New Legislator, Same Old Problem

There must be something in the Lake Pend Oreille water.

How else can you explain some of the silliness that has taken place in Bonner County recently?

In April, the Sandpoint City Council voted to evict the acclaimed Festival at Sandpoint from its waterfront setting after the 1997 season. And a teenager was searched after a suspicious-looking fern leaf was found next to his check stub in a garbage can.

Now, first-term legislator Carol Pietsch is threatening to help recall the three county commissioners, all Democrats like herself, unless they get busy with land-use planning. Curiously, the three, including newcomers Dale VanStone and Steve Klatt, are working to raise funds to develop a comprehensive plan.

The only area partisans who put on a better sideshow than Bonner County Democrats are their Spokane County brethren.

Spokane Democrats have floundered since November 1992 when a party official allegedly made a racial comment about the Chinese owners of the Davenport Hotel. The subsequent infighting grew so fierce that Washington Democrats moved their state convention from Spokane to Richland last year.

Meanwhile, in November 1992, a split in the Bonner County Democratic Party enabled brusque Republican Gene Brown to win a commissioner seat, launching two years of courthouse turmoil and recall threats. Many were relieved when Brown lost his re-election bid.

Enter Pietsch.

She demanded that commissioners impose a building moratorium throughout Bonner County, including in its cities, and believes they should be involved in solving sewer problems in Hope and Priest River. Never mind that county commissioners have no jurisdiction within city limits and that building moratoriums should be handled with care.

And if commissioners don’t meet the freshman legislator’s demands?

Pietsch spelled out the consequences in a four-page letter: “I will get help to circulate petitions that will recall you one at a time, with a great deal of help from fellow Democrats.”

Gadflies are important in party politics as well as local government. But Pietsch appears to be tilting at windmills without gathering all her facts.

That may not make for good government, but it sure has minority Republicans in her county smiling again.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board