SANDPOINT — How it happened or when it happened, no one knows.

The only thing that clear, Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale said, is that a legal description was either never sent by the West Bonner County School District or never received by the county.

“Apparently the school district, in good faith, changed their trustee zones back in 2011, and received approval from the Idaho State Board of Education,” Rosedale said in an email to The Daily Bee. “So far so good. Idaho Code 33-313 (5) then says the school MUST furnish the county with the new map and legal description. The school district did send the county the new map, but did not send the legal description (and the county never received any legal description), without which the county had no way of knowing there were changed boundaries.”

And that, he said, is what led to the confusion over the zoning maps and who could run for election as a trustee in the November 2019 election.

The map and legal description the county had on file placed Todd Sudick, who ran unopposed for the Zone 5 trustee board seat, in that zone while a map and legal description the school district and the State Board of Education had on file placed Sudick in Zone 2.

First District Judge Lansing Haynes ruled Jan. 6 that school district’s map and legal description were the ones to be used to determine whether an elected candidate was qualified to be seated. The county was ordered to pay the district’s court costs and legal fees, a sum amounting to $8,871.50.

The controversy emerged in September, after the school district’s election was already underway when two candidates — Sudick and Lesa Souza — filed paperwork for the trustee zones they believed they lived in, based on the maps and legal descriptions the county had on record. Rosedale said one of the candidates, Todd Sudick, brought to the county’s attention that the school district was using a different map than what he was used to as commissioner.

That launched a series of questions, which led to an effort to clarify which map was the right one for voters and candidates, he said.

“When Mr. Sudick came to our office with this quandary, we tried to figure out what was going on,” Rosedale said. “Our initial opinion to Mr. Sudick was that he was not eligible, since the [district’s] map showed he lived in a different zone. We thought perhaps our GIS department had changed our data, which would explain the differences in the maps. But upon further research, our current GIS mapping data matched our data of old. It was then that we realized what had happened.”

County officials corresponded with the school district about what they’d found and when their attorney made a notice of appearance, the county’s attorneys were forced to make theirs.

“The whole point was to clarify which map was ‘legally’ the correct map per Idaho Code on which to run the election and seat the trustees so there would be certainty for the voting public,” Rosedale said. “It was far too late to change our elections mapping for the November election, which is why we asked a judge to render a declaratory judgment on the proper map to use.

Rosedale said there was no ill intent by anyone at the county or the school district. “The court action was done to avoid the otherwise inevitable chaos that would have ensued,” he added. “I believe both parties were served by the court making a decision, and certainly the voters had a level of certainty with which to proceed.”

It was the duty of both county and school district officials to sort out such situations, Rosedale said.

“I think it was properly referred to a District Court judge for a declaratory judgment, and now we can all move ahead on the same team,” he said. “I’m glad WBCSD No. 83 has a vigilant board, and that I work for everyone in that school district, too!”