In response to legal concerns raised by the state deputy attorney general, the Kootenai County commissioners will delay creating a citizens panel this summer to help hear property valuation appeals.

Instead, Commissioner Jai Nelson said, the commissioners will pursue a change to state law that will clearly allow the use of such an unprecedented hearing panel.

"I'm still committed that this is going to be a better process for the citizens," Nelson said on Thursday.

Nelson has been the driving force behind creating a three-person panel to take on some of the Board of Equalization hearings, which the commissioners hold every summer to hear citizens' appeals of property valuations.

A panel of individuals with appraisal background would have better expertise to weigh the appeals, Nelson has contended, and would free up time for the commissioners to carry on with duties usually put on hold during the BOE window.

"We've blocked off two and a half weeks completely (for the hearings)," Nelson said, adding that the appeals take up whole days. "The 18 departments we oversee and all the decisions that we normally make get pushed off."

State Dep. Attorney General Carl Olsson had questioned if the panel would withstand a court challenge, though, in a January letter responding to concerns from Rep. Frank Henderson.

Again in an April 23 letter to the county, Olsson stated that he still believed a court could find the citizen hearing officers as incompatible with Idaho law, which specifies for county commissioners to meet as the BOE to hear appeals.

"The board must meet; it must hear appeals," Olsson wrote. "There is no provision allowing for delegation."

He recognized that counties sometimes face a large number of appeals.

"The use of hearing officials could alleviate the problem," he stated. "I believe, however, that it will require a statutory change."

The commissioners are pursuing just that, Nelson said.

The county legal staff has already drafted a proposed amendment for Idaho code section 63-501, to authorize a hearing panel, hearing officer or single county commissioner to hear BOE appeals.

The county commissioners would still make all final decisions acting as the BOE.

"We're going to go through the Idaho Association of Counties," Nelson said of making the proposal to the Legislature. "If the support remains, which I'm pretty positive it will, it will go through next year's legislative process."

The commissioners have already interviewed and selected the three individuals to comprise the panel, she added, who are still willing to serve.

The panel members would be compensated $75 for a half day and $150 for a full day to hear some but not all of the BOE hearings, Nelson said.

The commissioners will start holding BOE hearings early this year, she added, for those who submit appeals early.

Spirit Lake resident Sid Wurzburg, who has appealed property valuations to the county several times, said he would like to see a hearing panel with more appraisal experience.

"It's clear (the commissioners) have way too much to do. They don't understand appraisal standards," Wurzburg said. "I think that (citizens panel) is a great first step."