The censure was conducted at the May 21, 2025 regular meeting of the Bonner County Republican Party and applies to recent misconduct of the two commissioners.

A censure is the committee’s formal expression of disapproval of how these two commissioners conducted business on this one important issue of government transparency. Normally, the BCRCC would not pass a formal resolution of censure over one event. However, this case concerns the important issue of transparency as the government makes laws we live under.

After communications between BCRCC members and the commissioners, the commissioners were resistant to the concerns of some BCRCC members. Board of county commissioners chair Asia Williams continues to insist there was no open meetiong law violation even though her board held a special meeting in April to cure such a violation. She also continues to insist that her exact sequence of all actions was the acceptable way to conduct Bonner County government.

Here is a summary of the events:

Passed by the BCRCC on May 21 2025. Vote count 26-8.

WHEREAS, on March 25, 2025 the board of Bonner County commissioners held a regular business meeting of the BOCC with a published agenda; and,

WHEREAS, once the March 25, 2025 regular business meeting convened, the Bonner County commissioners, upon a motion by commissioner Brian Domke and supported in a voice vote by commissioner Asia Williams, amended the agenda without public notice and subsequently at the same meeting, the same two commissioners took immediate action to place a moratorium on minor land divisions and family exemptions that had been available to Bonner County property owners under Bonner County Revised Code for many years; and,

WHEREAS, such moratorium immediately suspended two major sections of Bonner County’s land use regulations without public notice and potentially greatly upended the 2025 investments and planning of some regular, family landowners in Bonner County without any prior notice by the county government; and,

WHEREAS, at 5:48 PM on March 21, 2025, 87 hours and 12 minutes prior to the convening of the March 25 business meeting, Bonner County Planning Director Jake Gabell emailed the commissioners information containing his entire proposal to quash MLD’s and family exemption applications but also requesting that the commissioners keep it off of the agenda to keep it secret so that there was not an “increase in these file types prior to the BOCC taking action” to abolish the revised code; and,

WHEREAS, Idaho’s open meeting laws require that for regular meetings of the BOCC, a minimum of 48 hours is required to notify the public of the business that will take place at the regular meeting per section 74-204 of Idaho Code, and by amending the agenda at the regular business meeting and taking action at the same meeting, the public was given no notice of impending action on certain land-use regulations; and,

WHEREAS, the purpose for open meetings and notice of the agenda is to fulfill the purposes of section 74-201 of Idaho Code, which states in part that “The people of the state of Idaho in creating the instruments of government that serve them, do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies so created. Therefore, the legislature finds and declares that it is the policy of this state that the formation of public policy is public business and shall not be conducted in secret”; and,

WHEREAS, the only legal opportunity to waive the agenda requirement is for a genuine emergency, which is defined in section 74-204, Idaho Code, as “a situation involving injury or damage to persons or property, or immediate financial loss, or the likelihood of such injury, damage or loss, when the notice requirements of this section would make such notice impracticable or increase the likelihood or severity of such injury, damage or loss, and the reason for the emergency is stated at the outset of the meeting”; and,

WHEREAS, the county commissioners’ legal counsel, Bill Wilson, who works for the Bonner County prosecutor’s office, further stated in the meeting that the reason to act without notice was that “it would defeat the purpose of having a moratorium if we provided people a bunch of advanced notice that we were about to do that (a moratorium on MLD’s and family divisions)”, in which Bill Wilson was saying that he did not want to provide the public, through a 48 hour notice requirement, that a moratorium on MLD’s would be contemplated since it could encourage dozens of MLD’s to be submitted within that 48 hours; and,

WHEREAS, the Bonner County planning director stated at the meeting that though there may be concerns regarding MLD’s for fire safety and infrastructure issues and flooding and erosion concerns, and inconsistent application of the revised code chapter 6, he went on to concede that the purpose to act immediately and in secret was to avoid the “administrative burden” of a “whole bunch of” MLD applications rushing in if the public is given notice. He explained when the board previously addressed a potential limitation on MLD’s in May of 2021 that showed “their cards” prior to an MLD related hearing in August of 2021, the county received over 100 MLD applications as the public tried to beat the deadline ahead of the law getting more strict; and,

