Slow-motion train wreck at North Idaho College continues. Boise dodged a bullet
Former Republican Attorney General candidate Art Macomber was hired by North Idaho College’s board of trustees on Monday night.
Do you remember Macomber from the primary election? Maybe not. He was the far-right attorney general candidate who seemed to have all the legal acumen of Lionel Hutz, sans the charisma.
As Kaye Thornbrugh of the Coeur d’Alene Press reported Tuesday, the board of North Idaho College made Macomber its new attorney following the abrupt resignation of its longtime legal representative.
The pick was surprising, but not as surprising as how they went about it.
“Banducci got up and handed out a document to the trustees, which appeared to be a resolution regarding Macomber,” Thornbrugh reported. “The resolution was not listed on the meeting agenda as an action item, nor was it included in the packet of public documents released with the agenda prior to the board meeting. NIC President Nick Swayne said the contract for legal services should go out to bid and not be awarded directly to an individual because it will exceed $10,000.”
But a 3-2 far-right majority went ahead with the hire, despite President Swayne’s warning.
One reason you want a competent attorney is so you don’t do stuff like probably breaking both open records and contracting law in the process of — hiring an attorney.
But this has become a pattern with the North Idaho College board, which only in April received a stern warning from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities that it was being monitored by the accrediting body. The problem wasn’t bad teachers or facilities but a dysfunctional board.
And that era of dysfunction looks like it will continue into the future. Along with the attorney hire, the board also put a freeze on filling vacant positions in the college president’s cabinet, as Thornbrugh reported.
“A new dawn,” board chairman Todd Banducci called it.
The dawn of an era in which, one day soon, taxpayers may pay property taxes to support an unaccredited college. That would make it useless for locals who want to improve their economic lot with a technical accreditation or a path toward a four-year degree.
But after Monday’s fiasco, you have to wonder whether this is just incompetence, or if it’s strategic.
One old Republican strategy went by the name “starve the beast.” The idea was to cut the taxes that support popular government programs instead of cutting the programs directly, which would trigger an electoral backlash. Instead, you just cut taxes and push toward a fiscal crisis, and then claim you have no choice but to cut the programs.
That’s not the strategy the right wing is pursuing in North Idaho College. There the strategy seems to be “drive 100 miles an hour with a blindfold on,” the idea being that people won’t want to put more gas into a car that’s mangled and engulfed in flames.
And at this point, North Idaho property taxpayers — even the ones who really want a functioning community college — have to be looking at their tax bills and asking how long it will be worth paying.
Treasure Valley residents should thank community members who organized vigorously to oppose a board takeover at the College of Western Idaho, just like the takeover that has put North Idaho College in its current situation.
And voters should remain vigilant.
Those who would crash Idaho’s community college system get to try again every few years. The lesson of North Idaho College is: They probably only have to win once.