See? They can do something right
“Stop the presses!”
While the acclaimed exclamation didn’t reverberate through the newspaper production plant late Wednesday night, it sure could have. The Editorial Department did, in fact, miss deadline by a full hour — but the reason was so astonishing it couldn’t wait another day to be reported.
The North Idaho College Board of Trustees did something constructive.
The board, heretofore hellbent on reaping as much destruction as possible on the college and community, agreed to seek outside, expert advice on an important legal issue.
Two trustees, longtimer Ken Howard and newcomer Michael Barnes, are both facing questions about their residency in districts they were elected to represent. What’s not up for argument is that both are gone a lot.
Howard has made it clear that he still owns a home here but also has a home in New Mexico. Barnes has steadfastly refused to discuss this — or any — issue with The Press, so rumors that he is no longer a Kootenai County resident have run unabated.
Howard and Barnes joined hands figuratively in agreeing that the Attorney General’s office should investigate and answer the residency question for both. That legal opinion could ultimately lead to a change in college leadership.
What we have now is a devastating board majority backed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, which worked overtime to get Barnes, Greg McKenzie and Todd Banducci elected. The Central Committee is a miniature political machine modeled after the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Together, they comprise the greatest threat to public education this state has seen. The chaos wrought on NIC’s campus is a direct reflection of what happens when the KCRCC and IFF get their hands on the controls of a public education institution.
With Wednesday night’s decision to bring in an actual expert to get an essential question answered, residency rumor and innuendo will be snuffed and a path forward will be clarified. This is not to say that the path forward is going to be easy, or that the balance of power on the board will necessarily shift. But the board’s willingness offers at least a glimmer of hope that it can act rationally.
That alone is front-page news.