Five candidates seek election to Kootenai Hospital District's nonfunctional board

COEUR d’ALENE — Three seats on the Kootenai Hospital District board of trustees are up for election in May, but the winning candidates will sit on a board with no assets or operations.

Kootenai Health completed a conversion from a hospital district model to a 501(c)3 on Jan. 1, 2024, giving up its taxing authority, sovereign immunity and power of imminent domain. All of the hospital district’s assets were conveyed to the nonprofit at that time. The trustees who were in place at the time of the conversion formed the initial board for the nonprofit. 

Before the conversion, Kootenai Health was one of only 22 hospital districts of a similar size left in the United States. In the Pacific Northwest, only one other large hospital with more than 300 beds exists: Evergreen Health in Kirkland, Wash. 

Administrators said in 2022 that they believed Kootenai Health had outgrown the hospital district model and the region would be better served by the nonprofit model. 

The hospital district board is nonfunctional, with no employees, assets or operations. Still, Idaho law requires the trustees to continue to meet — which they do monthly, for about five minutes — and elections to continue until the hospital district is dissolved. 

Elizabeth Godbehere, Luke Sommer, Cynthia Clark, David Bobbitt and Karina Angiletta are running for the three positions up for election May 20. The hospital district’s elected board has limited authority. 

“They don’t have any assets or operations to run,” said Joel Hazel, chief legal officer for Kootenai Health. “The only thing that's within their power is to levy taxes for a hospital they don't have.” 

Kootenai Hospital District has not exercised its taxing authority since 1995. 

Under Idaho law, dissolution of a hospital district can occur in two ways. The first way is through a voter petition process. Alternatively, any hospital district that has ceased to function for two or more years may be dissolved by the board of county commissioners where it is located. 

In Kootenai County, the hospital district will be eligible for dissolution Jan. 1, 2026. 

“We certainly intend to request that the commissioners dissolve the hospital district in early 2026, pursuant to the statute, because it is not serving any function,” Hazel said. 

In the meantime, the elected board has no authority over the nonprofit. 

“If a majority of the board declared itself functioning, they couldn’t get the assets back,” Hazel said. “It’s like closing on a house. After closing, you can’t demand the house back. All assets of the hospital district have been legally conveyed to the 501(c)3.”