BOCC fills planning, zoning seats

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners met Tuesday to hear from several department heads and work through a long agenda. 

The business meeting was District 3 Commissioner Ron Korn’s first since joining the BOCC on Sept. 30. Korn was appointed by Gov. Brad Little to complete the term of former commissioner Luke Omodt after his resignation took effect Sept. 7. 

Korn is the Republican party nominee for the seat and is running against independent candidate Glenn Lefebvre in the November election. 

In a pair of action items, Planning Director Jake Gabell brought forth recommended candidates to fill open seats on the county’s planning and zoning commissions.  

According to Gabell, the four openings on the planning commission were due to a combination of term expiration, resignation, and removal of former commissioners. All three county commissioners voted to appoint Eric Hidden, Peter Taylor, and Erik Leavitt, and to reappoint Don Davis. 

The two openings on the zoning commission were due to term expirations, Gabell said. The county commissioners voted unanimously to appoint recommended candidates Brett Blaser and Jeffrey Poulsen. 

“When we did these interviews, we specifically looked at where the districts were that they were coming from and what their background was,” board chair Asia Williams said of evaluating candidates. 

“I think this hiring of the planning and zoning did a good job of looking at the community concerns with respect to the background of the people on the board itself,” said Williams. 

Tuesday’s meeting also saw an item introduced by Williams designed to address leakage in the county budget.

Williams shared that utility bills for water, sewer, electricity, gas, and irrigation at the Bonner County fairgrounds are being paid with funds from the county’s general fund. She then requested that Bonner County Fair begin to pay the bills. 

“I checked with auditing; the fair has money within their account to pay their bills moving forward,” Williams said. “I also checked with legal, ‘Is the county responsible for this or is the fair responsible?’ And the fair is responsible for these bills.” 

Bonner County Fair Manager Mark Knapp asked the commissioners for a 30-day extension of the current arrangement to allow the fair’s board to examine its budget and create a plan for taking on the bills. 

“I understand us being responsible for it — no problem,” said Knapp of the costs. “I’m not asking for more than just a little bit of time to research this stuff and get some more information.” 

Both parties agreed to a three-week extension of the existing arrangement before Bonner County Fair assumes responsibility for the bills. Williams said she worked with county staff to identify the leakage and propose a solution. 

“You're going to see probably more of this as we go through it,” Williams said of auditing the county’s budget. “But our job is to do it publicly — to fix it, and to create a plan that makes it so it doesn't happen.” 

“We have to address it, because we have an obligation to the county as a whole,” she said.