Two key county employees resign

COEUR d’ALENE — Two key county employees are exiting this week, the latest in what appears to be an ongoing exodus.

Chief Deputy Assessor Allyson Knapp resigned Monday, while Kootenai County Finance Director Dena Darrow’s last day is Friday.

After six years in her position, Darrow is taking a job in private industry.

“The stars kind of aligned,” she said on Wednesday, adding that the move is not related to any specific issues at the county.

She described her time in the auditor’s office as rewarding.

Many county employees work long hours in roles that are often thankless, she said — and she believes Kootenai County residents are fortunate to have them.

“It’s been a privilege to work side by side with such hardworking people,” she said. “They have a spirit of service.”

The offices of most county elected officials have seen an increased turnover rate in recent years, according to county labor data.

The trend is most obvious in the Assessor’s Office, where the turnover rate was 37.7% last year — a massive jump from years prior and almost twice the national average.

A total of 35 employees have left the Assessor’s Office since 2020, including Knapp. Just six of those exits were reportedly retirements.

Only 22 employees left the Assessor’s Office during the four-year period between 2016 and 2019.

Knapp said the office’s turnover in the last two years is “unprecedented,” and she pointed to Kootenai County Assessor Béla Kovacs as the reason.

“I love my job,” Knapp said on Wednesday. “I would go back in a heartbeat. I just will not work with him.”

She is the second chief deputy assessor who has resigned since county commissioners appointed Kovacs to the office of assessor in May 2020. His predecessor, Rich Houser, died weeks before.

More than 30 county employees issued a vote of no confidence in Kovacs last month, calling on him to end his campaign for election.

In letters submitted to The Press, employees cited Kovacs’ inexperience, disinterest in the daily workings of the Assessor’s Office and alleged disrespect for staff as reasons for their lack of support.

Read the letters in full at cdapress.com.

Kovacs did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

He previously characterized the staff’s complaints as politically motivated.

In March, Kovacs filed as a candidate in the Republican primary race for assessor.

His opponent is Bob Scott, the county’s residential lead appraiser. He’s worked in the Assessor’s Office for nine years.

“When Rich Houser passed away, we knew we were in for a big change,” Scott said. “We were all heartbroken, because we loved working with Rich.”

Of the three candidates put forth by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, Scott said Kovacs was the best choice, though he had no appraisal experience.

“We were really hopeful that he was going to be the guy,” Scott said. “But over the last two years, he’s just proven that he isn’t.”

Some employees said Kovacs has consistently disregarded their experience and becomes defensive or argumentative when staff share their knowledge.

Multiple sources told The Press that Kovacs has disrupted the work of his staff and missed critical deadlines.

Both Scott and Knapp emphasized the remaining staff in the Assessor’s Office are dedicated to their work, though some have indicated they’ll leave if Kovacs wins the primary election.

“It would be really easy to say, ‘Forget it, I’m not going to do any more work for this guy,’” Scott said. “But they love what they do. They’re doing it in spite of the barriers that (Kovacs) has put up to getting it done right.”

The county assessor has little influence over policy, Scott said. He believes the ongoing conflict is about management, not politics.

“If this were a corporation, they would have fired (Kovacs) long ago,” Scott said. “It would have never gotten to this point. But he’s elected and that protects him from a lot of actions.”

In Idaho, the only mechanism to remove an elected official from office — including an appointed one — is through a recall election.

Knapp said that’s the reason why she spoke publicly about the staff’s concerns.

“The staff came to me and asked for help,” she said.

She resigned this week, she said, because she can no longer tolerate Kovacs’ “verbally abusive ways,” including a recent elected officials meeting where Kovacs criticized her for several minutes, until other officials told him to stop.

But she said she’ll continue to elevate the voices of her former colleagues.

“I stood up for the staff and I will continue to stand up for them,” Knapp said.