Did Coeur D’Alene City Counselors Break The Law by Advocating “Yes” Vote On Upcoming CD’A School Levy?
(Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) — For the past several months, Coeur d’Alene School District has been attempting to pass a hotly contested $25 Million supplemental levy. The ballot initiative was first on the ballot in March. At the time, the levy was perpetual, or a “forever levy,” meaning that citizens would never vote on that levy again. It would have been permanent.
The levy failed by a narrow margin, and now proponents are pulling out all the stops to get the ballot meausre passed. Teachers have sent potentially illegal electioneering emails to parents. School principals have intimidated and put pressure on teachers in violation of school policy.
Cd’A school superintendent Shon Hocker has graduated from calling people opposed to the levy “disgusting” and “un-American,” and is now fear mongering by threatening the closure of schools, and mass layoffs if the levy fails again.
And none of this is really new.
Before he came to Coeur d’Alene, Hocker was the superintendent of schools in Dickinson, South Dakota. According to the Dickinson Press, allegations were made in 2019 about unlawful and unethical campaigning in favor of an upcoming school levy.
The article states that concerned citizens believed that South Dakota laws had been violated when proponents of the upcoming ballot measure began using “property belonging to or leased by … the state or any agency, department, bureau, board, commission or political subdivision thereof, for” political purposes.
It seems that these allegations have followed Hocker from South Dakota, all the way to North Idaho.
A city council resolution on the agenda for May 2nd, 2023 was set to illegally support the upcoming Cd’A School levy in violation of a similar law here in Idaho, namely Idaho Code 74-604(2), which prohibits a “public entity” and “its employees,” or “public officials” from using ”public property or resources to advocate for or against a candidate or a ballot measure.”
Although the resolution was amended to neither support or oppose the ballot measure, is it possible that members of Coeur d’Alene City Council have broken the same law based on the comments made at last nights meeting?
Councilwoman Amy Evans said at last night’s meeting:
“I absolutely will be voting yes for this levy on May 16th, and I encourage all of our citizens to do so as well.”
Because she was speaking during an official City Council meeting in her capacity as a City Counselor, she very well may have violated that same Idaho Code that until now has remained unenforced by local officials.
Citizens are also concerned that Idaho Code was Broken because of the language of the resolution that was advertised, not only in the agenda, but also in the newspaper and in the chiron used in last evening’s City Council Broadcast.
This isn’t the first time that Coeur d’Alene City Counselors have been involved with potentially illegal and dubious actions on behalf of liberals or against conservatives in our area.
Remember that time that Kiki Miller and her husband went around town, scooping up signs promoting conservatives during the November 2021 election? We do.
No charges were ever brought against the city councilwoman or her male accomplice.
The question is: will this time be different?
With a new county prosecutor, Stanley Mortensen, we would hope so…
…but we aren’t holding our breath. It’s very clear that the law only applies to conservatives.
Liberals always seem to get a pass.
