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Commissioners to map contract-approval process before adopting fair resolution
Summary
Kootenai County commissioners discussed a draft resolution defining the relationship between the county and the fair board on leasing and contracts; they agreed to map the operational process before final approval because of the high volume of event contracts and possible conflicts over ratification timing.
County commissioners and fair-board representatives on Sept. 23 discussed a draft resolution intended to memorialize the county’s ongoing practice for leasing and contracting at the North Idaho State Fairgrounds, but they agreed to develop an operational process map before formally approving the resolution.
"We've been working on this for a few months and I think we have a working document unless there's any further concerns," Commissioner Leslie Duncan said as the discussion opened. The draft would formalize how commissioners and the fair board coordinate event contracts and leasing activity.
Fair Board Vice Chair Lisa Burton flagged remaining statute references: "There are still a couple references still in there to statute 31 8 22 which is for fair districts," she said, noting the county is not a fair district under that statute. Commissioner Duncan and staff discussed Title 67, Chapter 28, Section E in the draft; the exchange focused on ensuring statutory citations matched the county’s actual legal framework.
Operational questions dominated the discussion. Jordan and others said frequent post-event adjustments and last-minute event changes make strict prior approval impractical. Jordan proposed bringing final event contracts in monthly batches for commissioner ratification; she said this approach would avoid repetitive returns to the board for routine changes. "That would be more prudent to just have a meeting offline and go through kind of a process map or something like that to see what, exactly when and where so that we're not putting forth any additional work," Jordan said.
Commissioners and staff discussed the volume of events: staff reported roughly 300 unique events and about 750 event days in the prior year, a workload the county office said could be difficult to process on a weekly approval schedule. Commissioner Duncan suggested authorizing a commissioner to approve routine adjustments during the interim if needed.
County Prosecutor Pat Braden said the resolution’s allowance for either prior approval or ratification after the fact would be legally acceptable and that monthly ratification "would be legally fine, if that's what you decide to do." Commissioners did not adopt the resolution at the Sept. 23 meeting; several said they wanted a mapped process and a follow-up meeting before finalizing the language and implementation steps.
Next steps: staff and commissioners agreed to schedule a separate work session to map approval workflows and finalize whether routine contracts will be handled via monthly consent items, prior approvals, or delegated authority. No final vote on the resolution was taken at the meeting.
