Howell named interim plan director

The Kootenai County commission appointed an interim planning and building director Thursday to fill temporarily the key vacancy that has been open since June.

With just six days left in office, Commissioners Gus Johnson and Katie Brodie approved the appointment of former Planning Director Cheri Howell, who served as director for seven years before resigning in 2001. Howell returned to the county in February as a senior planner to oversee long-range planning, including the rewrite of the county’s growth plan.

Commissioner Rick Currie, the only remaining commissioner, also approved Howell as manager of the planning and building departments, which together have about 33 employees, until the new commission can hire a director.

Commissioners-elect Rich Piazza and Todd Tondee, who will be sworn in Jan. 8, both agreed with the appointment but questioned why it hadn’t been done sooner.

Brodie said she wished that the county had made the move months ago, right after Planning Director Rand Wichman resigned. She said the commission at the time felt it seemed unfair to put a current employee in that position while the county searched for the perfect candidate.

But that search didn’t go as quickly as the commission planned, and the job remains open six months later.

The new commission might consider hiring a headhunter to find the best candidate to fill the crucial position in the quickly growing resort county. Both Tondee and Piazza said hiring a director is a top priority when they get into office next month.

Howell said she’s not interested in the job, which paid Wichman $67,000 a year.

“This is definitely to assist the new county commission with the transition,” she said.

The commission decided to tap Howell’s knowledge and management skills after recent concerns about who was watching the departments’ budgets, Currie said. The commission noticed that 80 percent of the planning department’s travel budget had already been spent in the first two months of fiscal year 2007.

“We had to go to three different people to get answers,” Currie said. “We want to have one person looking over that.”

He added that the spending, to send four employees to an upcoming planning seminar, proved legitimate.

Piazza questioned why Johnson wasn’t providing that oversight since he moved into the vacant office in August to gain a better understanding of the position. Johnson didn’t return phone calls Thursday.

“Without having a real director down there, they needed some direction on some things,” Johnson said in an August interview.

Planning staff said previously that Johnson only spent a few days in the department.

In addition to managing the budget and staff, Howell will continue her work overseeing the rewrite of the county’s comprehensive plan, the foundation of all land-use decisions.

Howell resigned from her job with the county in 2001, saying she wanted to pursue a new career. At the time, the commission, including Johnson, said the county needed a change of direction in the planning department.

In March 2001, Johnson said that Howell turned in her resignation before the commission “spoke to her about any issues.”

After her departure, Howell started a private planning consultation business representing developers such as Kirk-Hughes Development, which wants to build the Chateau de Loire golf retreat on the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene, and the small Kootenai County cities of Huetter and Fernan.

Howell said she ended all her planning contracts, except with the city of Dalton Gardens, when she returned to the county in February. She is still working with Dalton Gardens on long-range planning but said it’s not a conflict for the county.

Local attorney Scott Reed, who often represents neighborhood groups fighting developments in the county, said he sees no problem with Howell serving as interim director.

But local activist Bev Twillmann of Neighbors for Responsible Growth said Johnson and Brodie have no business making decisions in the days before they leave office. She is upset the commission recently appointed two new members to the county Planning Commission instead of waiting for Piazza and Tondee to take office.

“I think the citizens of Kootenai County are owed an apology,” Twillmann said. “They are doing things that are hurting Kootenai County.”

Twillmann and members of other neighborhood groups attended the Planning Commission’s organizational meeting Thursday night and asked them to include residents in the drafting of the new comprehensive plan. Twillmann argues the public is being left out of the process.

The volunteer Planning Commission is made up of local residents.