Gus Johnson’s trip questioned

With only two months left in office, Kootenai County Commission Chairman Gus Johnson is in Charleston, S.C., this week for a conference on using a new computer system that keeps the county’s property and tax records.

Johnson and at least eight other county employees, mostly from the assessor’s office, are attending the Pro Val International User Group conference at a price tag of $1,800 per person for the weeklong educational seminar in the historic coastal city.

Johnson didn’t return messages left on his cell phone Wednesday. Commissioner Rick Currie said it’s a justified trip, even if the chairman has only about 60 days left in office and likely won’t have any further dealings with the Pro Val software that generates assessment notices and tax bills, plus keeps records of who owns land in the county and its value. The $870,000 system, which the county has been converting to over the past several years, also houses the address lists and maps that assist the county’s emergency 911 system. It replaces the failing Legacy software that the county bought used in 1978.

“Gus is still a commissioner and he’s responsible for (oversight of the system),” Currie said.

Johnson has been involved in securing the new system for at least four years, even before the county asked for bids from various software companies, Currie added. “I see absolutely nothing wrong with Gus still being involved,” he said.

Currie said he’s unsure how Johnson will pass on the information when he leaves office in January. But he added that Johnson is the best person to attend the conference because he is more “computer literate” than both Currie and Commissioner Katie Brodie.

Both Johnson and Brodie were defeated in the May Republican primary. Republican Todd Tondee, a Post Falls councilman, and independent Tom Macy are vying in Tuesday’s election to fill Johnson’s seat. Republican Rich Piazza, who has no challenger, will replace Brodie.

Both Macy and Tondee said it’s an unwise use of county funds to send an outgoing commissioner on a trip to Charleston, where the temperatures have been in the high 70s all week.

Tondee said Assessor Mike McDowell, who also is attending the conference, was the appropriate elected official to send.

Tondee wasn’t aware of the conference and said he doesn’t know the specific purpose for Johnson’s attendance.

“I don’t know what benefit he could derive from it,” Tondee said.

Macy said the county shouldn’t have paid for Johnson’s trip.

“He’s going to be looking for work in January,” Macy said. “Maybe he’s looking to be hired (in the assessor’s office). I don’t know why else he would go.”

Neither candidate took issue with the other county employees’ participation because they are the ones who will use the complex system.

McDowell, a Republican, has a token third-party challenger in the assessor’s race. Libertarian John Gessner admits that McDowell likely will win but that he doesn’t want any candidate to run unopposed.

County Finance Director David McDowell, the assessor’s brother, said county employees attended a similar conference last year.

“It’s very important to us for providing a better-quality product,” David McDowell said of the conference.

Conference organizers offered participants a historic tour of Charleston for an extra $45 or a tour of Fort Sumter, where the Civil War began, for $39.

On Sunday there was also a world-class golf outing for $73, according to the conference brochure on the company’s Web site.

Johnson is an avid golfer, according to a profile of the commissioner on the Kootenai County Web site.