Anderson’s Mr. Blue Former Commissioner Returns To Post Falls Police Force

Former Kootenai County Commissioner Mike Anderson is back in Post Falls blue.

Anderson, 39, began work Tuesday as a patrolman with the Post Falls Police Department. He will replace an officer who left to work for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department, said Chief Cliff Hayes.

Anderson began working for Post Falls Police in 1988 as a patrol officer. He left as a captain in 1992 when he was elected to a two-year commissioner’s term.

He has since served as a reserve officer.

“I’m back at the bottom of the totem pole,” he said, adding that there are advancement opportunities “down the road.”

The Democrat lost a November 1994 re-election bid to Republican Hayden Mayor Dick Panabaker. He has since searched for work throughout the West as a police officer and county administrator.

“I was a finalist for a chief of police job on the coast, but I wasn’t too excited about leaving the area,” said the North Idaho native.

Anderson will make $11.06 an hour, about $23,000 a year. He made about $40,000 as a commissioner.

It’s a relief to be out of the commissioner’s office, he said.

“It was a very rewarding job, but a stressful one,” he said. “I was pulled every which way.

“My life is a lot calmer now.”

During his first election bid, Anderson took heat for his 1983 firing from the Kootenai County sheriff’s department.

He was dismissed for claiming another officer’s pistol as his own. He later admitted the lie, saying he was protecting a fellow cop.