Acts Of Commission: Office Has A Bad Rep Scandal Over Ambulance Dispute Latest Blow To County Leadership

An ambulance controversy involving a dying man left Robin Ricks disgusted with Kootenai County.

Ricks and other county residents believe political wrangling between ambulance companies hampered a routine emergency call and may have hastened the man’s death.

“The care of the individual should come first - that’s what ‘s disgusting about it,” says Ricks, a Coeur d’Alene man who followed the incident in the newspaper and on television. “It’s idiotic, fighting over who takes what where, when a man’s life is at stake.”

Jon Hall’s much-publicized Dec. 10 ambulance ride and the uproar that followed captured the image problems new county commissioners say their office must overcome.

Public perception wouldn’t carry such weight, say public reaction experts and political watchers, if the commissioners office didn’t have the reputation of being indecisive, leaderless and prone to political in-fighting. Disputes over ambulance service, for example, have continued for a decade.

Previous county commissioners stumbled their way through public relations liabilities, including these:

Last summer’s bungled building project for the Sheriff’s Department left commissioners, contractors and cops pointing fingers at one another; A feud developed between Prosecutor Bill Douglas and commissioners when the commissioners assembled their own legal staff;

A five-year controversy over a Cataldo woman’s dog kennel lingers unsolved.

“If people have confidence in you, they’ll give you a chance and say ‘let’s wait and see what the whole story is before we pass judgement,’” says political insider and consultant Lori Barnes. “If they don’t, they’ll assume the worst.”

Commissioners say paramedics on Dec. 10 correctly ignored an on-scene ambulance and called another to transport Hall. They say there was no territorial dispute.

“The public forgets the guy weighed 455 pounds” and wouldn’t have fit on the waiting van’s gurney, says Commissioner Dick Panabaker. “Instead it’s two ambulances fighting over jurisdiction. That’s what they see.”

Kootenai County’s plentiful media - television stations in Spokane, radio stations , numerous newspapers - make handling such gaffes complicated, says Ken Degerness, a public relations consultant who worked on former House Speaker Tom Foley’s campaign.

“Competition for stories is greater, so you have more eager reporters trying to get the best spin on the story to get more readers or listeners,” he says.

The commissioners’ slow release of information from the ambulance incident kept the story alive for days. Commissioners need to talk straight and talk quickly - in the press and in public, he says.

While warning the quick - and weong - information will also cause PR nightmares, Degerness insists, “You have to get it (information) out there.

“(President) Clinton, for example, has been on the defensive so much, he hasn’t talked enough about what he has done.”

Language is important, too, experts say. New politicians often slip into platitudes and governmentese, Degerness says.

Of course, the best PR is good work, and past and present commissioners concede much of the office’s image is deserved.

Republican Dick Compton says he ran for office to provide leadership and end in-house bickering. Forner Commissioner Bob Haakenson took on Democrat Mike Anderson in the May 1994 primary election in part because of delays in adopting a comprehensive plan.

Good leaders also must get along, stay in touch with their constituents and fulfill their promises.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, experts say.

The commissioners should work well together, since they have similar ideaologies, Haakenson says.

But one-party borads can pose their own liability.

“You might have a tendency to rubber-stamp things without true debate,” he says.

The personality mix might mean more conflict than most envision, Haakenson says.

“Dick Compton is a strong personality,” he says. “Bob Macdonald is more easygoing and doesn’t want to get fussed up. Panabaker knows you sometimes have to bump heads to get what you want.”

Fulfilling promises is toughest and most inmportant, says John Robideaux, a political image-maker who helped George Nethercutt unseat Foley.

“People today want action,” he says. “They don’t want studies and committees and a process that takes weeks before nothing gets done.”

Commisssioners might want to look at Republicans in Congress. They have their Contract with America. The county leaders need a similar device, Robideaux says: A specific list of priorities.

Compton, who has been in office a month, says commissioners will meet with department heads next month to do just that. Commissioners have asked other officials to come prepared to talk about what works and what doesn’t.

Good work, unsung, is not enough.

“Elected officials need to come to us more,” says Barnes. “People are so busy, they need to see commissioners on their turf.”

Commissioners need to share their successes through newsletters, radio shows, town meetings, visits to civic groups - “anything that lets the people hear them,” she says.

Compton wants to expand the commissioners’s Wednesday radio appearances on KVNI and mabye include community-access television. He also is considering a resident survey this spring.

Some local governments hold seminars for their officials on how best to solicit and give feedback, but that has drawbacks too.

“The public doesn’t want to think they’re being sold a bill of goods,” Barnes says.

Commissioners have about three months before residents lose their honeymoon-phase faith, Robideaux says.

“It’s like making a movie,” he says. “You have to shoot the first scene right away and get it in the can. The rest will come in time.”

Commissioners say they know the pressure is on for them to produce.

“I think everyone wants to feel good about their government,” Compton says. “You can’t do it with mirrors.”