Ruling pending in levy lawsuit

SANDPOINT — First District Judge Barbara Buchanan said on Wednesday she would issue a written decision within 30 days on cross motions for summary judgment in the legal controversy over the Lake Pend Oreille School District’s permanent levy.

Counsels for landowner Don Skinner and the school district agree that the matter can be adjudicated as a matter of law and without a trial because there is no genuine dispute as to any material facts. However, that is the extent of the area of common agreement.

Skinner’s counsel, Sandpoint attorney Stephen Smith, argued on Wednesday that the results of the Nov. 5, 2019, levy election should be nullified because sample ballots and the ballots cast by voters did not contain language outlining the tax impacts of the $12.7 million levy. Smith contends that two sections of state law require such language to appear on the ballots.

“The only reasonable thing to do is re-run the election,” Smith said during oral arguments on his motion for summary judgment.

Smith pointed to a declaration from Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale which indicates the district can ask voters six more times for levy additional approval before approved levy funding dries up. Moreover, Rosedale said in the declaration, the elections would not cost the district anything because Bonner County conducts elections under state law.

The district’s counsel, Coeur d’Alene attorney Caitlin Kling, maintained that the burden of proving the alleged ballot defect rested with plaintiff, who must show that the irregularity would have a produced a different outcome in the election.

Kling further argued that Idaho Supreme Court case law holds that statutes are mandatory if they’re invoked before a school district election, but become directory after the election is held in order to preserve the will of voters who cast ballots.

“It’s a mandatory standard before the election and it’s directory after,” Kling said.

Smith said the legal standard promoted by the school district would be practically impossible to attain because thousands of voters would have to sit for depositions, which would violate a voter’s constitutional right to privacy about how they voted. As a result, Smith called a trial “unwieldy, enormous and unthinkable.”

“We have to do something that makes common sense,” Smith said, referring to another levy election.

Kling agreed that Skinner would be unable to meet the burden and added that there was nothing in the pleadings which alleged the district acted in bad faith or negligently by omitting the tax impact language.

“The district, at all times, acted in good faith,” Kling said.

Buchanan said she would issue a decision within 30 days, but likely sooner than that.

“Obviously, it’s an important decision,” Buchanan said.

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