CdA incumbents prevail

Coeur d’Alene voters let two longtime City Council members and former mayors keep their jobs Tuesday while electing Planning Commission Chairman John Bruning to an open seat.

Councilman Ron Edinger, a former mayor in the 1970s and the longest serving councilman with 33 years of service, led challenger Dan Gookin all night, winning with 54 percent, or 2,626 votes.

Councilman Al Hassell, a mayor between 1986 and 1998, beat three challengers with 43 percent of the vote. Jim Brannon captured 39 percent.

Bruning, who has been a Planning Commission member for 25 years and board chairman for 20 years, won easily against four challengers with 48 percent of the vote. He will replace Councilwoman Dixie Reid, who opted not to seek re-election.

Across Kootenai County, voter turnout was low – about 21.5 percent.

Gookin and Brannon both challenged the incumbents, arguing it’s time for new leadership. Gookin, a technology writer, argued that the council is disrespectful to residents, and he questioned the city’s urban renewal agency’s use of tax dollars, especially for private development.

Post Falls voters defeated a plan to save the old City Hall building and appeared to favor longevity and civic involvement in electing three City Council members.

Keeping the old building after a new City Hall opens next spring would have cost taxpayers $1.2 million. The measure failed by a 3-to-1 margin.

Even fewer voters supported the one-time tax levy that would have raised money for needed repairs to the 1970s-era building.

In council races, Kerri Thoreson, Skip Hissong and Linda Wilhelm beat out five other candidates to capture three City Council seats.

Bob Templin, founder of Red Lion Templin’s Resort, led the charge to save the old concrete-block City Hall, saying the building should be kept for public use. City leaders said the plan didn’t make sense. The city plans to tear down the building next year.