Committee member says poor county reports hinder staffing decisions

A committee member at a Kootenai County meeting said the county cannot make sound staffing decisions because it lacks usable reports and reliable data. "We can't make good decisions because we don't have good information," the committee member said, urging officials to "focus on getting good information" before approving staffing or budget requests.

The committee member said requests for money often arrive without data-driven justification and pushed for clear metrics to accompany funding requests, invoking a long-standing preference for evidence over assurances: "show me, don't tell me." They described obtaining necessary reports as a recurring problem and said that asking for the data — how a number was reached and what supports it — can be "harder to get sometimes than extracting teeth." The discussion did not record a resolution or formal action to change reporting requirements.