COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County commissioners have agreed to allow Assessor Béla Kovacs to hire attorney D. Colton Boyles to represent his office in multiple civil lawsuits but won’t reveal how much Kovacs is authorized to spend.

Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize the hiring. The move comes two weeks after the board declined to approve Kovacs’ original request, citing concerns about Boyles’ experience and possible conflicts of interest.

Boyles represented Kovacs in the assessor’s successful lawsuit to have his pay restored after county commissioners cut it in half last year. 

“I’ve stated on the record before that I don’t think this is the best choice,” Commissioner Leslie Duncan said Tuesday. “I’ve had constituents reach out to me on the conflict of interest portion of it. However, I’m going to defer to your judgment and I’m sure he’ll do a really good job.”

The county is facing separate requests for judicial review filed by attorneys representing Cabela’s Wholesale, LLC as well as 13 Idaho limited partnerships and limited liability companies for whom Maryann Prescott is the registered agent. The latter case involves low-income housing.

In both lawsuits, which were filed in July, the petitioners contend that property values fixed by Kootenai County this year are “excessive” and have asked the court to reduce the assessed values and order the county to refund any taxes which were “erroneously or illegally assessed.”

It is the duty of a county prosecuting attorney to “prosecute or defend all actions, applications or motions, civil or criminal, in the district court of his county.”

Kovacs told commissioners he needs to hire outside legal counsel because the prosecuting attorney’s office doesn’t have “sufficient capacity” to represent the assessor’s office in this litigation.

Until Nov. 1, civil deputy prosecutor R. David Ferguson was the attorney of record for the county, the county board of equalization and the assessor's office, all named in the Cabela’s case and the low-income housing case.

Ferguson filed a motion to withdraw from representing the assessor's office in October, citing “an irreconcilable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship.” Kovacs communicated to Ferguson in mid-July that he “no longer wished to be so represented,” according to court records, which would make continued representation “unreasonably difficult if required to continue.”

A judge granted Ferguson’s motion to withdraw Nov. 1.

Duncan pointed to a 1993 opinion from the Idaho Attorney General, which concludes that county commissioners may not hire civil counsel outside of the county prosecutor’s office on a long-term or continuous basis unless they comply with Idaho’s constitutionally mandated standard of “necessity,” which goes beyond mere comfort level or convenience.

The opinion notes that the framers of Idaho’s constitution “only intended to give county commissioners the ability to hire private counsel in emergency or special circumstances.”

“The attorney general’s opinion that you supplied us gave us the necessary information that we need to have in the motion to vote on,” Duncan said to Kovacs.

It’s unclear how much Kovacs has been authorized to spend on legal services, but Duncan said a budget has been set and Kovacs knows what it is.

“If the assessor exceeds that budget without (the board’s) approval, the assessor will be personally responsible for paying the difference,” Commissioner Bruce Mattare said.

Commissioners set aside a resolution prepared by Kovacs — which would authorize him to spend $5,000 on the Cabela’s case and $60,000 for the low-income housing cases, including attorney’s fees and all other costs — in favor of a verbal agreement with no specific details.

Duncan indicated the board won’t reveal the cap because it might put Kovacs at a disadvantage when defending the lawsuits.

“The cap exists,” she said during Tuesday’s meeting. “We’re not going to put the cap on the record.”

Boyles is legal counsel for both North Idaho College and the Community Library Network.

    Duncan
  

    Bruce E. Mattare