County Commissioner, District 1: Todd Tondee, Republican

Kootenai County Commissioner Todd Tondee wants a fourth term, seeking to continue his work on long-term solutions for county operations that save taxpayer dollars.

The Post Falls Republican has in the past won a 4-year and two 2-year terms, and if he wins again it would be for another four years.

"The commissioners' job is very diverse, and that interests me a lot," said Tondee, who is 49. "There's been a lot of training invested in me."

Experience has given him an understanding of all aspects of the job, he said.

Tondee said he has pushed for more long-range planning, something that he believes was lacking when he was first elected to the board.

"With this board of commissioners now, we've been able to move that forward a lot," he said.

He cited the facilities master plan and the fund balance policy as examples.

"Trying to move us to get to that proactive aspect, I think, has been one of my goals and I think we're moving in that direction," he said.

In his last term, Tondee and his fellow commissioners sought to do a wholesale change of land-use ordinances, trying to make them easier to use.

"Living with them day to day - they were broken," Tondee said. "We were having issues with just about every ordinance."

A wholesale change was too big of a change for the public, he said.

"Our intent didn't get implemented through the consultant that we hired," Tondee said.

Now the county is working to do it in smaller steps, fixing existing ordinances where they are broken, he said.

Another issue that has been on the plate of commissioners has been the county's jail.

The facility can't house all the county's prisoners, so the county has been paying to transport overflow to other jails in the region.

"It's one that we haven't been able to solve yet," he said. "We're working on a proposal that has merit, but it still needs to be vetted out."

The cost and liability of transporting prisoners and the expense of their detention at other facilities is a major burden for the county.

The county is looking at leasing a new facility that would be built and owned by a private company. The county sheriff's office would operate it.

Speaking of the facilities master plan, he said the county is busting at the seams because of a shortage of office and courtroom space.

"We keep being told we're getting two new judges, another District Court judge and another magistrate, and we need courtroom space for them," he said.

He said the county needs to find long-term solutions for these problems.

Tondee has an associate degree in electronic engineering. He worked as a technology supervisor, overseeing, with a team, the maintenance of more than 10,000 personal computers for a Fortune 100 company.

He and his wife, DeDe, moved to North Idaho in 1993. He operated small businesses, and still has a car lot.

He served three years on the Post Falls City Council.