At 6:30 this morning I attended a meeting of the Idaho Association of Counties at the Red Lion Riverside. We met with the North Central Idaho Delegation which included Latah County Treasurer Connie Jain Ferguson, Clerk Susan Peterson, Commissioner Jack Nelson, and Commissioner Jennifer Barrett.
At 10:45 I attended the meeting of the Parks and Recreation Board along with Senator Joe Stegner of Lewiston, Senator Lee Heinrich of Cascade, Rep. Tom Trail of Moscow, Rep. Liz Chavez of Lewiston, Rep. John Rusche of Lewiston, Rep. Paul Shepard of Riggins, and Rep. Ken Roberts of Cascade. A multitude of county officials were also in attendance. Commission of Don Ebert addressed the as well as Senator Stegner, Rep. Trail, Rep. Roberts, and myself. The Board indicated that they had been through a paradigm shift in the last 24 hours and had concluded that they were in the business of operating parks, not closing parks. They subsequently moved to have the Director explore how to keep Dworshak open and report back in 30 days. I expect that Dworshak will be kept open and operate during peak times of the year. However, funding challenges remain.
The Resource and Environment Committee passed the grazing rules, with some exceptions, during the afternoon meeting. A compromise between the cattlemen and the Dept. of Lands was carefully worked out over the course of the last three weeks. Since I some of the meetings, I was glad to see the two sides come together.
The Senate Education Committee confirmed the gubernatorial appointment of Nick Hallet to the Charter School Commission and I will carry the appointment on the floor. The Committee held HB 400. To me, the bill was either a rewording of existing language or an attempt to authorize the Board of Education to allow the Presidents power to alter contracts. Often, seemingly innocuous pieces of legislation represent pieces of a larger plan that, when taken together, are then used to accomplish objectives that the individual pieces would not. That way the presenters can honestly say that “this bill will not do that” when in effect they could say that it represents a step toward that objective when taken together with Bill x and Bill y.
This evening I attended the reception hosted by the Idaho Association of Counties at the Double Tree Riverside.