Continued hostilities at the BOCC

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

The Bonner County board of commissioners covered a number of issues at the forefront of the public’s consciousness during their regular Tuesday business meeting Dec. 5, including the Aug. 31 lawsuit between Clerk Michael Rosedale and the Fair Board, the use of Zoom in public meetings and various aspects of county finances.

The meeting opened with two motions by Commissioner Steve Bradshaw and Chairman Luke Omodt to amend the order of agenda to move the public comment section and commissioner reports to the end of the meeting.

“The public need to be able to speak before getting into the agenda, as this board is picking and choosing what items people can comment on,” said Commissioner Asia Williams, further stating that working members of the public might not have time to sit through the entire meeting to make a comment.

The motions passed with Williams dissenting after a chorus of protests from meeting attendees.

Williams herself presented three action items, beginning with a discussion of the county’s workplace environment. Her extensive explanation — which occurred before her actual motion — encompassed multiple issues brought forward in past meetings, including Omodt’s use of Idaho Code 31-802 to submit public records requests for Williams’ emails in his capacity as a commissioner.

I.C. 31-802 gives the commissioners the authority “[t]o supervise the official conduct of all county officers and appointed boards or commissions of the county charged with assessing, collecting, safekeeping, management or disbursement of the public moneys and revenues.” 

Williams previously petitioned legal counsel to settle whether or not this statute gave one commissioner the power to audit another.

Bonner County Commissioners Luke Omodt, left; Asia Williams, center; and Steve Bradshaw, right. Photo by Lyndsie Kiebert-Carey.

“Legal opinion came back, and the answer from legal was, ‘BOCC overstepped its authority when it attempted to audit Commissioner Williams’ email account. To the extent such audit is still occurring, it should cease immediately,’” Williams read aloud during the meeting.

She then briefly addressed her civil protection order against Bradshaw before reading another legal opinion regarding the allegation that the sheriff’s deputy assigned to supervise the BOCC had illegally recorded confidential executive sessions using his body camera.

“The opinion from the attorney was, ‘Bodycam: No illegal search has occurred,’” said Williams, further explaining that the board does not have the authority to alter the protection order or remove the deputy.

Continuing her explanation of the county’s workplace environment, Williams discussed the audit committee, which the commissioners formed on Nov. 2 to oversee the fairgrounds audit, and which Williams subsequently moved to disband during the regular meeting on Nov. 14.

“‘In conclusion, it is crucial for the BOCC to adhere to the statutory mandates and principles of independence in its financial oversight roles,’” said Williams, reading from yet another legal opinion. “I am requesting that the board review its auditing committee that they developed as it is not in compliance with statute,” she added.

This suggestion built upon her testimony during the Nov. 14 meeting — where she also referenced legal counsel — stating that the committee is unlawful because “it delegates powers of the board and individual commissioners.” 

Omodt, Bradshaw and Rosedale all previously disagreed with this claim, but offered no argument, as Williams’ petition during the Dec. 5 meeting wasn’t a motion in and of itself.

In a follow up email, Williams told the Reader that the legal opinions from which she read at the meeting came from the Prosecutor’s Office and were “researched and written by attorney Bill Wilson [and] distributed to the entire board.”

Williams quickly moved on to a discussion of the county’s Human Resources Department, which would prove to be at the center of her eventual motion. In past meetings, she has repeatedly voiced her disapproval of the fact that the BOCC now oversees the county’s H.R. Department.

“One of the things that I am asking — especially given the behavior of this board against staff that occurred last week [during executive session] — is that we move our human resources back underneath the Prosecutor’s Office, because everything related to Bonner County that’s not the way that it should be has something to do with human resources,” said Williams. 

She stated that H.R. previously conducted an investigation, which concluded, among other things, that there is “significant dysfunction” within county operations.

Williams further related H.R. to the lawsuit between Rosedale and the Fair Board, where — in his official capacity — Rosedale sued the Fair Board in an attempt to force it to comply with his public records requests. The county treasurer and auditing staff don’t have access to the fairgrounds’ bank accounts, bills or payment history, and so could not investigate the alleged fraud or attempt to sort out the fair’s finances without the requested records.

The judge dismissed the suit Oct. 16 on a technicality — the same day the Fair Board issued a press release that placed the blame for the fairgrounds fraud on Rosedale and the commissioners, claiming that, “The BOCC did not cause such an audit on the unlawful instructions of County Clerk/Auditor Mike Rosedale,” thereby enabling the fraud to continue undiscovered.

“[The BOCC’s] statutory duties were breached, in some cases willfully, in FY2022 and earlier and there is no sign that these duties won’t continue to be breached in the future thereby harming the CFB by disabling it from obtaining proper financial control over its financial operations,” the Fair Board stated in its Oct. 16 news release.

In an Oct. 18 email, Rosedale said that the Fair Board’s “refusal to produce records (even just respond that they do or don’t have them)” made it clear that it was not interested in cooperating with the county.

Williams indicated on Dec. 5 that she did not support the litigation between the clerk and the fair because, according to her, the county paid the law firm Holland & Hart a $20,000 retainer to represent Rosedale, and the Fair Board had requested an additional $27,000 to cover their half of the legal fees.

“It was not my choice to be targeted. It was not my choice to have things come at me from the fairgrounds,” Rosedale said in his defense at the Dec. 5 meeting, explaining that litigation was his only statutory recourse to obtain the public records.

“Why is it the elephant in the room is never addressed here? We have known for four months that I disclosed fraud in my fraud questionnaire,” he continued, going on to state that Comptroller Nancy Twineham and former District 2 Commissioner and current Priest River Mayor Jeff Connolly also disclosed fraud.

Williams’ motion to place H.R. back under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office died without a second.

Williams’ second item — agendized as a “discussion/decision” regarding county credit card limits — had no action component, but was rather an opportunity for her to address a comment made by Rosedale during the Nov. 28 meeting.

“‘It was determined that with credit cards, people have the ability to spend $5,000 and it’s assumed to be in good faith. Things come through on the $5,000 credit cards all the time, which are paid without question — which I strongly disagree with,’” Williams said, quoting Rosedale. 

She clarified that not all Bonner County employees have access to these credit cards, and that there is more supervision than implied because, “There have been times when the Clerk’s Office has not allowed for someone to have the expense [charged to the card].”

The clerk was given permission to respond at Omodt’s insistence.

“There are lots of things that are paid, that go under the limit for the [$5,000] board-approved contract, that happen monthly. There are some reimbursements or some charges that we don’t ever get receipts for, and my office is restrained from trying to go after those or the clarifications,” said Rosedale. 

Williams asked the clerk who was preventing his office from obtaining that information, to which Rosedale replied, “I’m not allowed to say.”

“I’m not taking the bait, Asia,” he added.

Omodt, with Rosedale’s help, further clarified that the board assigns budgets to individual departments, and each department head determines what expenses are justifiable. Omodt indicated that, if appropriate, the board would schedule an executive session to further discuss the matter.

For her final action item, Williams moved that “the board of county commissioners authorize, whenever and wherever possible, the use of Zoom for meetings, to include 24-hour meetings and executive sessions.” 

Executive sessions are ordinarily confidential; however, Williams sought to open them up to the public because, according to her, the session “that occurred last week was of a ridiculously disruptive, cursing, yelling, slamming things [nature].”

The motion met with resistance from Bradshaw, and the board devolved into one of its many arguments.

“If we’re gonna sling shit, let everybody sling shit,” said Bradshaw, referring to Omodt’s attempts to quiet him amid a heated exchange with Williams.

Omodt moved to table Williams’ motion “in perpetuity,” which Bradshaw seconded, “because a lot of that is personnel, private information, litigation.” 

The motion to table passed with Williams dissenting.

Omodt brought forward the final agendized item — besides the rescheduled public comment and commissioner reports — a “public apology” from the commissioners.

“A comment was made by a member of this board that we aren’t going to ‘play ring around the retard.’ To say that that is offensive is an understatement, but that has become par for the course in some manner,” said Omodt, referring to a statement made by Williams at a special meeting on Nov. 16. “I apologize for that comment on behalf of the board of county commissioners.” 

Bradshaw agreed, however, members of the audience questioned why Omodt would apologize for Williams’ statement but not for the offensive or profane language that Bradshaw has used in past meetings. Omodt indicated Williams’ statement warranted an apology because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

“When Commissioner Williams called me an ‘asshole,’ that is perfectly legal because that’s freedom of speech,” said Omodt.

During the following public comment, Omodt gave Fair Board Member Ben Wood extra time to discuss the fairgrounds’ financial statements, which the Daily Bee published on Dec. 5. Among other things, he stated that the fairgrounds earned “close to $130,000 worth of donations and sponsorships from our community.”

Members of the public voiced their support of the fairgrounds, and Rosedale restated his desire to work with the Fair Board on their upcoming audit, as he believes the board “has not been audited since 2000.”

The meeting concluded with commissioner reports, in which Omodt addressed past hostility between the Fair Board, the commissioners and the clerk — including the assertion that Rosedale and the BOCC were negligent in the matter of the fairgrounds fraud.

Omodt called these past allegations “knowingly inaccurate” and restated that former-Commissioner Connolly, Twineham and Rosedale all did their duty and reported potential fraud.

“How much money are we going to waste on lies?” said Omodt. “Are we going to move forward and spend our taxpayer dollars looking ahead and investing in the future? Are we going to look back and just be adjudicating the past?”