‘Huetter has no mayor’

A Kootenai County official will hold a public hearing Monday to determine whether the new mayor of Huetter, a new councilwoman and two other voters from November’s city election even lived in the tiny city sandwiched between Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.

The county removed Mayor Brad Keene and Councilwoman Jennifer Brown, both elected in November, from the voter rolls after the two failed to respond to challenges that they were ineligible to vote.

“As far as I can tell right now, Huetter has no mayor,” city attorney Art Macomber said.

County Clerk Dan English said November’s election in Huetter has spawned more challenges of voter eligibility than all other county elections combined in the dozen years he’s held office.

“There’s a lot of controversy and conflict and allegations back and forth about who lives there and who doesn’t live there,” English said.

He said he’ll use Monday’s hearing to determine whether Keene and Brown, as well as Huetter bar owner Lang Sumner and Jamee Pillmore, are residents of the city, population 100. The four could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Even if Keene and Brown are added back to the voter rolls, neither would be reinstated as city elected officials, unless the remaining members of the City Council appoint them to fill the positions, Macomber said.

Brown and Sumner disrupted the last council meeting, on Feb. 13, prompting other council members to walk out, Macomber said. That, he said, kept the council from voting on renewal of liquor licenses for Sumner’s Grail nightclub and another bar.

After the county pulled their voter registrations, Keene, Brown, Sumner and Pillmore went to the county elections office Feb. 14 and attempted to reregister as voters using the same Huetter addresses they listed previously, Macomber said. They caused a disturbance and the elections office called security and the police, he said.

English is asking anyone who might help establish whether the four are residents of Huetter to attend Monday’s hearing.

“There’s been enough controversy that I think it’s in the public’s interest to hold a hearing,” he said.

“The people having registered challenges, and voters at large in Huetter, deserve to have clarity.”

Thirty-two people cast ballots in Huetter races last November. Twelve of them had their voter eligibility challenged at the polls by other voters.

The county clerk cleared two of the challenged voters: former Mayor Jackie Meeks, who lost her re-election bid, and her husband, Dave Meeks, a council member who also was defeated in the election.

Dave Meeks said he and his wife challenged several of the voters, including Keene. “There are people that didn’t belong here that voted,” he said.

Several voters whose eligibility was challenged didn’t respond to the county’s inquiry.

The controversy that started at the polls escalated after the election. In a special council meeting Dec. 30, Councilman Ken Guenther resigned.

The remaining council members then appointed Jackie Meeks, the outgoing mayor, to replace Guenther.

Keene and Brown, who didn’t attend the Dec. 30 meeting, cried foul when they learned of the maneuver after taking office in January.