Fire district flap heads to court

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners are asking a court to settle a dispute over the appointment of West Priest Lake Fire District commissioners.

The move comes more than a month after an alleged coup d’état mounted by state Rep. Eric Anderson, who contends all three commissioners should be ousted.

Anderson, a Priest Lake Republican and patron of the fire district, argues commissioners Jim Peirone, David Conboy and Robert Soden were illegally installed and said a special election should be held to appoint a new board, according to Bonner County Clerk’s Office records.

The office of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter briefly entered the fray last November by issuing a press release calling for appointees even though the positions were already filled.

“We were blindsided,” said Peirone, chairman of the volunteer commission.

The gubernatorial intervention raised eyebrows and questions about the propriety of the governor unilaterally dissolving a sitting commission and replacing it with another.

Suspicion grew that Anderson used his influence as a lawmaker to draw Otter into the dispute, but Anderson denied the allegation and said he had contacted the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office to look into the matter.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” Anderson said at the time.

Ann Beebe, the governor’s special assistant for boards and commissions, said she was approached by the prosecutor’s office about appointing new fire commissioners.

But the governor’s office abruptly withdrew from the issue, saying it was unclear if there were indeed valid vacancies on the board.

“The governor’s not going to be appointing anybody to that board,” Beebe said last month.

The district, formed in 1987, has never held an election, according to available county records. Appointees have simply passed the torch to successors because none of the positions were ever contested.

County commissioner Mike Nielsen, who represents the Priest Lake area, said he is not surprised the district has not had contested races for its board.

“It is so hard to get people to stand up and be a volunteer for a fire district,” he said. “It’s not a paid position, so you’re arm-twisting to get people to do it.”

The prosecutor’s office analysis, however, revealed that the positions up for election were not included in the election calendar, notice that residents can declare their candidacy was not properly published and there was not specificity about which positions were up for election, said Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer, the county commission’s civil counsel.

County election records indicate some notices were published as legal advertisements, while others were published as display ads.

Nielsen chalked up the lapses to the state’s migration to consolidated elections, which placed the burden of conducting elections on counties instead of individual taxing districts. Meanwhile, there was turnover in the clerk’s office elected and appointed staff, he added.

The analysis further showed that the fire district was never divided into three sub-districts, although county commissioners adopted a sub-district map last month to correct the oversight.

Bauer said the Idaho Secretary of State’s office advised the county to have a district judge rule on the legality of the current appointments and if there is a need for special election.

County commissioners unanimously agreed last Tuesday to take up that advice.

Anderson declines to discuss the matter any further and did not responded to messages seeking comment.