Panabaker Plans To Take His Populist Act On Road

An oversized gavel sitting on a cabinet in former Hayden Mayor Dick Panabaker’s office reads: “King Richard.”

But the gag gift belies his goal of becoming the new populist consensus-builder on the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners.

“I can’t sit in an office all day; I’ll gain 50 pounds,” the new commissioner said Monday. “I plan to be out talking with the people, spreading the word about what we’re doing.”

As Panabaker, 53, joined Bob Macdonald and newcomer Dick Compton on Monday for his first day in office, he said public relations has traditionally been the commission’s greatest weakness.

“During the election I went to a council meeting in Harrison and the people down there didn’t even know who their commissioner was,” Panabaker said. “They knew Frank Henderson and Bob Haakenson, but those guys have been gone for years.”

The folksy Idaho native sees his new job as a chance to reshape public perception of the board as leaderless, out of touch and given to petty feuds.

Dressed in an uncharacteristic three-piece suit for his swearing-in ceremony - the blue jeans fan jokes that he probably won’t wear another until his funeral - Panabaker said the all-GOP board already has agreed “not to cut each other’s throats” when the three men disagree.

The previous board took heat for bickering with Prosecutor Bill Douglas. Panabaker said such disputes should be quashed at their onset.

“Sure, there will be other feuds and I will make mistakes,” he said. “But we have good people working here and we need to be a team. The spirit of cooperation hasn’t been here.”

Unlike recent politically divided boards, the unity of this commission’s goals - lower taxes, more efficiency, less regulation - gives Panabaker and company an advantage.

“Not that we’ll always be marching in lock-step, but when your ideology is somewhat similar, it helps,” Compton said.

Panabaker, borrowing a page from former IBM executive Compton’s game book, says the secret will be marketing.

During his campaign, Panabaker panned a plan to build a $2 million county office building without voter approval. He since has acknowledged the proposal to erect the building through a lease-purchase agreement might be the best option.

“The people’s perception was it wasn’t a good plan,” Panabaker said. “It wasn’t marketed right.”

Panabaker said commissioners intend to host regular radio talk shows, and would like to work out a similar deal with cable television. He expects to spend much of his time out of the office visiting department heads and residents.

“The three of us are not smart enough to handle everything without hearing from people,” he said. Instead, commissioners hope to be “the catalyst that brings everything together.”