County responds to assessor’s suit
COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County has responded to a court appeal filed by Assessor Bela Kovacs over the commissioners’ decision to cut his pay, asking the court to dismiss the petition with prejudice.
The petition for judicial review, filed in September, alleges that commissioners Bill Brooks, Chris Fillios and Leslie Duncan exceeded their authority when they slashed Kovacs’ pay.
His salary dropped from about $90,000 per year to $45,000 per year, effective Oct. 1.
Kovacs also did not receive the 6% cost-of-living adjustment that all other county employees and elected officials received as part of the budget for fiscal year 2023.
He has asked the court to reinstate his salary with the cost of living adjustment, as well as for an award of costs and attorney’s fees.
The county has retained attorney Peter C. Erbland, while Kovacs is represented by Sandpoint-based attorney D. Colton Boyles.
Though commissioners acknowledged the sequence of events outlined in Kovacs’ petition, they denied allegations that their decision to reduce the assessor’s pay was unlawful.
Fillios said in August that commissioners had discussed with Kovacs his failure to perform statutory duties before they cut his pay, but Kovacs, who was appointed to the role of county assessor in 2020 and is on the Nov. 8 ballot for election, “refused” to take any responsibility for his performance.
Idaho Code 31-802 provides that county commissioners are “to supervise the official conduct of all county officers” and see that they “faithfully perform their duties.”
Commissioners are also required to fix the annual salaries of county officers through the budget process.
In a response to the petition, the county asserts that “discovery, research and investigation” may show that Kovacs has failed to state a claim on which relief can be granted and that he failed to exhaust administrative remedies.
The county has asked the court to award costs and attorney’s fees.
A status conference in the case is scheduled for late November.
