Top Stories for 2023: Fires, Coeur Terre, NIC

From hundreds of stories published by The Press in 2023, newsroom staff carved out a list of the top 10 issues, challenges and events that Press reporters covered over the past 12 months.

1. FIRES

The summer of 2023 was marked by wildfires that led to evacuations for  many Kootenai County residents and placed many more on alert for possible evacuation.

The Ridge Creek Fire began Aug. 3 on the northern tip of Hayden Lake along Hayden Creek Road, ultimately burning 4,474 acres and taking weeks to contain. Shortly after the Ridge Creek Fire began, the Parkway Fire blazed just west of Q’emiln Park in Post Falls, prompting Level 3 evacuations for dozens of homes and burning 80 acres throughout the Post Falls Community Forest.
Both fires were human caused.

2. COEUR TERRE

The Coeur d’Alene City Council in March gave the green light to Coeur Terre, a major development on the outskirts of the city’s western edge.

The decision came after months of debate and input from area residents, many of whom shared concerns that the annexation and development of 440 acres would change their way of life, adding high density and more traffic. 

The Kootenai County Land Company is planning Coeur Terre, which calls for 2,800 housing units, businesses, shops and restaurants, 18 acres of parks, a greenbelt, 4 miles of trails and land for two public schools.

Council members Woody McEvers, Amy Evans, Kiki Miller and Dan English voted to approve the annexation and development agreement.  Christie Wood and Dan Gookin voted no. 

3. NORTH IDAHO COLLEGE

After a year marked by lawsuits and a continuing threat to the college’s accreditation status, North Idaho College remains accredited. 

The college continues to operate under the show cause sanction it received in February, an action triggered by the board majority’s decision to place NIC President Nick Swayne on indefinite administrative leave for no disciplinary reason in December 2022. Show cause is the last step before loss of accreditation.

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities opted to extend the sanction in July, allowing more time for NIC to get back in compliance with accreditation standards.

Evaluators recently praised the “dedication and resilience” of NIC’s administration, faculty, staff and students but noted, “the recommendations that require board response and action had shown little to no progress.”

In March, a Kootenai County judge ordered NIC to reinstate Swayne to his position. NIC has since filed an appeal with the Idaho Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the college continues to pay two presidents’ salaries and compensation. The trustees hired Greg South in December as interim president. He was placed on paid administrative leave after Swayne’s reinstatement by court order in March. The college has paid South an estimated $368,250 thus far. South’s contract runs through June 2024 with an option to extend it.

With both a permanent president and an interim president under contract, resulting confusion about who is running the college has been among the top issues accreditors ordered NIC to resolve.

Most of NIC’s legal matters have been resolved. In July, the Coeur d’Alene Press won a lawsuit seeking certain public records that the college had unlawfully refused to provide.

The college recently settled a lawsuit with Mike Gridley that challenged the validity of the contract between NIC and attorney Art Macomber, as well as that of Greg South. The terms of the settlement aren’t publicly known.

But still in play is a new lawsuit filed by Swayne, which alleges the college violated Idaho’s public records laws by denying his request for a copy of an investigative report he says involves allegations against him by another NIC employee. He has asked the court to force NIC to turn over a copy of the report.

District Judge Barry McHugh has taken the matter under consideration and will issue a written ruling.

4. COMMUNITY LIBRARY NETWORK

The Community Library Network has made headlines throughout the year. A contentious and close election took place in May. Incumbents Regina McCrea and Judy Meyer lost to newcomers Tom Hanley and Tim Plass. The ousted incumbents have since filed a defamation lawsuit naming three Kootenai County residents who distributed letters accusing the former trustees of committing crimes against children amid their reelection campaigns. The new board continues to make sweeping changes to network policies and procedures. Many meetings have been long and heated, sometimes requiring a police presence to quell disruptions from attendees.

5. LIBRARY BOOKS AND THE SHERIFF

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris received national attention when he visited some local libraries to see if there were inappropriate books available to children. In April, Norris went to the Post Falls Public Library twice and the Hayden Public Library once. One time he brought along a video camera.

