North Idaho College attorney bills approach $100K

COEUR d’ALENE — Since his hiring last August, North Idaho College attorney Colton Boyles has billed NIC more than $98,000.

Trustees and NIC President Nick Swayne discussed Boyles’ expenses at the two most recent board meetings. During the April 19 special meeting, Swayne indicated some of Boyles’ invoices contained “discrepancies.” The following week, he elaborated.

“Since we hired our new attorney in October, legal costs have been very, very high,” Swayne said during the April 24 meeting. “Part of my job as president is to control costs.”

Between August and December 2023, NIC paid Boyles $54,120 for legal services. Boyles billed the college $12,760 in January, $19,511 in February and $12,215 in March, according to public records obtained this week by The Press. Read the 2024 invoices at cdapress.com.

Boyles’ hourly rate is $275. NIC’s previous legal counsel, the Coeur d’Alene-based firm Lyons O’Dowd, billed the college at a rate of $200. Invoices examined by The Press show that most invoices issued by Lyons O’Dowd between December 2021 and July 2022 were for total amounts under $10,000.

The lowest bill from Lyons O’Dowd during that period was $4,375 in December 2021, while the highest was $14,460 in June 2022, the same month when NIC trustees hired Swayne. Many items on the invoice were related to reviewing and revising Swayne’s contract.

Swayne said analysis of Boyles’ invoices showed the attorney billed for “analysis” of different matters that was not shared with all trustees, as well as for research and numerous communications with board chair Mike Waggoner.

“I just think that we need to get our costs down under $10,000 a month, unless there’s some sort of an exceptional issue that comes up,” Swayne said. “The way we do that is by having questions flow through the chair and me, because a lot of the questions that are asked, I suspect, could be handled by experts in the field that are here on campus, without going to a legal expense.”

Boyles said he has no issue with Swayne’s requests.

“My interactions with President Swayne have been pleasant and we tend to work well together,” he said April 24. “I don’t have a problem going over line by line with him.”

After Swayne broached the topic April 18, trustees voted 3-2 the following week to change NIC policy and grant the board the authority to “approve presidential expenses and other approved board expenses such as monthly attorney fees or meeting expenses.” Trustees Tarie Zimmerman and Brad Corkill cast the dissenting votes.

Swayne suggested the board majority made the move in response to his questions about Boyles’ billing practices.

“This is like retaliating,” he said. “That’s what it’s about.”

He said he believes the policy change inappropriately interferes with college operations, which are within the president’s purview, not the board’s. He cautioned the move may reflect badly on NIC in the eyes of its accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

Zimmerman echoed the sentiment and urged Waggoner to oppose the policy change. 

“We are about to do something here that is not only going to cause problems with our own college, with our own policy, but quite possibly, probably, get us in trouble with NWCCU again,” she said.

Waggoner disagreed and cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the change.

“I don’t think this is a big deal,” he said.

The next NIC board meeting is scheduled for May 22.