On Thursday night, December 19th, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) will meet to prepare a list of three nominees for interim County Clerk to serve out the unexpired term of former County Clerk Cliff Hayes. The list will be submitted to the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners who will meet Friday at 3:30 p.m. and from that list select an interim County Clerk.
OpenCdA has some thoughts on continuity of operations in the Kootenai County Clerk’s Office. The nomination and selection is not about picking the next Kootenai County Clerk. That will be done at the election in November 2014. It is entirely and exclusively about continuity of operations in Kootenai County government. The job has got to get done.
The duties and responsibilities of the County Clerk are described in Chapter 3 – County Clerk/Auditor/Recorder of the County Elected Officials’ Handbook published by the Idaho Association of Counties. Those wishing to be considered as nominees as well as KCRCC members and Commissioners owe it to the County’s residents to thoroughly understand them.
Prospective nominees must understand that whichever one is appointed by the Commissioners, he or she will be expected to walk into the Clerk’s office on Monday morning, December 23rd, and continue the operations essential to the Clerk’s role in County government. There is no learning curve. The job has got to get done.
It’s a true shame that the KCRCC did not understand or chose to ignore this concept and went with politics as usual.
This is a prime example of why these types of offices should be and remain non-partisan. Again something the KCRCC would not understand.
Comment by Mike Teague — December 20, 2013 @ 8:05 am
I was hoping that Pat Raffee would take it. She is obviously the most competent and capable person. Hell, she was Cliff Hayes’ own choice! That meant nothing, however, to the ideologically driven majority on the GOP Central Committee.
Attending the meeting last night, I figured that Jim Brannon would do well. He’s very popular on the committee. I was surprised that Tina Jacobsen didn’t run, although the field was already too crowded. Based on the results, the majority of the committee were given marching orders, most likely from Bob Pedersen of Rally Right. The orders were to vote for Brannon First, Dean Isaacson second, and Bjorn Handeen third. That’s exactly how the “chips” fell. (They voted by using poker chips.)
In fact, so robotic was the voting, that Dean didn’t even vote for himself first; his tally showed no red chips, which means he most likely put his red chip (first vote) into the bin for Brannon.
My guess is that the BOCC will choose Brannon. Dean Isaacson used his 3 minutes to rant about bringing back the Constitution, whatever that meant. Kellie Palm asked him what that had to do with being County Clerk and Dean had no direction to his answer. Bjorn’s a pleasant person, but he is also ideologically-driven. That leaves Brannon as the only potential with any hint of management experience.
I will further guess that Brannon appoints Tina Jacobsen to be his lieutenant. That might explain why she stayed out of the running.
Again, I’m very disappointed that Ms. Raffee didn’t win. If she choses to run in May, I will support her fully. That what Cliff would have wanted.
Comment by Dan Gookin — December 20, 2013 @ 8:06 am
If a person has nothing good to say, that the person should not say anything. That sums up my thoughts regarding post #2 above.
Comment by up river — December 20, 2013 @ 8:49 am
Up the river, do you have any idea how contradictory your post is? Dan is simply stating what he witnessed and the sham that has permeated politics and prevents the best qualified from being elected or appointed. I can assure you that the KCBOC will have received their marching orders too.
Comment by Mike Teague — December 20, 2013 @ 9:27 am
Have to disagree with D. Gookin here – I think the BOCC will choose Raffee due to experience over politics. Two of the Commissioners don’t care if they get re-elected, so they will (hopefully) choose an appointee that has the greatest ability to transition up into the position rather than turn the office upside-down with a new-by who will take until the next election to really understand the job.
Comment by Old Dog — December 20, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
And–I don’t think the BOCC will want to appoint someone who without experience will take until the election to possibly understand the legal and technical aspects of processing a defensible election. That would be a gamble that if lost, would be very expensive to correct. The Board doesn’t need to roll the dice anymore.
Comment by Old Dog — December 20, 2013 @ 3:02 pm
Old Dog,
The procedure the County Commissioners must follow is in Idaho Code §59-906. The Commissioners have only two choices: They can select one of the three nominees on the list presented to them or they can refuse to select one of those. If the Commissioners refuse to select one of the three nominees, then the county central committee of the same party as the vacancy chooses one from the list. Unfortunately, it appears the Commissioners do not have any discretion to declare the nominees to be unprepared to assume the interim appointment created by the vacancy.
