SANDPOINT — Tensions were high Tuesday after Bonner County Commissioner Luke Omodt moved to postpone six of Commissioner Asia Williams’s seven agenda items because he alleged they were brought before the board incorrectly.

According to Omodt, Williams’s items were put on the agenda as action items, warranting a memorandum to go with each item in case a vote needed to be taken on that item during the meeting. However, Williams said that is always how commissioners have placed items on the agenda, even if they were just for discussions.

“There’s only one that has an action item,” she said. “The others are discussions, which don’t require a memorandum.”

Despite Williams’s expectation that the six items would be mere discussions and would come back before the board properly should they require voting, Omodt maintained that they required memorandums that day because of the way they were put on the agenda.

“There is no memo that’s needed for me to provide information to the community,” Williams said. “You guys are just being unreasonably difficult.”

The District 2 commissioner claimed the other two commissioners were taking this stand because the topics are ones they do not want to discuss, and therefore were trying to prevent them from being talked about. A reasonable discussion could be had during the meeting, she said, and should she attempt to make a motion on those items, then it would be appropriate for her colleagues to stop her and require a memorandum.

“You guys are making up a rule to silence not just me,” she said. “You’re silencing the people because this is what the people want to know.”

Omodt responded, saying that he failed to see how requiring everyone to follow the rules set in place by state officials was unreasonable.

“What is unreasonable and what is ridiculous is for people to believe that they do not have to follow the same rules as other elected [officials] and department heads,” he said.

Once again, Williams claimed that none of these items needed a vote, and if they had, she would have provided a memorandum for them. By moving to postpone her items when there is  nothing wrong with how they were placed on the agenda, she claimed the other two commissioners were trying to prevent her from “doing her function as an elected official.”

“No, we’re actually trying to get you to do your job, but you don’t seem to understand that,” Commissioner Steve Bradshaw said.

Omodt attempted to speak again, but Williams cut him off, asking him if he had already spoken twice and if that meant they had to move to a vote, referring to a different meeting where Omodt had only given her two chances to speak before calling for a vote. Omodt agreed that the board should move on to a vote.

The motion to postpone the six agenda items passed, with Omodt and Bradshaw voting yes and Williams voting no.

In terms of adopting the amended agenda, Williams again voiced her displeasure with the board’s decision to postpone her items.

“I think it’s grossly inappropriate for the community to have to come to the meeting, which they did do, to hear about the items that are on there, to hear the discussion about them, and for two members of the board to ignore the desire of the people,” she said. “Everything that I communicate has to do with the business of Bonner County. Everything that the two of you are doing in this meeting is to stifle said communication.”

Omodt again said it was not inappropriate to follow standing rules, state statutes and open meeting law manuals. He reiterated it was “unreasonable, unwarranted and lacked complete respect” for the voters of Bonner County to believe “that a single elected official is so special that they don’t have to follow the rest of the rules” that other county employees do.

“I believe that a simple way to respond to that would be, ‘Rules for thee, but not for me,’” he said. “And that goes against everything that is appropriate in government.”

A roll call vote was then taken, and the amended order of agenda passed 2-1, with Williams again voting no.