I haven't said much about the Kootenai County Commissioners reducing the pay of the County Assessor, Bela Kovacs. Honestly, I have been trying to find more out about the reasoning behind with not much luck so far, even with public information requests.
This seems like the County Commissioners are trying to get Kovacs to leave. He won the primary. Their actions show me that they are ignoring the voters and deciding they need to get rid of him. Isn't that what a recall is for? Or am I mistaken?
At this point it doesn't matter if the county assessor did something deserving a pay cut or not. The County Commissioners cut his pay in half. Was this done through the budget process per Idaho statue? (Idaho statue: Title 31, Chapter 16)
Was this legal? What kind of precedent does this set? Will the Kootenai County Commissioners half the pay of the Sheriff if he does something they don't like?
Please join me in emailing the Kootenai County Commissioners to ask them to clarify why they took the action they did. We the voters deserve to know more about what is going on before the November 8th election.
Here is the pdf of the public information request of emails between the three county commissioners and the assessor.