Commissioners Must Be Dreaming

Bonner County has cornered the market on zany government.

In recent years, a school board ordered administrators to storm an elementary school and interrogate the staff. A superintendent threatened teachers with bodily harm. Tax rebels targeted five county officials for recall because they opposed a deep budget cut. A commissioner punctuated two troubled years by insisting on his right to carry a firearm in the courthouse. An unpopular annexation that was declared illegal almost overturned Sandpoint’s 1995 election results.

If the first week under Republican Commissioners Bud Mueller and Larry Allen is an indication, however, the craziest times are yet to come.

Like Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts, Mueller and Allen opened their regime by lopping off heads. They fired the entire building department, the road supervisor and the solid waste director, while hinting more heads will roll.

Curiously, they ordered the axings only two days after handing out a policy that said they’d listen to the public and treat constituents with respect. Apparently their idea of “open goverment” means: If we agree with you, speak; otherwise, shut up. Tweedledee and Tweedledum permitted only two of 100 people to discuss the proposed firings at a meeting Wednesday.

Contractor Ivan Rimar described the Black Wednesday scene this way: “Any sane person seeing that meeting has to say something is wrong here, kind of like watching the videotape of the Rodney King beating.”

Already, real estate agents, bankers, contractors and business owners are lining up to sue the commission, claiming it guillotined the building department at an illegal meeting. The fired workers, some of whom had served Bonner County for years, are planning a suit, too. Residents who’ve paid for pending inspections are worried they won’t get their money back. And the Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce is concerned the county will be liable if someone suffers injuries from an uninspected home.

Usually, a major policy change as radical as the one made by Bonner County takes time. The commissioners should have sought input from those directly involved in their decision. They should have held workshops. They should have appointed a committee. Even building department critics believe Mueller and Allen went too far.

As Alice would say, local government in Bonner County keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

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