Katie Brodie has tough act to follow

An old saying goes: The more things change, the more they remain the same.

When Kootenai County Commissioner-elect Katie Brodie is sworn into office Monday, she and holdover Commissioners Gus Johnson and Rick Currie will face familiar challenges: an overcrowded jail, dwindling open space above the region’s source for drinking water, fallout from a serious wastewater spill at the refueling depot near Hauser Lake and the need to expand the county’s half-cent sales tax.

The trio, however, won’t face a full-scale overhaul of the way the county does business or watch as tax dollars are flushed away in the form of leases to provide county office space – thanks to outgoing Chairman Dick Panabaker and others who smoothed the way for them by making tough decisions over the last 10 years. During his tenure as a commissioner, Panabaker set a high standard for achievement, public service and fearless votes. Brodie will do well to follow his example.

She’ll have a chance to make her mark immediately.

Although it cost him political capital, Panabaker made the right decision in casting a key vote to support construction of the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe refueling depot. The decision forced the railroad to meet tough conditions before the depot could be opened and enabled the county to maintain some oversight of the operation. As a former planning commissioner who knows the intricacies of special use permits, Brodie is in a good position to demand that the requirements be reviewed for compliance in the aftermath of the serious wastewater spill at the depot last month.

Kootenai County commissioners have no greater duty than to protect the Spokane Valley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer.

Brodie and the board face another decision that will affect the region – whether to push to extend the county’s half-cent sales to pay for another jailhouse expansion or to lobby the Legislature to use the tax for something else. Under state law, the local-option tax can be designated only for jail expansions. In November, however, 75 percent of Kootenai County voters supported expanding the tax for other big-ticket items, such as the purchase of open space on the Rathdrum Prairie. The tax is popular in Kootenai County because it has provided millions of dollars in property tax relief and forced visitors to help pay for a $12 million jail expansion.

With Sheriff Rocky Watson clamoring for another expansion, it isn’t hard to predict the county’s taxpayers will opt to spend their half pennies for a bigger jail rather than incur bonded indebtedness or pay for more desirable projects.

Brodie will enter office with the gale-wind support of fickle groups like Concerned Business of North Idaho and determined to run the county like a business – much as Panabaker did 10 years ago. Along the way, though, Panabaker discovered the county wasn’t a business and lost enough support to be unseated in last May’s Republican primary. It’ll be interesting to see if Brodie can go it alone at times, too.