Crowded races for GOP nominations

SANDPOINT — Competition is stiff for Bonner County elected offices in the May 25 primary election.

A crowded field of incumbents and challengers met at Sandpoint High School Thursday for candidate forum to present their platforms and take questions from an audience of about 130 people. The event was cosponsored by the Ponderay Economic Development Corp., the Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce and The Daily Bee.

The race for the District 2 and 3 commissioner positions each have three candidates in the running, while the assessor and treasurer’s races are head-to-head affairs.

In the District 2 race, incumbent Republican Joe Young played up progress in updating land use codes and maps, improving road maintenance programs and wrapping up a five-year project to relocate the troubled Green Owl waste collection site, which will eliminate the drag on taxpayer funds associated with having to continually clean up the site because of illegal dumping.

“That’s going to save money for everybody in this room,” said Young.

But one of his competitors, Republican Mike Nielsen, argued the county initially botched the relocation effort by overpaying for property on Peninsula Road and pledged to be more careful with tax dollars.

Nielsen said his law enforcement and administrative background has given him the planning and budgeting experience to spend wisely in tough economic times.

“I’ve got a lot of experience dealing with these recessionary issues,” said Nielsen. “I may spend my money freely, but I won’t spend yours freely.”

Patty Douglas Palmer, who has run as a Democrat and an independent in previous elections but is running as Republican for the District 2 nomination, went even further by saying she would work dissolve the EMS taxing district and disband the Planning Department if elected to office.

“We must cut, cut, cut — or we will begin to look like Greece,” she said, referring to the that nation’s economic turmoil.

Former Commissioner Gene Brown and Russ Schenck are running to unseat incumbent District 3 Commissioner Lewis Rich by securing the GOP nod.

Brown contends commissioners fritter away tax dollars through unnecessary travel and took credit for actually lowering taxes when he held office in the mid-1990s.

“I did something that has not happened since,” said Brown, who also blasted commissioners’ $56,000 salaries.

Schenck, meanwhile, said he would do a better job listening to constituents and cited his experience running an ambulance service, serving on Clark Fork City Council and as a fire chief.

“I want people to have a representative that will listen to them,” said Schenck.

Rich, who has served as commissioner for the past three years, emphasized his goals of accessible government, sensible environmentalism and defending private property rights. Rich defended his support of a floodplain variance that the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned could cause insurance rates to rise.

“I don’t believe the federal government should hold a county hostage,” said Rich.

In the treasurer’s race, incumbent Cheryl Piehl is looking to fend off John Maras for the GOP nomination. Piehl said she has held every position in her office before becoming treasurer.

“I know the job I’m doing. I’m doing it well and most importantly, I know the taxpayers,” she said.

Maras, who has an extensive background in accounting and financial management, feels more could be done to improve the treasurer’s office.

“My goal is to make the treasurer’s office the most efficient and effective in the state of Idaho,” Maras said.

A majority of the questions posed on Thursday involved the assessor’s race, which pits incumbent Jerry Clemons against former appraiser Tina Harvey, who earned the endorsement of the Selkirk Association of Realtors.

Clemons downplayed the endorsement as a decision reached by five people, not the association as a whole.

“Five people made the decision, not 310 (members of the association),” said Clemons, who added that his crackdown on homeowner exemption cheats brought the county more than a half a million dollars in back taxes, fees and penalties.

Harvey challenged Clemons’ level of his experience as assessor and said her 13 years as a county appraiser gave her intimate knowledge of values throughout the county.

“You shouldn’t settle for an assessor without appraisal experience,” said Harvey.