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Bonner County Ambulance District hires outside counsel at reduced hourly rate
Summary
The Bonner County Ambulance Service District voted to retain attorney William (Bill) Punkeny of White Peterson to serve as outside legal counsel, citing his experience with ambulance and fire districts and a reduced hourly rate of $196.
The Bonner County Ambulance Service District voted to enter a representative agreement with attorney William "Bill" Punkeny of the law firm White Peterson, Guigre & Nichols, approving retention of outside counsel to advise the district on legal matters including tax anticipation notes and intergovernmental agreements.
The district’s board moved and seconded a resolution to retain Punkeny after he presented his firm’s experience representing fire and EMS districts across Idaho and explained the proposed engagement. "I represent probably more fire districts and EMS districts than probably any other attorney in the state," Punkeny told commissioners during the Zoom meeting. He said his reduced hourly rate for ambulance and fire clients would be $196 per hour, down from a stated standard rate of about $350 per hour.
Board members said having a dedicated specialist would allow the ambulance district to obtain independent legal advice while the county prosecutor continued to represent county interests. The board discussed Punkeny’s experience with intergovernmental agreements, joint-powers agreements and tax-anticipation notes; Punkeny said he had worked on multiple TAN (tax anticipation note) matters and assisted other districts in securing and funding notes.
There was no substantive public opposition during the comment period; one commenter and an emailed comment from a district email chain were cited in support. The board then put the retention to a roll-call motion and approved the agreement.
The board asked staff to standardize the district’s name across paperwork (documents at the meeting variously listed "Bonner County EMS," "Bonner County Ambulance District" and "Bonner County Ambulance Service District"). Commissioners and staff said they would resolve the naming inconsistency.
The district did not provide the full signed contract during the meeting; staff said a proposed contract was sent to commissioners and that Chief Keith Lindsay would follow up on next steps.
Action and next steps noted during the meeting included directing staff and the chief to coordinate with Punkeny on the district’s immediate legal matters and to proceed with contract finalization.
