EDITORIAL: Never a dull moment at NIC

So attorney Art Macomber picked up his heavy sack of North Idaho College gold and uttered some angry, unintelligible lawyerspeak as he stormed out into the night.

Quitting never looked so good.

So longtime Trustee Todd Banducci’s soapy water-sogged arms and feelings are hurt after the alleged assault by a former NIC employee who blamed Banducci for his contract evaporating like so much trustee bluster.

North Idaho citizens who lean left know what it’s like to feel threatened, both with Banducci roaming the NIC campus with his particular brand of bullying but more so from invasions by Patriot Front hooligans, Aryan Nations wannabes and the latest waves of extremist nationalists sinking their stakes in Kootenai County.

Given that understanding, there is no justification for violence, no matter how unpopular or harmful the recipient might be deemed. Sorry, but you can’t call it karma, Banducci getting physically what he has long dished out verbally. In no way is assault OK.

Just one such incident does damage far beyond Banducci’s body or feelings. The side that’s rightfully outraged at the possible annihilation of NIC by Banducci and his cohorts surrenders untold buckets of credibility in the public eye by breaking the law.

Supporters of the far-right trustees and their now former attorney can point at an assault on one of their brethren as proof that the “other side” is neither enlightened nor law-abiding. It takes just one nasty splash to create a tidal wave of opposition.

Now, back to the attorney business.

We agree with Trustees Banducci, Greg McKenzie and Mike Waggoner that replacing Macomber — who charged far more than his predecessor — should be a very deliberate and hopefully competitive process. The trustees were justified in putting the brakes on hiring a Boise firm that could charge up to $765 an hour, depending on the issue and the lawyer best suited to handle it.

The problem, though, isn’t just the open-ended possibility that the firm’s most expensive attorney could ring up legal bills more than three times what Macomber’s longtime predecessor, Marc Lyons, typically charged.

The problem is that Banducci, McKenzie and Waggoner are toxic enough as elected officials that many qualified attorneys wouldn’t take the job for $7,650 an hour. Careers could wreck quickly on the rocky shores created by those three.

That’s why a new call for a legal contractor is in order. While waiting to see if a fully qualified and more affordable lawyer doesn’t materialize, NIC should negotiate with the Boise firm to see if the top end of the scale can be reconfigured to something both parties could live with.

Quality will cost, however, so brace yourselves for a bucket of cold water on the college's legal budget.