COEUR d'ALENE - A Kootenai County prosecutor may soon be appointed to take local drug trafficking and child pornography cases to federal court.

Commissioner Dan Green presented the Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney program on Monday during a joint meeting of the Kootenai County Commissioners and the Coeur d'Alene City Council. Under the program, a county prosecuting attorney would be cross-deputized and have the ability to pursue federal charges in local criminal cases.

"Federal statutes have a lot tougher sentencing rules," Green said. "I think this is another tool for (County) Prosecutor (Barry) McHugh to use to combat crime."

Idaho has allocated $35,000 of the needed $85,000 in annual compensation for a county attorney to work at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Coeur d'Alene. Using population figures from 2013, Green calculated that the county would pay $16,566 and Coeur d'Alene would pay $16,072.

The remainder of the funds for what Green called a community effort would come from Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum if they chose to participate.

"All of the costs for infrastructure would be paid by the Feds," Green said. "We would be paying for the employee."

Green added that he worked closely with McHugh and Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger to identify child pornography and drug trafficking as the two areas on which the SAUSA Program would focus.

The majority of residents at the meeting raised their hand when asked by Councilor Dan Gookin if the SAUSA program was why they were in attendance. Gookin then asked Commissioner Marc Eberlein to share his issues with the proposal.

Eberlein began by stating that the program would bring the county into close contact with the federal government and that brings the potential for an abuse of power.

"If you recall, we're just getting over a problem back in Baltimore," Eberlein said. "Well the mayor of Baltimore took a fair amount of money from the Feds, and they told the police to stand down."

A greater concern for the commissioner is the legality of marijuana in Washington. Eberlein provided a hypothetical scenario of "Little Johnny" going with his friends to Spokane to purchase "a bag of hooch" before heading back into Idaho.

"Technically they've committed a federal crime," Eberlein said. "Theoretically that isn't the intent of the SAUSA program, but as you know we have seen transgressions of power by government entities. I would find that fearful to have such a thing being held over the heads of our children."

Eberlein added that the sheriff and prosecutor of both Benewah and Bonner counties are not in favor of the program, and that the Shoshone County Commissioners are opposed. The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee also passed a resolution stating it is against the program at its last meeting, he said.

"So if we're going to go, we're going alone," Eberlein said.

Councilor Steve Adams said he received multiple emails about the program, and the public's main concern was a lack of transparency. He then asked the commissioners if they planned on having any public forums or hearings on the issue in the future.

Chairman David Stewart said he was amenable to having more public input as the process continues, but added that he hadn't made up his mind on the program itself.

"I want to do more research on it," Stewart said. "But my initial opinion is that it's just inviting the federal government in. Do we really have the level of prosecution where this is needed?"

"The crimes aren't going away, and the workload is not going away," Green responded. "If Barry didn't have the demand for it, I wouldn't support this."