Suggestions Welcome

By Brent Regan

Your property taxes fund our schools, roads, and safety services. But who decides how that money is spent? The November 4th local elections give you the power to choose leaders who shape Kootenai County’s future. These off-year elections fill critical seats in local government, including mayors, city councils, school districts, and fire districts, with the occasional levy. When you get your property tax bill, you see a number of taxing districts listed. These elections determine who will serve on those districts and directly impact the money you pay the government for services.

Last week, your official Republican Party in Kootenai County, the KCRCC, met to vote on which candidates we would recommend for the upcoming November election. This special meeting was the culmination of hundreds of volunteer hours to recruit and vet candidates so that you would have a strong choice at the ballot box.

The process begins with an invitation to all incumbents up for re-election to fill out our online questionnaire, which has 14 questions covering the candidate’s background, experience, and philosophy of governance. These questionnaires are stored in a password-protected area of our website so that precinct committeemen can review them, but the general public and other candidates cannot, ensuring fairness.

Our Recruitment Subcommittee works continuously to find potential candidates for office. This election cycle, Chairman Rob Barrans and the Recruitment Committee reached out to over 300 potential candidates and invited them to participate. Our experience shows that candidates with a strong desire to run for office often prioritize power and do a poor job if elected. The best elected officials are those with the skills but who need persuasion to run, seeing public office as a civic duty rather than a personal gain.

Candidates who complete our questionnaire are then scheduled for an interview with the Vetting Committee. Chaired by Tamara Bateson, this 12-member committee conducts 30+ minute interviews, starting with candidate introductions, followed by questions from each member. Vetting Committee members operate under a non-disclosure agreement to maintain confidentiality and fairness.

After the interview the committee members each score the candidate from 1 to 100 via secret ballot and those scores are then averaged to get an overall score. The candidate is also asked to give their permission for a professional background check to be performed, similar to what an employer would conduct for a potential employee.  The background check exposes any legal or financial difficulties in the candidate’s past.

The special meeting of the entire KCRCC to determine recommendations was conducted in Executive Session, protecting voter privacy and preventing coercion. We can discuss the procedure, which is well-known and available, but not specifics like individual votes or vetting reports.

During the meeting, Chairman Bateson gave a detailed report on each candidate that went through the vetting process. While the scores that the candidates received are shared with the committee, they are simply one piece of information that the committeemen can use to decide who to recommend.

In the weeks prior to the rating meeting the KCRCC holds several “Meet and Greets” for the candidates that occur an hour before one of our regular meetings. Approximately 20 candidates attend each Meet and Greet and the Precinct Committeemen can interview them one on one to better inform their eventual decision.

In Kootenai County, unopposed candidates don’t appear on the ballot, so the KCRCC focused on contested races with two or more candidates. We evaluated 91 candidates for 35 seats and recommended 27. Why not recommend someone for every seat? A KCRCC recommendation requires >50% of the vote, and committeemen only vote for candidates they’d confidently recommend to a friend or family member.

This latest rating meeting lasted five and a half hours. Each member had a worksheet to take notes. After all testimony was presented, ballots were issued, filled out, and returned face-down to the secretary, who checked names off the roll call list. Two teams of tabulators counted the results, which were announced by the chairman and approved by a vote. The results were posted immediately on our social media accounts.

While the KCRCC’s process for recommending candidates is the most comprehensive and thorough in the state, it is not without its critics. Critics fall into three classes; those that did not get the recommendation (so they believe the process is flawed), those that do not understand the process but criticize it anyway (see Dunning Kruger Effect) and those that have been through the process and make actionable suggestion on improvement.

The KCRCC’s process for making recommendations has been evolving and improving over the last 5 years. If you have suggestions for further improvements or ideas on how to provide better service to the community, we would love to hear them. Please send them to info@kcrcc.com and we’ll be happy to consider them.

It’s just common sense.