Commissioner Korn founds BoCo Civil Defense and Resilience Team

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

At a Jan. 8 People’s Rights meeting, Bonner County Commissioner Ron Korn announced the creation of the Bonner County Civil Defense and Resilience Team, a group of county officials, employees and community members who will host emergency preparedness workshops. The free monthly classes will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. on the fourth Friday of each month at the County Administration Building (1500 Hwy. 2, in Sandpoint) but will not be affiliated officially with the county government.

People’s Rights, an organization founded by anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy, bills itself as “a network of neighbors united to defend each other’s rights” in a flyer available at the Jan. 8 meeting. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the group “a nationwide network of right-wing, often antigovernment activists that can be called upon to quickly mobilize against perceived threats.”

The organization made headlines in Sandpoint in 2020 — amid the COVID-19 pandemic — when members of the group sporting black armbands demonstrated against mask and social distancing requirements outside the Sandpoint branch of the East Bonner County Library District.

Bonner County Technology Dept. Director Jacob Storms, left; Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard, center; and Bonner County Commissioner Ron Korn, right, talk about the Bonner County Civil Defense and Resilience Team at a People’s Rights meeting held Jan. 8. Photo by Ben Olson.

Aside from an introductory statement, representatives from People’s Rights did not contribute to the Jan. 8 meeting.

In his introduction, Korn said he has been working towards BC-CDRT — pronounced “B.C.C. Dirt” — for more than two years; however, his vision only came to fruition with the help of Bonner County Emergency Management Director Bob Howard and Technology Department Director Jacob Storms.

Panhandle Health District Chair Dr. Thomas Fletcher has also agreed to participate. The volunteers will work without pay to host the classes, beginning Friday, Jan. 24, with a meeting on alternative communication systems and Baofeng radios.

Korn called the team “a concept that I have come up with to try and help the public be more resilient and to try and build bridges between the government and the people — the citizens,” at the Jan. 7 meeting of the Bonner County board of commissioners.

“One thing that we have to understand, living in rural Bonner County, is that the majority of us live at least a half hour out of any certain town. We live out in the mountains. We live out in the hills. If something ever happens to you, your first responder — the first person that’s going to get to you — is your neighbor,” said Korn, emphasizing that people need to build connections with those around them in case of an emergency.

Korn listed the group’s primary concerns as grid failure, civil unrest, transportation issues, terrorism, cybersecurity, pandemic, wildland fire and severe weather.

Attendees of the Jan. 7 and Jan. 8 meetings questioned whether BC-CDRT would be redundant, given programs like the Community Emergency Response Team, to which Korn replied, “This is not a club or an organization. We’re not asking anybody to sign up.”

Korn hopes that BC-CDRT will create a group of educated individuals who can then volunteer with the local programs that are already in place.

At the Jan. 7 BOCC meeting, Chair Asia Williams stated numerous times that the creation of BC-CDRT “wasn’t a board vote,” with Korn acknowledging that neither the county’s legal counsel nor Risk Management had vetted the decision.

“There is no legal review, there’s no risk review, there’s no insurance, there’s no liability review of this. I would request that before we present this as a Bonner County civil resiliency defense training, that we actually do those things, because there is not just liability for the activity, but it could negatively impact grants that the county has received as it relates to emergency management services,” said Williams.

She cautioned that any missteps could result in more lawsuits for the county. Korn briefly addressed those concerns at the Jan. 8 meeting, reiterating that BC-CDRT “is not a county thing.”

When asked why he used the Bonner County logo and name, Korn said, “The team is made up of Bonner County employees, and they are volunteering their time to offer you training and education.”

“Wouldn’t it be great if the people were more resilient in general? Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to rely on our government to do everything for us? That we’re actually able to take care of ourselves, even at a very basic level? So that is the idea here,” said Korn.

Additional reporting by Zach Hagadone.