Commissioners consider impact fees

COEUR d’ALENE — County commissioners indicated that they’re open to imposing impact fees on development that includes a commitment to hiring more patrol deputies and completing unfinished housing units at the jail.

What remains to be seen is whether the county can hire the employees it would have to promise in exchange for the fees.

The impact fee plan, which has not been finalized, would include a commitment from the county to hire 29 patrol deputies over the next decade. That number is what’s needed to maintain the current level of service, based on the county’s projected growth.

The new hires would necessitate additional space — about 20,000 feet, in the form of a substation or an addition to the sheriff’s office.

Anne Wescott of Galena Consulting, the Boise-based firm hired by the county to research impact fees, asked commissioners on Monday for assurances that hiring that many deputies is feasible.

“I don’t want to ask development to pay impact fees to build space for patrol deputies if we’re not going to be able to hire that many,” she said.

The county would also commit to completing two unfinished housing units at the consistently overcrowded jail. The shells of these “pods” were built during the last jail expansion in 2018 and could house another 108 people.

Commissioner Leslie Duncan expressed concerns about whether the county could adequately staff the finished pods.

Until recently, she pointed out, one unit at the jail was closed due to lack of staffing.

“It would be a matter of getting fully up to staff with what we have now,” Duncan said. “Then we could build out those pods.”

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris has been vocal about staffing shortages at the jail, which he attributes largely to low wages. Detention deputies begin at $22.87 per hour.

Though a recent inspection by the Idaho Sheriff’s Association showed that staffing is in compliance with state standards, Norris maintains that the ratio of inmates to detention deputies is too high and hiring remains a challenge.

Duncan said a recent analysis indicated the cost of 29 more patrol deputies would commit the county to a 1% increase in taxes in perpetuity.

Because current commissioners cannot bind future boards, Wescott noted, impact fees would not be endangered if the county can’t fund the additional deputies in the future.

Galena Consulting will reportedly move forward with creating a report on impact fees. Commissioners will likely receive recommendations in early September.

For now, the question of staffing remains the key one.

“If we’re going to grow, we’re going to need to fund more officers,” Duncan said. “The money is here. We just need to make sure we can staff them.”