Otter shouldn’t be stumbling over appointee’s conviction

Susan Kiebert did Gov. Butch Otter a favor Monday by swiftly leaving the Idaho Judicial Council, the panel that vets judicial appointments and investigates complaints against judges.

“I don’t want this hanging in the air,” Kiebert told me.

Kiebert said she was surprised to learn that her 1995 federal conviction for making false statements remained on her record. She said she assumed it was expunged after she completed probation, paid a fine and restitution. “I would never have put myself through this, nor would I have put Gov. Otter or Sen. (Denton) Darrington through this,” she said.

Darrington, R-Declo, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and postponed Monday afternoon’s confirmation vote on the October appointment after I told him about the conviction.

“You expect the highest degree of ethics when you’re on the Judicial Council sitting on potential discipline of judges and appointment of judges,” he said.

Four hours later, Kiebert gracefully resigned.

But Otter, who also appointed Kiebert’s husband, Kermit, to the Department of Environmental Quality Board, was mum.

“No comment,” he told me, saying he was headed to his office to read the confirmation paperwork.

What Otter found on his desk was Kiebert’s answer – “No” – to this question: “Have you ever been found guilty of, pled guilty to, or received a withheld judgment for a felony violation of any federal or state law?”

Yes, Kiebert is accountable for failing to disclose a criminal record available online on the U.S. District Court’s website.

But Otter and his staff are culpable as well.

The case was a big story when Otter was lieutenant governor. Kiebert, then Susan Ohman, oversaw federally-funded Head Start programs in Eastern Idaho. She resigned after the Idaho Falls Post Register reported financial irregularities in 1993.

A jury convicted her in 1995. She was sentenced to two years of probation, paid a $2,500 fine, $4,161 in restitution and $195 monthly probation costs, completing probation in 1998.

Kiebert’s false statement was that the agency she directed bought a 1987 Isuzu Trooper through the Idaho Transportation Department. In fact, she bought a 1984 Trooper owned by then-ITD Director Kermit Kiebert, who she subsequently married. The agency paid $2,750 for a vehicle with 127,000 miles, and spent $4,900 on repairs, including an engine and body work.

The jury deadlocked on a count of theft from a government program: $10,000 spent on windows and a roof on a house in Driggs owned by her then-husband, John Ohman, a former ITD board chairman who had hired Kiebert as ITD director.

Kermit Kiebert is no ordinary former Senate Democratic leader. The John-Susan-Kermit love triangle was part of the trial and staple Statehouse gossip. Kermit Kiebert spent 14 years in the Senate, five years as ITD director.

Gov. Cecil Andrus tried to fire Kiebert after he was charged with molesting his daughter. Kiebert acknowledged showering with the girl, but denied misconduct. A jury acquitted him in 1990 and he was reinstated as director.

Since 2003, the Kieberts have shared the position of executive secretary of the North Idaho Chamber of Commerce, which puts on the North Idaho Legislative Tour and draws governors and lawmakers north every two years.

The Judicial Council is among the governor’s most critical appointments. There’s no excuse for staff failure to scrutinize Kiebert, and, when problems arose, to instantly alert the boss.

I told Otter spokesman Jon Hanian late Monday morning about Kiebert’s conviction. Otter didn’t learn about it until 90 minutes later, when Darrington informed him.

Perhaps it’s asking too much to expect Otter to think too long about who he’s appointing when affixing his signature.

But in his sixth year as governor, you’d think he and his staff would have learned how to avoid such an embarrassing rookie mistake.