Coeur d'Alene clings to constitutional rights during town hall

A swarm of citizens packed the Coeur d’Alene Public Library’s community room Tuesday night to ask questions and, in some cases, demand answers during a grassroots organization-sponsored town hall on Idaho’s initiative process. Reclaim Idaho, as part of its Idaho Speaks statewide tour, held a symposium on a recent failed legislative attempt to make the people’s initiative process harder to push through. The hourlong event featured three Coeur d’Alene lawmakers, a retired state Supreme Court Chief Justice and a lively crowd of 163 — some determined, some curious.

“Look at this,” Jeremy Gugino, Reclaim Idaho’s communications director, said during a brief intermission. “This room is jam-packed. We put out 100 chairs, and they filled up in a snap. I think the reason why is, not just in Coeur d’Alene, but in all of these town halls all over the state, the message is clear: This issue is not going away.”

The issue in question was a failed March bill, Senate Bill 1159 that would have (among other provisions) increased the number of required signatures to put an initiative on the ballot while cutting the time frame to collect signatures from 18 months to six. This came on the heels of the citizens initiative to expand Medicaid, gathering 75,134 signatures in 21 districts, enough to make the ballot under current guidelines but disallowed under the proposal. Gov. Brad Little vetoed the bill in April, as well as a follow-up attempt with less stringent restrictions the next day.

“I think we all recognize the citizens’ process is an important one in Idaho,” Representative and symposium guest Paul Amador told the crowd, “but it’s not something we want to see abused.”

Rep. Jim Addis, who voted against SB 1159 alongside Amador, agreed. “If [the process] can be improved, we should improve it,” he added. “If it can’t, we should leave it alone.”

Sen. Mary Souza voted in favor of the bill before its veto and therefore took the brunt of the evening crowd’s ire. She said her concern was centered around relieving a burden of a glut of information being thrust upon a population requiring a shrinking attention span during the signature process.

“My true belief,” Souza said before the town hall began, “is if you compare the amount of information given to citizens today, compared to testimony and oversight and review and committee meetings [in] the legislative process — the floor debates to really vet the ideas — you can quickly see the initiatives, the way we have them now, is weak compared to the way the legislative process can properly debate the issues.”

During the event, she cited outdated initiative language that didn’t account for the state’s population shift into urban areas, mostly to the lamenting of the audience.

After each legislator explained his or her vote, the public was afforded 40 minutes to ask questions about the initiative process. Some asked for clarification. Some cheered their support to their legislators. Some championed the initiative process itself.

“For those of you who’ve never tried to get an initiative on the ballot,” Jan Studer of Coeur d’Alene said as she addressed the crowd and speakers alike, “this is not — not — an easy process … On the signature sheet there’s a single line because of [the initiative process]. I keep hearing, ‘We gotta get the people the information. We gotta get the people the information.’ But I don’t hear any ideas on how.”

While not everyone offered suggestions to update the initiative practice without claiming the rights of the citizenry, Kathy McCaughin of Post Falls gave two palatable ideas to improve its nuts and bolts.

“I have great respect for the initiative process,” she said. “It is the great equalizer … Maybe put forward a statute for no pay for signature collectors … And second, any time the Legislature votes to change the referendum process, they have to put forward a question on the ballot.”

The star of the night’s show, however, was former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Jones, whose insight quieted the audience to pindrop decibels with each word of constitutional wisdom.

“I’m the kind of person who believes in constitutions,” he said as he introduced himself to thunderous applause. “I believe in the notion that all political power is inherent in the people … If you restrict initiatives so people can’t use their rights, all the power will eventually reside in the Legislature. I believe very strongly in citizens having their initiative rights … The initiative process needs to be fair for all and accessible to all.”

With only an hour to present arguments and take questions, some expressed disappointment afterward that so few were allowed to ask questions in a sea of outstretched hands, something organizers said was a common trait in previous Idaho Speaks forums.

“It’s amazing so many turned out on a July Tuesday,” Gugino said after the symposium. “To get to everybody’s questions, we would have had to have started at noon, and we’d probably still be going. But I think that speaks to the conviction people have toward this issue. People in Coeur d’Alene — and all through Idaho, really — are passionate about their rights. They’re proud of their rights, as they should be.”