits taxing entities from entering into long-term debt without a public vote, a non-appropriation clause is necessary because it would allow the county to terminate the lease at the end of a budgeting period without any further obligations or penalties.

In a filled Kootenai County District courtroom, Stegner questioned Stephanie Bonney, a bond council attorney hired by Rocky Mountain Corrections.

"The question is whether they (the county) are obligated to pay if they don't want to," Stegner said. "The way I read it is that they are required to pay whether they want to or not."

Bonney replied that the language used in the non-appropriation clause of the lease agreement was commonly used in agreements made throughout the state.

Commissioner Jai Nelson, the only commissioner opposed to the proposed lease, filed court documents earlier this week challenging the legality of the agreement.

In a statement to The Press, Nelson's lawyer, John Magnuson, pointed out Article 8, Section 3 of the Idaho Constitution - which in part states, "No county ... shall incur any indebtedness, or liability, in any manner, or for any purpose, exceeding in that year, the income and revenue provided for it for such a year, without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors (of the county) voting at an election to be held for that purpose" - as a primary reason for his client's opposition.

"Mr. Magnuson, do you want to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?" Stegner asked after his questioning of Bonney was concluded.

Magnuson declined to make a statement and Stegner then denied the petition.

"I just don't perceive this as a true non-appropriation agreement," Stegner said.

After the decision, Magnuson told The Press he was pleased with the outcome.

"Commissioner Nelson ought to be commended for representing the taxpayers of the county in this," Magnuson said. "Without her, who knows what would have happened."

Nelson told The Press that while the hearing was "supposed to protect the interests of New York investors" rather than the taxpayers, she was glad that changed.

"We got a victory for the taxpayers," Nelson said.

She said she had previously proposed conducting a feasibility study to look at all the options.

"Once all those options are explored, the appropriate ones should come out and we can present those to the citizens and let them decide," Nelson said.

Magnuson added it was "almost surreal" that when he and his client requested information such as where the proposed jail would be located and how much in taxpayer money would be needed to pay property taxes for the facility, they were refused an answer.

"The lunacy of this whole thing is that the county commissioners were asking the court to approve a lease without assessing the nature of the agreement itself," Magnuson said. "Financiers from Fifth Avenue in New York don't come to Kootenai County to build a $30 million jail so they can leave it one year later."

Commissioner Dan Green, who voted in support of the lease along with Commissioner Todd Tondee, said in light of Stegner's ruling, the question now becomes whether or not there is language to satisfy a judge that it is a true non-appropriation clause.

"The intent of today's hearing was to make sure that we are operating within the guidelines of state statutes," Green said. "This was all about protecting taxpayer dollars and it is better to find this out now rather than later."

Green pointed out that Stegner never mentioned Nelson's complaint to the court and simply didn't like the language of the clause. With that in mind, Green said since Stegner declined to give Bonney advice on appropriate language for the clause, the commissioners and Rocky Mountain Corrections would have to go back to the drawing board.

"Based on this jurisdictional review, if we don't get a legitimate non-appropriation clause then I won't support this going forward in the future," Green said.

Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said even though it's his belief that Friday's decision does not mean the end of the potential lease, it's his job to run the jail "not make decisions on where it is or how big it is."

"It's their (the commissioners) call on where we go from here and we are happy to work with them on this," Wolfinger said. "This ruling didn't make the problem go away. We still have more inmates than beds at the jail."