County in lame-duck la la land
The numbers are strange.
The terms are strange.
The election cycles are strange.
I suppose it’s no surprise, therefore, that most of the plan-examining, check-the-money work produced by the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners is …
Strange?
Nope, that was a trick question.
None of it really is strange, not when you consider how Idaho has determined how every one of its county commissions is set up — which is exactly the same.
Now, that one-size-fits-all set of rules and regulations for county governance might work somewhere with more goats than people, and the toughest decision might be well depth — but it’s a bit clumsy if you have to deal with, say …
Cities.
Heck, maybe there just weren’t actual cities when the state Constitution was written. The result, as we’ve seen up close, can be chaotic.
Kootenai County now has two sitting commissioners, each with eight months left to serve, who were told to take a hike by voters in Tuesday’s primary. District 3’s Bob Bingham was routed by Leslie Duncan, and District 1’s Marc Eberlein lost a squeaker to Bill Brooks. Yet Eberlein and Bingham form two-thirds of the commission until January.
District 2 incumbent Chris Fillios wasn’t on the ballot this time around, part of an alternating four-year term system that we’ll address shortly.
Here, read some of the exciting prose in the relevant section of the updated Idaho Constitution …
“Currently, a three-member board of county commissioners is the governing body in each Idaho County. Two county commissioners are elected each biennium — one for a two year term and one for a four year term (Article 18, Section 10).
“State law specifies the procedure for determining which commissioner is to be elected for a four-year term, and which is to be elected for a two-year term (31-703).”
WHAT ALL that foo-faw means, really, is that it’s entirely possible to have a couple of lame-duck commissioners regularly serving out EIGHT months — a third of their terms — while the people’s choices wait in the wings.
Like this year, for instance.
“It’s a shooting gallery,” said former commissioner Dan Green. “You’re in, you spend a year trying to get a real grasp of the county budget — which is a real challenge — and then the next year you’re running again and might be out.
“I really think we need longer terms, like four years for everyone. These short terms might be OK in smaller, rural counties, but in urban areas you have so many more issues and so much more money.”
You also can have a parade of lame-duck commissioners making decisions that are critical to the county.
Green indicated that most commissioners on their way out — even with eight months to serve — rarely vote for something that they know will be reversed immediately when the next commission is seated.
Green’s optimism should make voters feel a little better, but he’s also right on another count.
All three Kootenai County commissioners should serve four-year terms.
•••
Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. A Brand New Day appears Wednesday through Saturday each week.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com.
Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA