***Monday, February 20, 2012, Commissioners did not meet due to the President’s Day Holiday.

***Tuesday, February 21, 2012, Commissioners met in regular session with Chairman Ron Smith, Commissioner Dan Dinning, Commissioner Walt Kirby, and Deputy Clerk Michelle Rohrwasser. County resident Jerry Di Muro also joined the meeting.  

9:00 a.m., Commissioners held an elected officials/department heads meeting. Present were: Chairman Ron Smith, Commissioner Dan Dinning, Commissioner Walt Kirby, County Noxious Weeds Superintendent Duke Guthrie, Planning and Zoning Administrator Mike Weland, Assessor Dave Ryals, Solid Waste Superintendent Claine Skeen, Extension Office Educator Carol Hampton, Chief Probation Officer Stacy Brown, Road and Bridge Office Manager Renee Nelson, Prosecutor’s Office Manager Tammie Goggia and county resident Jerry Di Muro.

Chairman Smith informed those present of the date and time of the State Industrial training meeting, which is March 20, 2012 and it’s to be held in the Extension Office.

Chairman Smith updated everyone on the condition of a person from Boundary County who had been involved in an accident out of state.

The parking spot just outside the back door to the Courthouse will have a reserved sign put up for the judges so it is sure to be available when court is held. The county’s maintenance pick up truck won’t be able to park there once the sign has been put up.

Chairman Smith said he has met with the school district superintendent about coordination for the caribou critical habitat matter. Ben Conard out of the Spokane Fish and Wildlife Office will work on the public hearing and meeting processes with Boundary County. Mr. Di Muro asked if minutes of comments will be taken. Chairman Smith said it would be too difficult to get every comment so the meetings will be recorded since the school auditorium has recording capabilities.

Chairman Smith said the last Secure Rural Schools (SRS) payment is coming this year. Commissioner Dinning said five Idaho counties have gotten together to develop the Community Forest Trust Concept. This Concept will take approximately 200,000 acres of federal ground and it will be designated for management by the Management Practices of the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL). The Idaho Association of Counties has endorsed this concept and Congressman Raul Labrador is trying to get this introduced with the SRS issue. It was said that Oregon has a similar project. Commissioner Dinning said this is trying to show that if you remove the abilities that litigious environmental groups have to appeal everything, then counties have the ability to have jobs and receive a return on the 25% formula without having to just receive a check from the Federal Government. Commissioner Dinning said legislation has been approved out of the committee that directs the Forest Service to set aside a community trust with designated lands that are managed that would be totally pre-classified as meeting the Endangered Species Act requirements (ESA) so it would not be challengeable across the nation. Commissioner Dinning said this study shows how much money has been lost since from the time the grizzly bear has been listed through year 2000, which happens to be almost the amount levied for schools and it’s a shame that all this land is here and we can’t use it. Chairman Smith said counties have been operating on a 5 year extension of SRS funds. Of 376,000 proposed acres for caribou habitat, 290,000 acres are located in Boundary County and he questioned what happens to timber cutting and recreation if that land is designated caribou critical habitat. Chairman Smith said he received information that $1,684,550 was the amount received in SRS funds for year 2011 and $311,000 would be the amount received as a result of 25% of timber receipts. That is a difference of 1.3 million dollars, according to Chairman Smith. Commissioner Dinning said if the 25% funding comes back, there will be a 91% reduction across the state and that’s huge. Commissioner Dinning said he would much rather have the jobs and 25% of forest receipts than needing SRS funding.

The elected officials/department heads meeting ended at 9:35 a.m.

9:40 a.m., County Noxious Weeds Supervisor Duke Guthrie joined the meeting to give his department report. Mr. Guthrie informed Commissioners the United States Environmental Quality Agency is requiring permits for pesticide applications made to or over waters of the State or at waters’ edge through their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Mr. Guthrie said it does not matter if the land is private or public. Any community with more than 10,000 in population has to have a management plan and Mr. Guthrie added that no statewide permit will be issued. Mr. Guthrie said in order to receive cost share funds there must be a notice of intent or the cost share funds won’t be authorized. Mr. Guthrie said he has information giving a better definition of “waters of the United States” that this would apply to.

