NIC Board of Trustees votes in favor of zones

COEUR d'ALENE — Despite concerns of incumbent gerrymandering, the North Idaho College Board of Trustees on Monday passed proposed zones for upcoming elections.

The proposal, which breaks Kootenai County into five population-

based zones in accordance with Idaho House Bill 512, will now go to Boise for final approval by the State Board of Education. However, the proposal narrowly passed on a 3-2 vote with Trustee Christie Wood voicing concern that the approved zones, re-drawn to prevent Trustees Ron Nilson and

Todd Banducci from living in the same zone, could be construed as gerrymandering by the general public.

"I think we have to be very careful when we do these maps that we are true to what the Legislature wanted," Wood said. "If we can find a fair way, so be it."

Board Chair Ken Howard explained that the bill, which will become statute on July 1, creates trustee zones and the trustee must reside in the zone to run for the position. But, Howard added the election itself is county-wide, meaning all registered voters in the county will vote on every trustee race.

"There are a lot of things to complain about (with the bill)," Howard said. "But as my parents said 'You can't keep crying over spilled milk' and this milk spilled a long time ago."

Howard presented two versions of the zones, both of which were drawn "as nearly equal in population as practicable" as stipulated by the bill, to the board during Monday's special session. The first proposal was drawn out without noting where current trustees reside, which Howard said created concern among trustees and caused him to ask for the zones to be re-drawn so the trustees would fall in different zones.

"It's a good thing that we have a distinct territory that we will cover," Nilson said. "But in the case of ours, we live within a mile of each other in two different cities and so we said 'Is there a way that this could be (re)structured fairly?'"

Wood told fellow board members she was inclined to discuss when the legislation was initially proposed and the board questioned whether zones would be right for Kootenai County. She said she understood its importance for Southern Idaho, but advocated to the board to write a formal letter of opposition to the legislation.

"The majority of the board agreed to that and I was very vocal of the potential negative impact," Wood said. "I even brought up that two trustees could land in the same district. Todd, I'm going to remind you of what you said when I talked to you about it. Your exact words were that 'I didn't get on this board to be a career politician' and pretty much let the chips fall where they may."

Banducci countered that he was told the legislation was a foregone conclusion by Mark Browning, NIC's vice president of community relations and marketing, and that any formal opposition could jeopardize funding.

"I did take a position," Banducci said. "But I was fine with us asking for an exemption for Kootenai County."

Wood said she felt Banducci was lobbying for the bill and that she feared it would be a headache for trustees if the bill passed.

"And now here we are," she said, adding there is a seniority clause in the bill that would clearly make Nilson the sitting trustee for the proposed zone.

After further discussion, Banducci made a motion to approve Howard's second proposal, which placed himself and Nilson in separate zones. Nilson seconded the motion and there was brief discussion before the trustees voted.

Trustee Judy Meyer joined Wood in voting against the proposal, with Banducci and Nilson voting in favor. That left Howard with the deciding vote.

"What's going to happen here is you're going to force me to vote against my conscious because I do believe the first proposal is the one that I support and is the correct one. It was not created based on the location of any of the trustees' residences," Howard said. "But at the same time I want a resolution to this problem."

Howard voted in favor of the proposed zone, which will be voted on by the State Board of Education next month.