Legislators answer to locals at Rathdrum town hall

Lawmakers told locals Saturday not to be surprised if the current legislative session in Boise continues long after March ends.

“Currently, I’m lobbying down there among my peers,” Rep. Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene told more than 100 residents at a legislative town hall in Rathdrum Saturday morning. “We’re not going to ‘sine die.’”

“Sine die” is the traditional vote made on the Idaho House floor to end the year’s legislative session. But over the past few weeks, some legislators have hinted at delaying that ritual until they can pass bills that would enable the governing body to call itself back into session, a liberty that has come front-and-center during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mendive said Saturday, however, that the $1.25 billion in federal relief that Gov. Brad Little allocated without legislative direction — as well as likely future federal aid packages — will compel lawmakers to simply recess in March for the foreseeable future, rather than call “sine die.”

“This year, there’s federal money coming,” he said. “We’re not going to allow the governor to spend that by himself this time.”

Mendive said, under his hypothetical, the House and Senate would recess for four to six weeks and then reconvene. But he added that, until the Idaho Legislature has the authority to call itself into session, temporary recesses might become the new normal, reserving the body’s right to be a necessary check on government overreach run amok.

“No one knows what’s coming,” he said. “I can tell you, honestly, that I have grave concerns about what the federal government’s doing to our Constitution right now.”

Mendive was one of seven legislators to attend the town hall at the Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Rathdrum. With the COVID-19 pandemic spawning executive orders, emergency declarations and re-opening plans over the past year, legislators said they were frustrated by how their inability to call themselves back into session relegated the legislative branch to nothing more than observers during a statewide crisis.

Rep. Tony Wisniewski, R-Post Falls, said Idaho needs its representative body to have a voice during emergencies. It’s one reason why he said he joined a largely symbolic effort to call the House and Senate back into session in June.

“When the pandemic hit last year and the governor issued certain emergency orders, after we adjourned in March, we were totally powerless,” Wisniewski told the crowd. “There was an attempt on June 23rd...Several legislators showed up in Boise to try and attempt a convening. We knew it was not going to be successful, but at least we got the governor’s attention.”

Getting Little’s attention isn’t the only goal. In one of the more impassioned moments of the town hall, Wisniewski said he and other lawmakers have specific grievances against Little’s handling of the pandemic, including a narrow scope of issues Little would allow the Legislature to address in the August special session.

“In order to get around this, there will be a proposal for a Constitutional amendment on the November 2022 ballot,” Wisniewski announced to thunderous applause. “It will read something to the effect that, if a certain percentage — probably around 60 percent — of the both the House and Senate members agree to convene, that we will call ourselves into session to discuss these topics that we, as a legislature, wish to address, not those that the governor sprinkles crumbs on the floor.”

The pandemic dominated the first half of the two-hour event. Legislation involving mask mandates and the authority of public health districts — the latter of which is the topic of Sen. Steve Vick’s SB 1060, which is passed the House and now goes to Little’s desk for signature or veto — topped the morning discussion.

But the town hall — sponsored by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee and the Young Republicans of Kootenai County — gave legislators the opportunity to discuss the gamut of traditionally-conservative causes Saturday, from property tax relief to managing growth through impact fees to protecting the pre-born.

“We have an obligation as a people to stand for our own moral principles,” Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, told the crowd, again to rousing applause.

Some questions also put legislators on the defensive, as residents asked their representatives to answer for certain votes, including newly-elected Sen. Peter Riggs, R-Post Falls, who was asked about his seconding of the motion to trim the office budget of Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, a move that garnered statewide attention.

“There (were) three full-time employees that have been in the Lieutenant Governor’s budget for some number of years,” Riggs explained. “She stated to us in her testimony that she had basically outsourced that work to a third party and was not intending on hiring anyone for it. So the decision was made to reduce the funding for that person from the budget.”

Riggs added those circumstances have since changed, leading the first-time legislator and the committee to re-evaluate the situation to make sure any personnel on McGeachin’s staff are fully-funded.

Rep. Paul Amador and Rep. Jim Addis, both Republicans from Coeur d’Alene, also found themselves explaining votes of their own: specifically, their votes to fund Idaho Public Television. Both cited the role of the Emergency Broadcast System and its tether to IPT. Addis also answered for his vote to fund the office of the Attorney General. That position is held by Lawrence Wasden, who has drawn the ire of some conservatives for not participating in lawsuits aimed at reversing the election of President Joe Biden.

“It’s an elected office,” Addis said. “It is a state agency. He is elected. At some point — while I disagree with all of, well, the decisions that were made, and I voted to curtail that where I can — the state requires an Attorney General’s office, and people vote for the Attorney General. My point is, you’ve got to fund the agency to a degree, and if you don’t want that agency to do things, vote on policy.”