Coeur d'Alene council adopts Kootenai County Emergency Operations Plan amid questions on immunity and evacuations

Coeur d'Alene ' The City Council voted Dec. 17 to adopt Kootenai County's updated Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), a 206-page, all-hazards framework intended to coordinate county and municipal responses to large-scale disasters.

Tiffany Westbrook, director of the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management, told the council the plan is a working, multiagency document that "doesn't have any additional authority to it" and is intended to clarify roles, resources and procedures for events that exceed local capabilities.

The plan update, developed over a nine-month stakeholder process and revised from an earlier 500-page version, organizes response functions around Emergency Support Functions (ESFs), incident annexes (wildland fire, evacuation) and support annexes (alerts and warnings). Westbrook said the plan is required in part by Idaho statute and as a condition of EMPG (Emergency Management Performance Grant) funding.

Public commenter Paul Van Noy urged the council to "withhold a vote" until terms such as "limited immunity" and the scope of emergency actions were clearly defined for the public. He asked for specifics about who determines what constitutes "critical equipment" and whether the plan could permit taking private property or restricting residents' return in ways that would impinge constitutional rights.

"I want to know who decides what is critical equipment and how we can define that very carefully," Van Noy said, adding that he feared the plan's broad language could be used to curtail rights.

Kootenai County and Coeur d'Alene officials responded point-by-point. Westbrook referenced the Idaho Disaster Preparedness Act and noted the plan cites state code sections that describe the governor's authority and existing statutory frameworks; she said the plan does not create new legal powers for signatory cities. "It doesn't take authority away from the city of Coeur d'Alene, and it doesn't impose anything onto them," she said.

Lee White, Coeur d'Alene police chief, told council members the local police department "has no intention of removing people from their homes" and emphasized officer discretion in enforcement. "Just because a law appears on the books doesn't mean we're mandated to do that," White said, underscoring that mandatory evacuations historically come from the governor's order and that local enforcement responses are exercised with discretion.

Council discussion centered on the tradeoffs of adoption. Supporters said signing onto the county plan keeps Coeur d'Alene "at the table" for regional coordination, mutual aid and access to state and federal resources. Opponents, including Councilmember Gookin, said the document needs clearer protections for individual rights and requested explicit language to address those concerns before endorsement.

After discussion, a motion to adopt Resolution 24-098 passed on a roll call (Wood: yes; Evans: yes; Miller: aye; Gabriel: yes; Gookin: no; English: yes). The council's action means the city will be a signatory to the countywide plan and will participate in the multi-jurisdictional framework Westbrook described.

What happens next: Westbrook said the EOP is a living document that will be reviewed and revised periodically. The county will post revisions and maintain records of changes; local officials can propose edits as needed. Council members asked staff to monitor future changes and keep the public informed about how statutory provisions in the plan could be implemented locally.