Dispute arises over filling Coeur d'Alene council post
COEUR d’ALENE — Woody McEvers isn’t even the city’s mayor yet, but he's facing his first fight.
“I didn't expect this,” McEvers said Wednesday, adding, “everybody has their thing.”
Effective Aug. 31, McEvers will become Coeur d’Alene’s mayor, stepping in for Jim Hammond, who resigned so he and his wife could move to Colorado to be closer to family.
That will leave a council seat open, and that’s where a dispute has arisen.
McEvers said he is considering “some people” for the post. Ideally it would be someone who has been around and has institutional city knowledge.
“Somebody who can hit the ground running,” he said.
McEvers said he is simply following the statue that allows the mayor to nominate a candidate for the open council seat.
A person could be nominated as soon as Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
“The mayor chooses. The council has to vote for it,” he said. “If they don’t like the person I choose, they can vote no. It’s out in the public.”
But council members Dan Gookin, Christe Wood and Dan English don’t think that's the best way to select a new council member.
The three signed a letter they shared this week with McEvers and The Press. In the first paragraph, they praised McEvers.
“Congratulations to our next mayor, current Council member Woody McEvers. We enthusiastically support him in this position due to his consistent dedication to the City of Coeur d’Alene, his positive attitude, his ability to work well with staff, and his willingness to do the job.”
But, they went on to state their opposition to the mayor's nomination of a council candidate, and instead, seek to “promote this vacancy and provide an opportunity for all interested citizens to apply.”
They wrote that they favor an open interview process at a televised public meeting.
“This is the process used by the Council in the past, as well as at North Idaho College and the CDA School District when a vacancy occurred,” the letter reads. “Candidates are asked to fill out an application and go through public interviews. If necessary, the field is narrowed. The goal is not only to be transparent, but to ensure that everyone gets a fair shake.”
Gookin said others are interested in the post. He said they want the process to be beyond question.
“Anything else that happens is going to stink of a backroom deal,” he said.
Gookin said he was told the appointment could be made at Tuesday’s council meeting, but he questions its legality, as McEvers will still be a council member.
“You can’t appoint for a vacancy when there is no vacancy,” he said.
He said it should be done Sept. 3, the first meeting McEvers will sit down as mayor.
“If there’s an appointment made (Tuesday), I will challenge it in court,” Gookin said.
City attorney Randy Adams said it would be legal to appoint a council member Tuesday.
"A person can be nominated to fill Woody’s prospectively vacant seat by the current mayor on Tuesday, August 20,” he wrote. “And council can legally vote whether to confirm that nomination prospectively on August 20.”
Adams said McEvers can vote because he will still be a council member Aug. 20. The council fills the position, so the mayor cannot vote to break a tie on his own nomination. The nomination will be confirmed only if at least four members of the council vote to confirm, Adams wrote.
He also addressed the question about the process by which the mayor determines who to nominate.
Adams pointed to Idaho Code § 50-704, which says: “A vacancy on the council shall be filled by nomination made by the mayor.”
“The statute simply says that the mayor will nominate someone and then council has to vote to confirm or reject the nominee,” Adams wrote.
He wrote that multiple governors and the Idaho Supreme Court “seem to have considered that a vacancy occurs on the date of resignation, not on the effective date of a resignation.”
He cited two Idaho cases, involving the retirements of Justice Daniel Eismann and Justice Stephen Burdick, in which a “vacancy” was deemed to have occurred upon the incumbent’s resignation, although the incumbent continued to hold office until after the date a replacement was selected.
“So, it is perfectly legal and very common for an office to be filled after a resignation but before the current office holder leaves office,” Adams wrote.
Wood said she, Gookin and English “are very committed to a public process.
“It has nothing to do with a person or who Woody would like to bring forward. That is not the issue at all," she said.
Wood said the process to fill the council seat needs to be outlined for the community before it's completed.
She said she is “not looking for any kind of disagreement over this," but as a retired police sergeant, said she is known as a “process and policy person.”
“Expectations of the public are that we would represent the citizens and include the citizens in the process,” she said.
English said finding a new council member is an important decision and he doesn’t want to hurry things.
He said the council could operate well with five members until a sixth is appointed.
“I can't remember any time I had to make an important decision as an elected official, or any other part of life, I had a problem with taking more time,” he said.
McEvers, who was elected to the council in 2002, said he respects Gookin, English and Wood and understands where they’re coming from. He said disagreements, and solutions, are part of government.
“We’ll get through it,” McEvers said.
He believes he is taking the correct course to fill the council seat.
“I'll do the best I can. That's all I got,” McEvers said.
With a chuckle, McEvers expressed a bit of exasperation at the situation before he's even become mayor.
“I hope I don't have to spend a lot of time doing this stuff,” he said.
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Editor's note: The letter to the editor referenced in this article will be published in its entirety in Friday's edition of the Press.
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