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Residents offer paid telecom ordinance drafting and urge Kootenai County to drop license-plate-reader funding
Summary
Speakers at the Aug. 12 Kootenai County commissioner status meeting urged the board to accept a privately funded draft telecom ordinance after HB 180 and asked that automated license-plate reader funding be removed from the proposed 2026 budget.
Jen Noel, a representative of the grassroots group Stop Smart Cities, told the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners on Aug. 12 that her organization offered to pay legal fees to have an outside attorney draft a county telecom ordinance customized for Kootenai County.
"Stop Smart Cities has offered to pay all fees to hire mister Caponelli to draft a telecom ordinance customized for Kootenai County," Noel said during public comment. She said the offer followed a recent state law, HB 180, passed during the 2025 legislative session and effective July 1, 2025, that she described as making it easier for telecom companies to deploy cell towers.
Noel said two of the three commissioners took part in a recent Zoom workshop featuring attorney Michael Caponelli (transcript: Caponelli/Cappanelli spelled inconsistently), whom she said wrote a telecommunications ordinance for Dalton Gardens three years ago and that Stop Smart Cities would cover drafting costs for the county. Noel told the commissioners the proposed Kootenai County ordinance would "not ban veil towers in Kootenai County, but it will establish specific guidelines and restrictions as well as detailed application instructions" for county staff.
Kathy Mickels, a resident who also spoke during the public-comment period, urged the commissioners to remove funding for automated license-plate readers (ALPRs) from the 2026 budget. Mickels cited a July 24, 2025 CBS News story she supplied to the county and said ALPRs amount to "warrantless surveillance" that risks capturing innocent people and violating constitutional protections.
"Police must get a warrant in this country," Mickels said, urging the board to "put this on hold and to not move forward with the license plate reader funding." She said she has provided the commissioners with the article referenced during her remarks.
The comments were delivered during the meeting's public-comment portion. The board did not take formal action on either the offer to fund ordinance drafting or the ALPR funding request during the session; those items were presented as public comment and will require separate agenda items and staff follow-up if the board chooses to act.
Why it matters: HB 180, which speakers said took effect July 1, 2025, changes the regulatory environment for siting telecom equipment; a county ordinance could specify local application procedures and restrictions within the limits of state law. Funding or procurement decisions for ALPRs would affect county law enforcement operations and privacy practices and would normally be reviewed through the budget process.
