City moves to swiftly end lawsuit

SANDPOINT — The city is moving to bring an abrupt end to Bonner County’s lawsuit over the Festival at Sandpoint’s prohibition against firearms during its summer concert series.

Counsel for the city moved for summary judgment on Tuesday, arguing that the dispute can be settled as a matter of law and without a trial because there is no genuine dispute as to any material facts, 1st District Court records show.

Bonner County filed for a judicial declaration that the city cannot infringe on the constitutional and statutory rights of residents by denying them the right to bear arms on public property during the Festival, which leases War Memorial Field for the annual waterfront concert series. Idaho law prohibits limitations on the right to possess firearms on public lands.

The county’s position is rooted in the Idaho Constitution and the supremacy of federal law, according to the city’s counsel.

“However, this case is about property rights, and specifically the property rights of a lessee. The laws of Idaho safeguard the fundamental right in property and the city acts in accordance with that law,” the city’s counsel, Coeur d’Alene attorney Peter Erbland, said in a 24-page memorandum in support of the motion for summary judgment.

Under the terms of the lease, the Festival is granted exclusive possession, use and occupancy during the event. The city is collecting a $1.25 surcharge from the Festival to compensate the city for use of the facility.

Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, a plaintiff in the suit, has contended that he would be complicit in a constitutional rights violation if somebody were to be arrested for carrying a firearm onto the Festival’s grounds and booked into the jail.

Erbland counters that such a scenario is flawed because an armed person who peaceably presents at the Festival and refuses to leave would be cited for a first-offense trespassing, an infraction which does not result in an arrest.

Moreover, Erbland argues that the county lacks standing to bring the legal action because its claims are based on a threatened harm and not an injury that has already occurred, according to the memo.

“Even if plaintiff’s legal position that a person carrying a firearm cannot be denied access to the Festival at War Memorial Field is correct, it’s not the plaintiffs who are threatened with harm, but the actual persons who would be denied access,” Erbland adds in the court filing.

Erbland also cites a Oregon court case involving a “virtually identical facts” in which a resident unsuccessfully challenged a lessee’s right to prohibit firearms during a New Year’s Eve celebration at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Sandpoint City Council President Shannon Williamson stated in a written declaration that the city plays no role in security policies enacted by lessees.

“The city has not adopted or enforced any law, rule, regulation or ordinance which regulates in any manner the possession or carrying of firearms on property leased from the city, including properties leased by the Festival,” Williamson said in the declaration.

The county’s response to the motion is pending.

Judge Lansing Haynes is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the motion on March 24.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.