"I wanted to see for myself what was going on," he said.

At the Post Falls library, he said a book, "Deal with it! A whole new approach to your body, brain and life as a gurl," by Esther Drill, Heather McDonald and Rebecca Odes, was available in the young adults section.

Another book, "Identical" by Ellen Hopkins, was also in the young adults section.

Norris said, in his opinion, both books, which he had in his office in September, contain sexually explicit material.

In his 30-minute library visits, he said he found other books with text he considered inappropriate.

Norris said no one is asking to ban books, but he believes books with explicit, sexual content should be in an area only accessible to those 18 or older.

"I want to make it clear, this is not about sexual health or reproductive information. In my opinion, this goes beyond that," he said.

He believes allowing youth to read sexually explicit material is putting them at risk.

"You’re desensitizing them to a very, very critical area of growth," he said.

6. KOOTENAI COUNTY ASSESSOR

Embattled Kootenai County Assessor Béla Kovacs faced another year of controversy and challenges.

In May, Kovacs won a lawsuit that forced the county to restore his pay after commissioners cut it in half.

Commissioners Bill Brooks, Leslie Duncan and Chris Fillios had voted unanimously for the pay cut, reducing Kovacs’ pay from about $90,000 to $45,000 per year. They cited “grave concerns” about Kovacs’ performance, as well as missed statutory deadlines and other failures to fulfill his responsibilities.

The judge in the case ruled that salaries for county officers should be based on the responsibilities of the office. In Kovacs’ case, the assessor’s duties remain the same regardless of whether he or a successor adequately fulfills them.

In the fall, a $53 million property value assessment error affected seven taxing districts and delayed the distribution of tax notices to Kootenai County property owners.

When an appraiser mistakenly entered the front footage of a lakefront property as 6,966 feet instead of 69.66 feet, the property’s valuation jumped from $1.4 million in 2022 to $54.3 million this year.

Kovacs has maintained the multimillion dollar error wasn’t the result of any problems in his office and the subsequent tax delay wasn’t his fault. Instead, he pointed to the county’s computer system and blamed other departments for not catching the mistake made by his office, including the treasurer’s office and the board of county commissioners.

This week, Kootenai County Treasurer Steve Matheson revealed that Kovacs has secretly recorded conversations with his employees and other elected officials, as well as at least one executive session of the county commissioners.

In Idaho, recording conversations is legal with the consent of at least one person involved in the conversation. But some county officials question whether the existence of the recordings means Kovacs has created and mishandled public records.

It’s not yet known how many recordings Kovacs has made, what types of conversations he recorded and how many will be released to the public.

7. SCHOOL LEVIES

The Coeur d'Alene and Lakeland Joint school districts suffered historic levy failures in March.

Voters in Coeur d'Alene had supported the supplemental levy since 1986, but this election saw the supplemental levy that would have been held in perpetuity tank by a difference of 361 votes. The safety and maintenance levy failed by roughly half a percent. The levy needed 55% of voter approval to pass; it reached 54.48%.

Lakeland was unsuccessful in gaining approval to renew a two-year supplemental levy or to pass a school plant facilities levy — voters cast 2,424 votes against the supplemental levy while 2,151 “yes” votes were cast, including ballots submitted by school district voters who live in Bonner County. The school plant facilities levy failed to reach the necessary 55% of voter approval to pass, as 2,314 voted against the measure while 2,231 voted in favor.

The losses brought renewed support for public education in both communities. In May, Coeur d’Alene School District voters overwhelmingly passed a $25 million-per-year, two-year supplemental levy, which received 17,620 (63.47%) votes in favor and 10,131 (36.53%) against. The district refrained from another attempt at a maintenance and operations levy.

Lakeland also claimed victory when its two-year, $9.5 million-per-year supplemental levy and $1.146 million-per-year school plant facilities levy were approved with 54% and 55.2% of the vote, respectively.

8. TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT CENTER

The Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization halted plans to consider a potential traffic management center after several meetings where residents cried out against the project. KMPO had been working toward the development of a regional traffic management center for several years as a way to mitigate the increasing traffic issues as Kootenai County's population booms. Traffic management centers are used to bring together resources from highway districts, cities and transportation departments to allow for joint management of traffic safety, mobility and information in a region. But with many residents voicing concerns over invasive surveillance, government overreach and more, the project hit a dead-end. 

9. COEUR d'ALENE ELECTION

Coeur d’Alene City Council incumbents scored big in November's highly contested general election.

Christie Wood easily defeated Seat 1 challenger Brian Winkler, 6,228 votes, 58%, to 4,447 votes, 33%.Dan Gookin ran away from Clark Albritton in the race for Seat 3, 6,371 votes, 67%, to 4,265 votes, 33%. Dan English, with 5,360 votes, 51%, cruised to victory over challengers Roger Garlock, 4,155 votes, 39%, and Rob Knutson,1,033 votes, 10%.

All positions are for four-year terms.

Gookin has been on the council since 2011, English since 2015 and Wood since 2019.

Gookin also had a run-in at an October meeting of the Kootenai County Republican Women Federated’s forum for registered Republican candidates. There were tears, raised voices, accusations and a microphone was pulled from Gookin's hands. 

Later that month,  the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee sued Gookin for defamation, according to a press release.

“The KCRCC appreciates that Gookin is entitled to engage in speech that is protected by the First Amendment,” the release said. “However, his recent statements have crossed the line from protected speech into unprotected defamation because they accuse KCRCC of rigging its 2023 candidate ‘rating and vetting’ process, perpetrating a fraud on its members, and violating campaign finance laws – things which simply have not happened.”

Gookin, a KCRCC precinct committeeman at the time, said people have free speech in the United States and have a right to criticize.

“It’s not defamatory, it’s not malicious. It is legitimate criticism,” he said.

10. CELL TOWERS

Cell towers were a point of contention in Kootenai County this year.

In January, county commissioners cast a split vote to nix a cell tower off Potlatch Hill Road, reversing their previous decision to approve it.

Community members provided overwhelmingly negative feedback about the proposed 150-foot lattice tower. The most frequent concern cited by residents was about the potential for lightning strikes, while others objected to the visual impact of the tower and theorized about health risks.

“We’re happy that the commissioners heard what we all had to say,” said Steve Petroskie, who lives near the site of the proposed tower. “We know this is a short-term win because AT&T will be back. But it’s good to know that, for now, the citizens were listened to.”

A proposal by Verizon to install a cell tower on Shadduck Lane and N. 15th Street was withdrawn in October.

The cell tower proposal met resistance from Shadduck Lane residents and others. One neighbor said the tower would be right outside his home. Some have said it would impact their property values and could impact their health, as well.

"Staff received a significant number of calls concerning the cell tower,"  City Community Planning Director Hilary Patterson  wrote in a previous email to The Press. "Some of the callers were inquiring about the analysis and if there was an independent RF (radio frequency)  technical review of the materials."

Any reconsideration of the cell tower would require a new application and associated fees.

    North Idaho College President Nick Swayne leaves the courtroom in June after a judge granted his lawyers' motion for summary judgment, permanently reinstating him as president.
  

    CLN Harrison: Tom Hanley speaks into the microphone during a meeting of the Community Library Network's board of trustees at the Harrison Library in September. From left: Tim Plass, Vanessa Robinson, Katie Blank, Lindsey Miller-Escarfuller, Hanley and Rachelle Ottosen.
  

    Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris displays two books from the Post Falls Public Library that he said have sexually explicit material.
  

    Jamie Smee, left, and Amy Hobson rally support for the Coeur d'Alene School District outside St. Thomas Center during the May levy election.
  

    KMPO: Attendees applaud a speaker who opposes a regional traffic management center during a Kootenai Metropolitan Planning Organization board meeting in June at Post Falls City Hall.