2020 CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE: Chris Fillios

NAME: Chris Fillios

RUNNING FOR: County Commissioner, District 2

CITY OF RESIDENCE: Coeur d’Alene

DATE OF BIRTH: 11/16/1948

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: Bachelor of Science, The City College of NY, 1971 Master of Arts, New York University, 1973

MILITARY EXPERIENCE: New York Army National Guard, Field Artillery, 1970-1975

EXPERIENCE IN ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICES:

East Side Highway District Commissioner, 2012-2016

Kootenai County Commissioner, 2017-Present

Current BOCC Chairman Joint Powers Board-KCEMSS

Board Member, Cd’A Chamber of Commerce

Board Member, Economic Development Corp.

YEARS AS IDAHO RESIDENT: 24 Years

FAMILY: Married to Linda: 48 Years; Two children: Dr. Melanie Fillios, Archaeologist; Eugene Fillios, Film Editor; two grandchildren: 20, sophomore at the University of Oregon; and seven, living with our daughter in Australia.

HOBBIES: Skiing

WHY ARE YOU RUNNING FOR OFFICE?

Some are born here; some are multi-generational. We moved here as we were drawn to North Idaho for its natural beauty, the openness of its people, and the desire to share our experiences with our fellow Kootenai County residents. My wife Linda and I believe in offering our services to our community, and as welcoming as Kootenai County has been to us, we chose to give back. Linda served on the Planning Commission for seven years. I volunteered as a Juvenile Probation mentor and also volunteered at Kootenai Humane walking dogs. Service is in our DNA.

What encouraged me to run for office was the choice to help make Kootenai County a better place for all out citizens. Prior commissioners, well intentioned, left gaps in areas such as: transparency, law enforcement wages, attention to our water resources, and employee compensation in general. One can say that by overestimating expenses and underestimating revenues, essential services and employee compensation suffered.

As the role of County Commissioner is multi-faceted – administrative, legislative, quasi-judicial – I am challenged to operate in an operational role, fast paced, and casting several votes per week on a myriad of issues. In the course of one year, I will have attended over 400 BOCC meetings plus more with residents. I thrive on a fast-paced, multi-subject environment, where deliberations and decisions must be made in a rapid-fire sequence.

WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THREE OF THE BIGGEST ISSUES YOU’LL FACE?

Growth & Taxes

This is perhaps the most discussed topic of our day in Kootenai County. We are growing at the rate of about 2.5% annually and rated among the fastest growing counties in our country – third or fifth, depending on whom you speak with. Our current population is around 165,000. Most of Our growth comes from higher priced locales, boosting our real estate values, and causing hardship among our elderly on fixed incomes, and first-time homebuyers. Additionally, the single fastest growing segment of in-migration is from retirees over the age of 60, and we welcome them. We need to also attract a younger demographic. If our region fails to grow, it will die. Importantly, as our cost of living continues to rise, we need to attract qualified labor to attract those leading edge industries that can offer higher wages, and increased commercial development.

As for taxes, please note that the County collects taxes for ALL taxing districts – highway, fire, water, schools, etc. – and acts a pass-through to these districts. Second, the county portion of our property taxes is about 25% of the total tax bill (on average), and this is the only segment of our property taxes that we County Commissioners control. Third, we are currently operating on $101.6M budget, but are taxed on about $47M; the balance comes from fees and grants. For this fiscal year, we increased property taxes by $1.4M, (the three percent), on a total County property valuation of $20B (yes, billion).

If you want to know more about how we fare for overall property taxes vs. other Idaho counties, check out: https://www.kcgov.us/740/Key-Performance-Indicator-Dashboard. We are the lowest taxing of the five largest Idaho counties.

Economic Growth

If you want your children or grandchildren to be able to participate in the quality of life most of us here enjoy, we need gainful employment. We are in a time – the COVID-19 pandemic notwithstanding – of severe labor shortages, with our state unemployment under 3%. We must provide an atmosphere where our current businesses can grow and continue to prosper while attracting new businesses who can add to our white and blue collar labor base.

Water Resources

This oftentimes is the most overlooked issue confronting our county. Our local “gem,” Coeur d’Alene Lake is in a fragile state with regard to nutrient loading, brought about by years of agricultural and residential fertilizer erosion. More ominously, the Lake bottom currently stores over 70M metric tons of heavy metal tailings, including lead and cadmium, among others, and unless we succeed in keeping these metals covered by maintaining the necessary oxygen level, the tailings rise, rendering it harmful to fish, water fowl, and even humans. Therefore, we need to reduce the nutrient loading of phosphorous, nitrogen and zinc, as well.

IF ELECTED, WHAT STEPS WILL YOU TAKE TO RESOLVE THESE ISSUES?

Growth & Taxes

We decreased the operating budget by 3% from the prior year, and the tax rate by 12%! My primary responsibility as a county commissioner is to provide for health and safety; and retaining our sheriff’s deputies cannot be compromised. We are now finally competitive with law enforcement in the City of Coeur d’Alene for patrol deputy starting salaries. Yet we still lag behind other jurisdictions in the areas of planning and zoning, and attorneys. And while I helped reduce our tax rate and operating budget for current fiscal year, I helped increase our fund balance to where our Finance Director, has praised the current BOCC for increasing the overall health of our County. I intend to continue the focused approach to balancing the needs of our residents with the restraints necessary to allow our fixed income citizens to stay in their homes.

