Palmer would dissolve EMS

SANDPOINT — Patty Douglas Palmer plans to dissolve the county’s ambulance district and dismantle the planning and juvenile detention departments if she’s elected to the Bonner County commission.

Palmer is challenging incumbent District 2 Commissioner Joe Young and Priest Lake Search & Rescue Commander Mike Nielsen for the Republican nomination in Tuesday’s primary election.

Palmer, a former county Planning & Zoning commissioner, contends the EMS taxing district was enacted illegally.

“I do believe the ambulance district was created without the benefit of the law,” said Palmer, a 72-year-old who unsuccessfully ran for commissioner as a Democrat in 2008.

Palmer contends private industry and existing fire districts can provide EMS in a more cost-effective manner with less impact to landowners. She also asserts that the Planning Department is a needless bureaucracy because neighboring landowners can either work through their disputes or take them to 1st District Court to be settled.

Palmer also wants to strip county employees and officials of county credit cards and questions whether so many employees really need county-issued mobile phones and Internet connections at their desks.

“I just want to do some general cutting,” Palmer said.

Palmer disputes county officials’ assertions that it would be costlier to transport and hold juvenile detainees at a regional lockup in Coeur d’Alene than it would be to build a new facility here.

“We need to close down the department,” Palmer said, referring to juvenile detention and probation. “It would be much more cost effective.”

Palmer, a former paralegal who moved here from Florida in 1981, considers herself a government watchdog, while others deride her as a malcontent and her legal takes as LAPD — Law According to Patty Douglas.

But Palmer brushes aside such criticisms.

“I’m the most qualified person— more than anyone running,” she said. “I know the law and you have to go by the law.”