City of Sandpoint officially confirms and swears in legal counsel

‘Lack of clarity’ on appointment resulted in disagreement between mayor, councilors

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The disagreement over the city of Sandpoint’s legal services contract with Lake City Law has come to an end, following the decision in executive session at the Oct. 8 meeting of the City Council to retain the Coeur d’Alene-based firm and Fonda Jovick as city attorney, and her official confirmation in a unanimous vote by councilors at their Oct. 15 regular meeting.

Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm said he would meet with Jovick following the Oct. 15 meeting to administer the oath of office and work with the City Clerk’s Office to produce an official certificate of appointment.

Lake City Law’s contract expired Sept. 30, after which Grimm opted to replace the firm and Jovick with former-City Attorney Will Harrington on an interim basis, effective at the Oct. 1 council meeting. 

Aispuro, who was absent from the Oct. 15 meeting, pushed back at that decision, saying he didn’t “feel comfortable moving forward with the meeting without our actual legal counsel,” and prompted several of his fellow councilors to walk out of the council chambers “because Mr. Harrington was not appointed in any way, shape or form.”

Without a quorum, the Oct. 1 meeting adjourned and a special meeting was set for Oct. 3, which also failed to reach a quorum.

That set the stage for the Oct. 8 meeting, which convened at the customary 5:30 p.m. start time but quickly went into executive session to address the question of whether Lake City Law and Jovick were still serving as official legal counsel.

Councilors and the mayor returned to the dais more than two and half hours later, with Grimm saying, “We had a situation where there was a lack of clarity on the official appointment of the city attorney.”

Grimm went on to “commend” the City Council and staff “who’ve put in a lot of hours in the last week trying to figure out where we are. I take responsibility for any abrupt actions that have brought this to a head so quickly.”

He added that neither he nor city staff could locate records of an official appointment for Jovick. While her role with the city was laid out in the legal services agreement, “there was no oath or confirmation by the city other than the variable language in the resolution” adopting the agreement.

Councilors voted unanimously Oct. 8 to adopt a new resolution specifically appointing Jovick as city attorney, with her confirmation at the Oct. 15 meeting.  

“That in my mind helps all of us clarify and confirm and know exactly that this appointment has occurred,” Grimm said on Oct. 8.

He had previously argued that Idaho Code stipulates the Executive Branch has authority to govern appointments and contracts, while councilors argued that the Legislative Branch must first be given the opportunity to confirm and/or approve those appointments and contracts.

Councilor Justin Dick thanked members of the community, city staff, Jovick and fellow councilors on Oct. 8 for working “through these sometimes differences of opinion and some clarifications. And I appreciate that we were allowed the opportunity to do this and I’m looking forward to getting through this and starting tomorrow and getting back to city business, though I don’t think we ever really stopped.”