Economic Growth

If you want your children or grandchildren to be able to participate in the quality of life most of us here enjoy, we need gainful employment. We have already begun investing in employee and employer recruitment via our annual contribution to our local Economic Development Corp., realizing that in these times of national labor shortage, we need to sell our area to high caliber talent to create a higher qualified labor base. In turn, this makes it more attractive to potential employers, and broadens the tax base, thereby easing the burden on our homeowners. I intend to continue to advocate for our current contribution of $50K annually to the efforts of our EDC, to enable them to enhance their efforts at recruiting high paying employers and high skilled employees. I also intend to support the efforts of our local Chambers of Commerce (I represent the BOCC to the Cd’A Chamber), to lobby for the necessary state support to encourage the growth and prosperity of our local businesses.

As such, not only have I successfully advocated for increased funding for our Economic Development Corp.- sustained for the past three years - but I encourage our participation with CGI, a video production company that has solicited contributions from area businesses to place their websites on our county website in a collaborative effort to recruit a skilled demographic. Check it out.

https://www.elocallink.tv/m/v/player.php?pid=w6a6z7a8x61&fp=idkoot18_wel_rev1_iwd#c|idkoo t18_wel_rev1_iwd

If you want to share the facts surrounding our County, check out: https://www.kcgov.us/710/Key-Performance-Indicators

Water Resources

We participate in the Lake Management Plan as a member of the Basin Commission, created as a body of stakeholders to oversee ongoing Cd’A Lake nutrient and heavy metals containment. I participated in recent meetings alerting us to the increasing concern over the health of the Lake. I intend to support Governor Little’s recommendation for an independent third party to evaluate the data and propose a solution. This effort is expected to cost about $1M, and I will offer a suggestion to help expedite the evaluation. I also support the increased focus to maintain the 25-foot shorefront vegetative buffer as a means of preventing erosion and the nutrient loading that results in unnatural aquatic growth.

With increasing traffic and general safety concerns on our waterways, and especially as regards the Spokane River, we met with concerned residents. This resulted in increased marine patrols for three weekends in 2019, which in turn resulted in 200 citations, including speeding and one DUI. We reached an agreement in principle to partner with The City of Post Falls to provide increased enforcement throughout the forthcoming boating season. This will focus on speed, control, and wake enforcement, to the extent possible. We also passed a resolution for a “no wake zone” on a narrow stretch of Spirit Lake, and are working to minimize wake impact on Hayden Lake. Before the forthcoming boating season, I support an ordinance to define a “no excessive wake” zone on ALL our waterways, with special emphasis on the Spokane River and our lake bays.

Adding to the growing need for boater safety, we expect to deploy the full complement (seven marine patrol boats) across our lakes and rivers, beginning with this 2020 boating season.

WHAT SPECIFIC SKILLS OR EXPERIENCE QUALIFY YOU FOR THIS JOB?

My career began in the early 1970s working with several large corporations. While employed in high tech, I helped win major business, and wrote market plans for a $160M business segment. In 1976, I spearheaded efforts to win the largest private telecom network in the U.S. valued at over $13M, and managed a sales organization with an annual revenue of $30M.

Over the years of managing people, projects and budgets, I have had the privilege of working for individuals with extensive corporate management and budgetary experience. They challenged me to apply and defend key critical thinking in defending my business proposals.

As a County Commissioner, I co-manage 15 departments, comprised of about 270 individuals, and coordinate with six other elected officials, as we create and deploy the resources of our $101.6M budget and over 800 employees. I am functioning as a COO (as in “Operating”) with over 400 meeting per year, requiring fast and accurate processing, the thick skin to accept the realities of the decisions we make – pleasing some and displeasing others – and the even temperament to accept the criticism that inevitably results.

When I act in a quasi-juridical capacity, I must set aside my personal feelings, act with any eye toward the law, the facts of the case before me, and the opinions of my testifying residents, ensuring that they have been given due process.

• Approved funding for the jail expansion, completed on time and $500K under budget. - As current Chairman of the BOCC, I managed our way to the County’s first $ 100M budget while reducing the tax rate and operating budget, and increasing our fund balance.

• Increased patrol deputy wages to decrease the cost of hiring and training.

• Improved County transparency to you the public via televising of BOCC meetings, and co-hired a research analyst who provides you, and us, with information for County performance and planning.

• Even with the current County population growth rate of 2.5%, County employment has been limited to less than one percent per year.

WHY SHOULD VOTERS ELECT YOU, RATHER THAN AN OPPONENT?

As you evaluate the various candidates’ qualifications you are conducting a job interview. The role of County Commissioner is not merely a test of where one fits on the political spectrum. The role – unlike that of a legislator – is to manage the daily operations of Kootenai County. An individual can claim “conservative” values, yet lack the requisite skills to balance the competing forces and demands of both other elected officials, and our residents. As County Commissioners, we own the facilities, vehicles, and budgets for the entire County.

As I compete for re-election, I am unfazed when an opponent claims multi-generational status as a seeming right-of-passage. How can we expect someone who has never managed a large organization and budget to assume the role of County Commissioner? Why elect someone whose political views have nothing to do with issues that s/he has no control over?

The role of County Commissioner is defined by the State legislature as to what we can and cannot do. When I assumed my current position, I took an oath to defend the Federal and State constitutions, very simply, the rule of law. Additionally, I came to this position having offered you, the residents of Kootenai County, and the accumulation of decades of relevant experience and education for your greater benefit.

In May 2011, I was elected to the East Side Highway District (ESHD) Board of Commissioners, and was re-elected in May 2015, for another four-year term. In May 2016, I was elected to serve as your District 2 County Commissioner for a four-year term ending in 2020. If you re-elect me as your County Commissioner, as I hope you will, I will serve a two-year term ending in 2022.

Please visit my website: www.chrisforkootenai.com.