Opening the lines of communication

Former Whitman County Commissioner Les Wigen said opening the lines of communication between commissioners significantly aided their board and believed it could do the same in Kootenai County. 

In an address to the board of commissioners Monday morning, Wigen explained how employing the idea of hosting workshops between elected officials could benefit county operations and relationships. 

Wigen served as a commissioner for Whitman County in Washington for 12 years before retirement. Over the course of his career, he was elected to several other boards, including the Washington Wheat Commission, Whitman Conservation District chairman, and the LaCross School Board. 

After moving to Coeur d'Alene with his wife in 2009, Wigen said he has followed local politics and recently reached out to Commissioners Bill Brooks, Chris Fillios, and Leslie Duncan to talk about the workings of the county. Touching on the recent optional forms of government bylaws, Wigen brought up a major influence that inspired Brooks to create the commission — commissioners' inability to talk to one another. 

"The three of you commissioners can't talk to each other outside of this room without it being an open public meeting," Wigen said. "This came through Whitman County, and they said we couldn't go to lunch together, and we couldn't ride in a car to a banquet or a meeting. That to me, we couldn't buy it."

As elected officials, the three commissioners cannot meet informally to discuss county-related business as two or more together represent a quorum and would violate open meeting laws. This, Wigens noted, can make gaining multiple commissioner support on a subject difficult. 

"You guys need to work together and talk about it," Wigen said. "And all three of your jobs is to convince the other two to go with you just like a legislator in Olympia or Boise."

To counteract this, Wigen said the Whitman County commissioners would host workshops to discuss business from department heads to roads or equipment needs. There would be no deliberations, no decisions made, Wigen said, you "just talk." 

Duncan noted that the idea of having a workshop is already like the commissioners' weekly status update meeting that precursors the business meeting Tuesday afternoon. Regularly, the board holds hundreds of meetings a year. Fillios said that his first year on the commission in 2017, he sat in roughly 370 for the county and dozens more with individuals and interest groups. The constant meetings, he said, were almost overwhelming. 

Prospects of changing Kootenai County administrative processes will be the main topic of discussion today during a 10 a.m. workshop on the alternative forms of government. Based on the online agenda, the commissioners will review the bylaws — which were recently revised by county legal counsel — and the process of selecting the committee members.