Comment by Bill — December 20, 2013 @ 3:23 pm
Bill,
Thanks for the clarification/education. As always, I appreciate your research and reference(s) in areas that I rarely venture. You would have been a great reference librarian – that is if the masses still believed in the virtue of “truth” through independent learning over political baggage from blogs.
At least Brannon has experience with legal challenges to elections – so he has 1/5 of the OJT that the position requires. The other 4/5’s (as usual with government hiring from outside the criteria of expertise) will be taught to him by a more qualified person; the Deputy Clerk.
Real fun job: teaching your boss his job–been there, quit, and then became more effective, although at a much greater expense to the jurisdiction, and don’t have to dress-up for the dog and pony show seven days a week. Hope Raffee doesn’t quit–County Clerk is not a job you can learn with a book, legal counsel, or through the tutelage of the BOCC.
I also don’t agree with the basic interpretation of Idaho Code–the Board has latitude, it just wouldn’t be a smooth sled ride to hire the best qualified versus the other path. Maybe Green and Tondee do want another term.
Comment by Old Dog — December 20, 2013 @ 5:52 pm
–with the backing of the central (R) committee. If so, we could see a swing (hard left) if CDA elections are any indicator.
Comment by Old Dog — December 20, 2013 @ 6:15 pm
I was mistaken: Dean Isaacson didn’t get to vote for himself because he’s not a member of the central committee.
Despite that mistake, I remain horrified that some 30-odd people on the central committee are apparently taking their marching orders from someone else. I would expect all citizens to examine candidates and make their own decisions, not to take orders and be told to vote for candidates A, B, and C in that order. I am still convinced that’s exactly what happened last night.
Comment by Dan Gookin — December 20, 2013 @ 6:48 pm
Old Dog,
Thank you.
Where in the language of the Idaho Code do you see the discretion for the County Commissioners to set aside the party county central committee’s nominee recommendations in favor of the Commissioners’ own? I see a lot of “the County Commissioners shall” language, but the statute seems to broadly set the qualifications required (breathing, resident of the county, registered voter) without leaving any determination of applicant’s quality of knowledge, skills, and abilities up to the Commissioners. I didn’t see any language that would let the Commissioners substitute their own preferred nominee for one or any of the three nominated by the party’s county central committee.
Comment by Bill — December 20, 2013 @ 7:25 pm
Bill,
The “latitude” I referred to above is implicit within I.C., but is based upon Idaho Constitution. There are many paths to disqualify recommendations made by so few in this process, which is the exact reason why the legislature uses the BOCC as a judicial check point (as in checks and balances). The Board can refute the recommendations, refuse recommendations made at the next procedural step and then take it to task through the court system if they really felt compelled.
Little case law exist in Idaho but at some time it has to start. Testing the ambiguity of our “law-makers” words is what defines, then, better yet refines State law into an understandable, workable base guideline. If the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners really wanted the most qualified, “technically” experienced – ready to jump in the boots sort of person – they would not have been so quick to hire a guy to whom they know so little.
A break here – You can be appointed to be perhaps the most influential county manager job (from the money side of the equation) in the most most affluent county north of Ada, but yet not even a resume is required? Even Domino’s would require more up-front information and background checks before hiring a pizza delivery dude. I hope the process gets tested soon – but that would take a set of Commissioners who weren’t lame-ducks whose nest have been built with millions in gold.
Comment by Old Dog — December 20, 2013 @ 9:21 pm
Old Dog,
That was a terrific explanation. Thank you.
Your last sentence sums it up nicely, but the Commissioners don’t act in a vacuum when it comes to considering legal action. It would also require the Commissioners’ legal counsel have the personal and professional integrity to give the Commissioners assertive counsel (not just “safe” counsel) and then also have the courage to defend the Commissioners’ actions if they were to act. Unfortunately, too many of our elected officials in all three branches bypassed the duties and responsibilities of governance and follow-the-law chapters in the manual and jumped right to the go-along-to-get-along appendix.
Comment by Bill — December 21, 2013 @ 8:00 am
I am okay with Jim Brannon as interim County Clerk. He definitely has counsel as well. And without a doubt – ‘irony’ just loves this area.
Comment by Stebbijo — December 22, 2013 @ 6:54 pm