The meeting with Mr. Guthrie ended at 9:55 a.m.

Commissioners tended to administrative duties.

Commissioners recessed for lunch at 11:45 a.m.

1:30 p.m., Commissioners reconvened for the afternoon session with Chairman Smith, Commissioner Dinning, Commissioner Kirby, and Deputy Clerk Michelle Rohrwasser.

Deputy Clerk Nancy Ryals joined the meeting.

Commissioner Dinning moved to authorize the Chairman to sign the Subordination Agreement for indigent application #2012-16. Commissioner Kirby second. Motion passed unanimously.

Deputy Clerk Nancy Ryals left the meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Commissioners contacted Attorney Phil Robinson via telephone to participate in the following executive session.

1:34 p.m., Commissioner Dinning moved to go into executive session under Idaho Code #67-2345(1)f. To communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated. Commissioner Kirby second. Commissioners voted as follows: Chairman Smith “aye”, Commissioner Dinning “aye”, and Commissioner Kirby “aye”. Motion passed unanimously. 2:20 p.m., Commissioner Dinning moved to go out of executive session. Commissioner Kirby second. Motion passed unanimously.

Chairman Smith asked Attorney Phil Robinson about the draft dog lease that pertains to Search and Rescue and the Posse. Attorney Robinson said he doesn’t want Commissioners to sign it until it is reviewed by Idaho Counties Risk Management Program (ICRMP). Attorney Robinson said the County could adopt a resolution referring to the agreement.

The call with Attorney Robinson ended at 2:25 p.m.

Commissioners tended to administrative duties.

3:00 p.m., Commissioners participated in the District 1 legislative conference call with the five northern counties and Tony Poinelli and Kerry Ellen Elliott with the Idaho Association of Counties.

Mr. Poinelli discussed Bill #S1315. This bill provides that delinquencies on personal property taxes shall be first and prior perpetual liens on specified property, except as to any valid purchase money security interest in the property or as otherwise provided by law. Commissioner Dinning asked Mr. Poinelli if he would send out notes to the Treasurers.

Mr. Poinelli said the Idaho Association of Counties (IAC) legislation is moving forward and that legislation consists of H0487 - Mental Health, Commitment Costs, H0484 – Board of Community Guardians and H0482 – Capitalization Surplus. House Bill H0483 – Delegation of Purchasing Authority will be redrafted possibly and reintroduced. This questions the authority for commissioners to delegate to another elected official. H0484 just allows terms of guardians to be extended as it can be difficult to find members.

It was said S0391 – Presidential Preference Primary is moving through the process. It was said the August primary is not going anywhere. Two other bills have been introduced as clean up and they just came up today so these bills are not in the bulletin. There has been clean up in consolidation and absentee ballots. It was said there will not be a presidential primary in Idaho. Mr. Poinelli referred to H0454, Absentee Ballots, and said the Secretary of State works with this specific issue and it might not be liked, but it may allow counties to open ballots the day before election day in order to count them.

H0441 – Indigent Health Care, provides that the Catastrophic Health Care Cost Program and counties can use alternative programs that would help control and reduce health care costs.

Ms. Elliott said House Bill 0464 – Oil and Gas Exploration and Production/Local Authority, won’t happen until Thursday.   

House Bills 0504, 0506 and 0507 – Urban Renewal Laws are the same issues as the last couple of years. A new bill introduced may be 0562.

House Bill 0547 – Judicial Confirmation, would require that, prior to invoking the judicial confirmation process, the political subdivision shall hold at least one public election on the proposed bond obligation. Mr. Poinelli said before a judicial conformation before court is considered, a cost benefit analysis must be done and it requires the government entity put it to the vote of public beforehand. Under ordinary and necessary, that is a constitutional issue. If this passes it will require a vote of the public before judicial elevation. Mr. Poinelli said he can understand bringing an issue to a vote, but when it doesn’t stand a chance and the public’s health is jeopardized and nothing is done, you need to be able to react. It was said Washington State is imposing standards for dumping into the Spokane River. It will cost 24 million dollars to just update the Hayden plant permits for nine years. Mr. Poinelli said this is an ordinary and necessary expense. Kootenai County Commissioner Dan Green said we will want to oppose this.

