A preliminary vote by the Optional Forms of Government Study Commission supports voters continuing to elect their sheriff and prosecuting attorney.

However, changes to the board of county commissioners also have early support.

Since May, members of the OFGSC have done research to evaluate whether the current Kootenai County government structure best serves constituents — or if it's time for a change.

The majority of the nine-person committee must approve any change, which would then be forwarded to county voters to decide.

With six months remaining in the OFGSC timeline, members hope to float an initial set of recommendations before preparing a final proposal.

All nine OFGSC members unanimously agreed to keep the sheriff and prosecuting attorney as elected positions during a meeting Wednesday night. However, members were split 5-4 on how the board of county commissioners should be structured. 

The majority, led by Dave Botting, Kristen Wing, Phil Ward, Bob Fish and David Levine, recommend increasing the BOCC to five members and hiring a commission manager. Both structures are permitted under Idaho Code 31-5001. 

The remaining four — Tamara Bateson, Kurt Andersen, Brian Cleary and Bryant Bushing, opposed any change. 

Andersen said he didn't hear "anything compelling about the brokenness of our current system that would be assuaged" by changing the form of government.

"It's not the study commission's job to fix the commissioners' problems if they haven't explored and undertaken work to try to streamline things themselves," he said. 

Similarly, Bateson said internal actions could address administrative issues like hiring a chief operations officer and delegating responsibilities. She also said physical, systems and financial stresses could occur if the number of commissioners is increased or a manager is hired.

"None of (these options) have been utilized, and I think it's a little bit irresponsible to recommend a change when there are many different opportunities available to them that can be done immediately," she said. 

During interviews with the BOCC and their staff, Botting noted that the commissioners believe 70% to 80% is administrative work. He said that burden takes away from long-range planning efforts needed to address the county's rapid growth.

"If we want this county to move forward and want the county commissioners to address things like growth and to do the strategic planning, then they need to have the time to do it," Botting said. "And the way we give them time to do it is to take the administrative efforts off their backs … and give it to a commission manager." 

Based on comments from national county officials and local commissioners, Wing said adding a manager would aid financial and operational management duties. 

"We need someone who has the authority to listen to what the county commissioners want and then implement it," Wing said. "That's part of our problem now. We've got lots of good ideas out there, but they don't get implemented." 

OFGSC member Bryant Bushling said one of the counties Wing surveyed recently suffered an embezzlement case at the hands of its county manager. He worried that similar corruption could happen in Kootenai County. 

Bushling also pointed out that past commissioners had hired a manager, Tom Taggart, for over four years without enacting permanent change. 

"I don't know why you wouldn't try doing something like that first since it worked the first time and allow the commissioners to invest their time in corrections at this point," Bushling said. 

OFGSC Vice Chair Cleary opposed any change, stating it could "imbalance" Kootenai County government operations and services for residents. Over the last two years, Cleary said, numerous examples of government overreach have stressed communities. In his opinion, altering the form of government now would be "poor judgment."

"I think there's a revived feeling of renewed spirit toward watching the government and being involved in your government," Cleary said. "I'm willing to give this form of government a bit more time."

Next week, the panel will look at the remaining four elected positions. They estimate that sometime in 2022, they'll host a public meeting to discuss a final recommendation before putting together a final draft.

The final draft will go to commissioners. If that draft recommends changes, it will then go before county voters.