Kootenai County reviews FY26 district court budget; staff attorney request drives roughly $70,000 net increase

Kootenai County Commissioners on May 22 reviewed the district courtFY26 budget, with District Court Director Lisa Cheesbrough telling the commission the courtis proposing a $36,000 reduction to its B budget while requesting additional A-budget funding primarily to pay for a full-time staff attorney tied to a newly authorized judge.

Cheesbrough said the departmental materials provided to commissioners show an overall decrease in the B budget of "$36,000" using auditorsnumbers and explained which line items produced the change. "We didn't put [noncapital equipment] as a decrease in our analysis because we didn't use it last year, but it did give us a $28,000 decrease when auditors ran it," she said. She also described a $19,399 credit tied to a line for a programmer/building expansion that does not apply this year.

The review mattered because the county must absorb ongoing costs that come with adding a judge, and the court asked for a loaded cost for a new full-time judicial staff attorney to support that judge. Brandy (county staff) summarized the staffing request as a "loaded cost of $114,000," and later tallied the court's net request as about a $106,000 A-budget increase offset by the $36,000 B-budget decrease, producing a combined net increase of about $70,000. "About a $70,000 increase primarily due to that new attorney they're requesting," Brandy said.

Cheesbrough walked commissioners through other material changes in the court budget. Substantial decreases include a roughly $50,000 drop in costs the county had been sharing for a law clerk position with Benewah and Shoshone counties and a $9,640 reduction in paper costs attributed to a move toward a paperless jury system. She also said costs for transcripts and investigator expenses should now be borne by the state public defense system, producing additional requested decreases.

On the increases side, Cheesbrough identified several items: a $79,200 increase in legal services to fund small-claims mediation previously paid with ARPA funds; an additional $50,000 placeholder in legal services in case litigation ultimately requires the county to pay for representation in private-term matters; and a $35,000 increase for mental-health and psychiatric evaluations, which the court has been spending near its previous allocation level.

Cheesbrough also described modest requests for building-and-grounds funds to cover moving costs and potential changes on the courthouse second floor; she provided commissioners a contractor bid for about $50,000 but said she reduced the amount requested from that proposal.

Specialty courts saw smaller adjustments. Cheesbrough said a paperwork error showed an increase for local meetings in drug court when it should have been a $100 decrease; other drug-, DUI- and mental-health-court increases reflect higher testing costs, inflation for participant incentives and budgeted travel for staff to attend national and regional conferences (the All Rise conference in Nashville and the Idaho treatment court conference).

Commissioner Eberlein said the county must absorb the overhead that accompanies adding a judge. "Well, I think we're stuck with another judge," Eberlein said, and later urged staff to keep looking for savings where feasible. No formal vote on the district court budget request was recorded during the session; commissioners discussed figures and signaled continued review.

The item was listed as an action item and will remain on the commission budget docket for further consideration. Commissioners in attendance were identified as Eberlein and Matari; the district court presentation was led by Lisa Cheesbrough, with Brandy (county staff) providing budget calculations during the discussion.

Cheesbrough and staff provided supporting documents and line-item detail to commissioners for follow-up. The commission adjourned after public comment was called and none was offered.