The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I am writing about my volunteer experience as a voting member of the Optional Forms of Government Study Commission and how the simple act of agreeing to serve my community resulted in my leaving Kootenai County. Full disclosure: I am one of five study commissioners who recommend a change to the commission-manager form of government.

There are many rumors being shared about my current circumstance. It is fascinating that the very people who have been threatening me, lying about me, and who have admitted outright they are stalking me express surprise and glee I have left the county. They have extended that threat to my family, friends and associates. Some of these threats and lies are in letters sent to the OFGSC; some are captured on video during our meetings; some are floating around the internet. Watch the Jan. 19, 2022, public hearing to see the open threats and abuse against Chair Botting and me. Some of my fellow study commissioners condoned the inappropriate behavior of the crowd. The open meeting law was weaponized and we were openly targeted. Is it any wonder that I no longer feel safe in Kootenai County?

Regarding the misrepresentations of the facts, I will address just a few:

I supposedly should be disqualified from serving on the study commission because I never voted in Kootenai County. I have voted and been a poll worker.

I supposedly moved away from Kootenai County on December 28, 2021. On that date, we sold our home and business property and moved to Post Falls. We escalated our plans to retire after the Sept. 29, 2021, public hearing. That is when the abuse, intimidation and open stalking began.

I am supposedly living in Box Elder, S.D. — at the address of a mail transfer service used by full-time RVers. We cannot live there.

I supposedly should be disqualified because I will not be living in Kootenai County under the form of government I recommend. We now have plans to build a home in a county with the five-member commissioner/county manager form of government. We have learned that county government matters. We will not make the same mistake of living in a community that can be so easily co-opted and corrupted by a faction of voters and is not run with competence and integrity — including a prosecutor making us more vulnerable to mob wrath; a candidate for elected office participating in the intimidation and misinformation; or serial meetings between a county commissioner and partisan members of the study commission while accusing the writing committee of bogus open meeting law violations.

Our charge was to “study the existing form of county government, compare it to other optional forms and submit a report and any recommendations for change to the board.” Some of us honorably accepted this task. Other members did not research other forms except with the purpose of finding fault with the work done by those of us who did research.

We had to look outside the state of Idaho for examples. Per the National Association of Counties in a 2015 article, 43% of counties across the country have the commission-manager form so the information is available. Doing our job per the statute was somehow considered radical! The mob was encouraged to attend the meetings and write comments to provide a chorus of intimidation. The same attendees and same names reappeared week after week, and we were expected to believe this was representative of We the People.

You may be aware that the OFGSC reconvened to overturn the legitimate vote to recommend the commission-manager form of government. What you may not know is the study commission work was essentially done prior to my resignation. We originally voted 5-4 in favor of a change recommendation on Nov. 3, 2021. On Jan. 26, 2022, the recommendation was confirmed. Required by statute, a writing subcommittee was established to document the process in a final report. The report was approved on March 9 and presented to the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners on March 10, 2022.

I signed that report — it simply chronicled and described our vote taken months earlier. Any work after Jan. 26, related only to the wording of the report — the recommendation would not change.

On March 2, to facilitate traveling full-time with a state ID and associated mailing address, we established residency in South Dakota — one of four states that allow residents to travel full-time without a physical address and that facilitate mail forwarding services. We departed Kootenai County in our RV on March 29. We are currently traveling.

I resigned as a member of the study commission to end the hostility and abuse. We received no legal advice that contradicted a plain reading of the statute, that I was a member in good standing — even though advice was requested.

With the timeline described above, and the fact I was a resident during the original vote on the recommendation, it is logical to conclude the treatment I received was directly connected to the quick reversal of the study commission’s decision by the partisan members. Their plan: Chase Kristen out of town, replace her with a compliant alternate, and re-do the vote.

My question to the honorable residents of Kootenai County is: What do these partisan officials, study commissioners and the mob plan for Kootenai County that they are willing to sell their souls to achieve? They are willing to blatantly lie, threaten fellow residents, disrupt public meetings, and shout down any opinion or facts that they do not agree with. This is not civil society. This is mob rule. They beat their chests and declare that We the People should have the right to vote while they shut down an initiative that should go to We the People for a vote. It is hypocritical; they insult our intelligence. So, I ask, what do they have in mind for Kootenai County that cannot be openly and civilly discussed?

To the members of the study commission who trust the voters to decide, I wish the best. I enjoyed serving with you. We tried to do something good for our home community. To the good people of Kootenai County, I say — you deserve the best but you will only get more of what you tolerate.

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Kristen Wing is a former Optional Forms of Government Study commissioner.