WHEREAS, a board of county commissioners may act lawfully to enact an immediate moratorium on current land-use ordinances under section 67-6523, avoiding public hearings before a planning or zoning commission before changing land-use regulations for a time period up to 182 days, but section 67-6523 does not contemplate a total lack of public notice of the agenda, and Bonner County Commissioners should be mindful that the purpose of the Open Meetings Law and the Public Records Act absolutely forbid and discourage the actions of government in secret and without any public notice whatsoever; and,

WHEREAS, considering that the county revised code for MLD’s and family divisions had been in place since 2016 with hundreds of divisions in that time period and 68 of them last year, it could hardly be construed that all of the sudden on March 25, 2025 such an emergency had suddenly come to exist that either 48 hours agenda notice for a regular meeting could not be given or that 24 hours-notice for a special meeting could not be given. Section 74-204, Idaho Code, allows action to be taken without any agenda notice only when there is a “situation involving injury or damage to persons or property, or immediate financial loss, or the likelihood of such injury, damage or loss, when the notice requirements of this section would make such notice impracticable or increase the likelihood or severity of such injury, damage or loss”; and,

WHEREAS, MLD’s and family exemptions are a process by which only lines are drawn on a map within the constraints of the comprehensive plan, and no actual construction takes place creating an imminent burden on governmental services and infrastructure, much less an imminent threat to public safety; and,

WHEREAS, Idaho’s constitution states that “All power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal protection and benefit”, and the Declaration of Independence states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed”; and,

WHEREAS, it is in the best interests of all of the people of Bonner County to govern the county publicly in compliance with the Open Meetings Law and the Public Records Acts found in Idaho Code, and the normal legislative process should be used when the county commission considers changes to fundamental property rights governed by land use regulations so as to get as much input from the wide variety of property owners that are affected by changes to Bonner County’s Revised Code; and,

WHEREAS, at a special meeting of the Bonner County Commissioners on April 21, 2025, the Bonner County commissioners conceded that their secret haste to enact a moratorium on MLD’s and family exemptions involved multiple violations of Idaho’s Open Meetings Law (the BOCC conceded that section 74-204(4)(c), Idaho Code, was likely violated when commissioner Domke’s motion failed to state a good faith reason that the business was not included on the agenda, and the minutes failed to state the declaration of emergency and the same good faith reason that the business was not included on the agenda published before the meeting), and the BOCC was forced to declare void the March 25 moratorium and re-instituted an MLD-only moratorium to take effect on May 19, 2025; and,

WHEREAS, at the April 21 special meeting commissioner Domke regretted the technical open meeting law violation but neither commissioners Williams nor Domke regretted taking action without public notice under the excuse of a public health emergency while it was admitted that the only actual negative consequences of MLD’s are that property buyers may potentially buy property with higher development costs than expected or that a buyer could not obtain septic approvals prior to implementing their building plans; and,

WHEREAS, had the BOCC, starting with the new board’s commencement in early January, simply used the normal legislative process authorized by Idaho Code to use the planning commission and properly noticed BOCC regular or special meetings to contemplate changes to local land-use regulations, the BOCC would be very close by now to adopting thoroughly considered, vetted, and needed changes to Bonner County’s revised code for MLD’s and family exemptions; and,

WHEREAS, the acts of hasty government decision making under the guise of the Covid-19 public health emergency had profound negative impacts on the enjoyment of fundamental rights protected by the federal and state constitutions, and had negative impacts on health, business, the economy and caused many people to distrust federal, state and local government.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Bonner County Republican Central Committee censures Bonner County Commissioners Domke and Williams for acting in haste and secret to abridge previously enjoyed property rights in Bonner County, thereby violating Idaho’s Open Meetings Law, but more importantly, thereby depriving the public of their fundamental right and expectation that our local government will only act transparently, publicly, with due process and public notice when contemplating and making changes to Bonner County’s revised code; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Bonner County Republican Central Committee reminds the Bonner County commissioners that the county’s authority is derived from Idaho Code, which was developed over time at the pleasure and permission of the people of Idaho and that a slow, open and deliberative county legislative process should be used when contemplating changes to land-use regulations since such process involves public notice, multiple decision makers including the planning commission, and the deliberative process prescribed by law allows citizens multiple opportunities to be informed and to provide input to the changes that ultimately and collaboratively result and by which we all must live in Bonner County; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution will be delivered by the chair of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee to the Bonner County Commissioners, the Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office and will be published on the BCRCC website.