House Bill 0375 – Plats/Vacations – says currently a local jurisdiction must have the county surveyor set interior monuments of a plat if the original surveyor is unavailable to set them. The legislation states that some counties do not have surveyors and the Board seeks amendments which would allow a surveyor employed by the same business entity as the original surveyor to set the monuments if the original surveyor is not available or refuses to set them. The substitute surveyor would also be required to file a Record of Survey.

Those present briefly discussed 0519 - Site Improvements. It was said the issue is the five year look back provision causes a lot of concern and it didn’t come out clearly in the discussion. Mr. Poinelli said towards end of the week there will be worse pieces of legislation moving forward and he mentioned looking for the request for budget reductions to come from house leadership.

Ag/Replacement was questioned and it was said it hasn’t been heard if the Joint Finance Committee is going to appropriate those dollars so it’s fine at the moment.

House Bill 0429 is written that if an Idaho business bid is no more than 5% higher than an out-of-state on a county contract, the Idaho bidder will get higher preference. Ms. Elliott said this bill won’t get a hearing.

House Bill 0445 is a good deal for counties as it addresses all seasonal employees and saves the county money.

S1310 – Idaho Mobility Council Created, just merges two groups that work in the public transportation arena into the Idaho Mobility Council. Ms. Elliott said this bill is not having any problems.

House Bill 0405 – Electronic Cigarettes, makes it illegal to sell electronic cigarettes containing nicotine to minors. Ms. Elliott said this bill has probably gone down to the floor.

House Bill 0431 – Idaho Farm Freedom Act, seeks to encourage local farm and agriculture economies by allowing an unregulated and uninhibited relationship between the farmer and/or the farmer’s agent and the end consumer of the farm product.

House Bill 0503 – Prescription Drug Orders – This legislation will clarify in law that there are limited and very specific situations where it is appropriate for a health care provider to write a prescription for an individual with whom that provider does not have an established provider-patient relationship. There are specific situations for this such as when a provider needs to distribute doses of medicine quickly to prevent a public outbreak of a serious infectious disease.

Those present discussed the issue of Personal Property Tax Exemption. It was said this issue also deals with utility properties and whether or not these properties should be considered in the exemption. The definition of personal property will be very crucial. There is a push to exempt all personal property from taxation. Modifying the definition of personal property is proposed and includes all commercially related property such as all equipment and machinery and associated bases, foundations, and supports. This expansion would make it difficult for the state to replace the exempted amounts.          

Chairman Smith asked for clarification of budget reductions. Mr. Poinelli said this affects local budget reductions as there would no longer be any shift in taxes associated with property exemptions. If a county has a $100,000 budget and $50,000 is exempted through property exemptions, the remaining $50,000 would be shifted to the rest of the taxpayers, but with the new legislation a county would not be able to do that anymore. Mr. Poinelli said this bill hasn’t come out yet, but he will let everyone know when it does. Benewah County Commissioner Jack Buell said he is opposed to this.

The legislative review portion of the telephone call ended.

Chairman Smith said certain counties were obligated for $15,000 for Attorney Christ Troupis in the legislative redistricting case. Clearwater County, Benewah County, and Idaho County have contributed their portions, leaving $9,150 left to pay of the original total debt of $15,000. Bonner County Commissioner Lewis Rich said he doesn’t support paying the bill to Attorney Troupis as nothing was done as was promised and he feels there was a breach of contract. Chairman Smith questioned who is going to look into this. Commissioner Rich said he was not the originator of this arrangement, but what was promised wasn’t received. It was said the Twin Falls case worked out in a way that left the District 1 case a mute point. Benewah County Commissioner Jack Buell said his county had someone who made contact with Attorney Troupis so they will look into it.

The conference call ended at 3:45 p.m. 

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:55 p.m.

/s/

RONALD R. SMITH, Chairman

ATTEST:

/s/

GLENDA POSTON, Clerk

By: Michelle Rohrwasser, Deputy Clerk