‘We Are A Tempestuous Little County’ As Controversies Pile Up, Some Residents Seethe At Bonner County’s Image As Home To Dysfunctional Wackos
FOR THE RECORD: 2-4-97 Three men charged with the Spokane Valley bombings and bank robberies are being investigated in connection with the bombing at last summer’s Olympics, but none of them has been named as a suspect in the case. A Sunday article indicated otherwise.
Widespread rancor in local government has turned Bonner County into a Rodney Dangerfield of sorts - it’s getting no respect.
Antics in this rural neck of North Idaho have people rolling their eyes, shaking their heads, and making jokes about a dysfunctional, cantankerous community.
“What hasn’t gone on in Bonner County?” said Jim Weatherby, director of public affairs at Boise State University and former director of the Association of Idaho Cities.
“I can’t think of any area of the state that has had as much controversy. It’s an area where with growth has come change and conflict. One kind of feeds on the other.”
Problems plaguing Sandpoint, the county, the school district and even local human rights groups have caused other counties and state agencies to shy away from this volatile community of 30,000 people. Business recruiters say the county’s reputation for instability will hurt the economy. Even the county’s insurance carrier is nervous about recent legal claims against local government.
“I think state government and other agencies are looking at Bonner County with a fairly jaundiced eye right now. Our dependability is suspect,” said former County Commissioner Steve Klatt. “We are a tempestuous little county, yet have some of the finest human beings I have ever met. Isn’t that ironic?”
Recent events blamed for marring the county’s image include:
New Bonner County commissioners Bud Mueller and Larry Allen have been in office only three weeks. In that time, three lawsuits have been filed against the county totaling about $10 million. The suits resulted from Mueller and Allen abolishing the building department and building codes.
While some residents talk openly of a recall effort, the commissioners have many supporters behind their efforts to reduce government.
The school district is being sued by one of its own trustees for not providing students with a thorough education. The same trustee wanted to turn over the keys to the financially strapped district to the state.
In the meantime, patrons are grumbling about $1 million in damage to schools from heavy snow and the superintendent’s $75,000 salary.
The city of Sandpoint still is recovering from a year-long battle over annexation. It tried to forcefully take hundreds of residents into city limits. Residents sued the city and won. Confusion then ensued about illegally annexed residents who helped vote in a new mayor, leaving the city in limbo for months.
Simmering beneath all of those problems is Bonner County’s reputation as a haven for bigots. Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman moved here nearly two years ago, drawing the national spotlight to Sandpoint and claims of racism against Fuhrman in connection with the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
More recently, three residents with ties to white supremacists were arrested and charged with bombings and a bank robbery in the Spokane Valley. One of the Sandpoint men is now a suspect in the bombing at last summer’s Olympics in Atlanta.
“People think we have gone crackers here,” said resident Shirley Ross, 68. “If it’s not Mark Fuhrman and the bombing suspects people are talking about, we have our homegrown politicians. I’m pretty disgusted with it all.”
Some have suggested renaming the area “Boner” County because of its radical antics and decision to abolish a 20-year-old building department. Residents in neighboring Kootenai County have coined the acronym CAVE, Citizens Against Virtually Everything, to refer to their neighbors to the north.
“We are dysfunctional and we’ve got some warts, some big ones,” said resident Doug Gallaher, 53. “But I love it here and I’m selfish. If our reputation keeps somebody from moving up here, it won’t bother me at all.”
While the turmoil can be laughable, some officials insist that damaged credibility already is taking its toll. The firm that audited the county declined to submit a bid this year. It had enough business dealing with “sane” counties, one county official said.
The county’s insurance carrier also is worried that the two new Republican commissioners will cost a fortune in lawsuits. After just one public meeting, three lawsuits were filed claiming the commission held an illegal meeting and improperly fired eight employees when it abolished the building department. It’s possible the county’s insurance coverage could be dropped.
“The insurance company is very concerned. That is a fact,” said Kootenai County Commissioner Dick Compton. He said he recently met with a member of the insurance board - another commissioner in a Panhandle county - who questioned him about Bonner County.
“There is a lot of stuff coming off the wall up there and they don’t know if they will be able to defend it,” Compton said. The insurance carrier - Idaho Counties Risk Management Program - covers most of the counties in the state. It is sending a board member to Bonner County to meet with the new commissioners about their “bonehead” decisions, said Dale Van Stone, Bonner County’s lone Democrat commissioner.
“With all the controversy up here, people are starting to get gun-shy and are backing away from dealing with us,” Van Stone said. “It doesn’t look good.”
Mueller and Allen defend their actions, saying they are keeping campaign promises to cut bureaucracy and reduce taxes. About 80 residents recently rallied for them at the courthouse.
Some people are bound to be upset, Allen has said, but he views winning the county election as a mandate from the people to get government “off the backs and out of the pockets” of taxpayers.
Weatherby said people across the state expected publicity coming out of a North Idaho courthouse after the last election.
“But we all thought it would be Ron Rankin and Kootenai County, not Bonner County.” Tax activist Rankin joined Kootenai County’s all-Republican commission at the same time Mueller and Allen took office in Bonner County.
“Bonner County is certainly on everyone’s mind and a topic of discussion when I go to meetings,” Compton said. “I think their credibility has been affected.”
He doesn’t pass judgment on Bonner County’s commissioners, but wants no part of their controversial issues. “Better there than here,” Compton chuckled.
Word of Bonner County’s troubles have rippled all the way to Boise.
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, is in her first weeks as a legislator. She’s been peppered with questions about Bonner County. The most often asked: “What the hell is going on up there?”
Keough wants to reform education funding and get Bonner County a bigger share. But the lawsuit filed by Bonner County school trustee Willard Osmunson against the school district and the state has hurt those chances. Osmunson said his district needs about $14 million more from the state to provide students a proper education.
The problem, Keough said, is other school districts pass bonds and levies to support their programs. Bonner County does not.
“Other senators have commented on that. There is some resentment that Bonner County is not taxing itself but asking for money from the state.”
The swirling problems will no doubt affect Bonner County’s economy, especially in attracting businesses to the area. It’s fine to have a reputation for being non-bureaucratic, but no one will invest in a community that is not stable, said Bob Potter, president of Job’s Plus, an economic development organization in Kootenai County.
“They are certainly not building a reputation for stability up there. I think an investor would be concerned about the turmoil with the school system, school board, building department and county commissioners,” he said. “Those are major problems.”
Harold Anselmo, 72, was a Bonner County commissioner for 18 years. He said the biggest problem used to be that southern Idaho didn’t know Bonner County existed.
That’s changed, but not necessarily the way Anselmo envisioned it. He doesn’t want Bonner County on the map for being “zany.”
“We just need to sit down, use a little common sense and handle these things,” he said. “You would have to be a fool right now to see what is going on in the city, county and school district and not say, ‘Damn, I’m glad that isn’t me.”’
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.