[Vision2020] "Commissioners Adjust Tax Exemptions for Moscow Church "

[Saundra Lund]

While Mr. Arnold and I don't always see eye to eye ;-), Donovan (in part)
wrote:
"What bothers me more is that fact that Paul Kimmell did not consider it a
conflict of interest that he vote on the issue. . . If Mr. Kimmell thinks
the decision is so easy and fits within the guidelines of the law then he
should step aside and allow the other two members of the Commission to vote
without fear of the outcome. . . It would appear from Mr. Kimmell's recent
decision that not only does he not find this a conflict of interest, but he
in fact seems to publicly gloat about it. I am ashamed that such a man is on
the BOCC and should be investigated.  If he does this publicly, what does he
do in private that we don't know about?"

Thanks, Donovan, for raising that point because it's something I wondered
about as well:  it seems to me that there would be a clear conflict of
interest for Mr. Kimmell to participate in such decisions.

In fairness, Mr. Kimmell *did* disclose before both actions that he's a
member of Christ Church.  However, if I understood correctly, his emphasis
seemed to be on his declaration that he claims to not have a *financial*
interest in either Christ Church (CC) or New St. Andrews (NSA).  And, since
he stated he didn't have a *financial* interest, it seemed he didn't feel
the need to recuse himself.

Ms. (Rose) Huskey, since you were at the meeting as well, is that the
impression you had?

I don't know the technicalities, but it seems common-sense to me that there
can surely be conflicts of interest that are other than financial.  It also
seems to me that to avoid the appearance of *any* impropriety, Mr. Kimmell
should have recused himself.  Anyone else care to share their thoughts?

This seems particularly important to me given the following from Christ
Church's Confession of Faith:
"We believe that the root cause of political disregard for the institution
of private property is envy and covetousness (Matt. 20:1-16). 
We deny that theft can be sanctified, even if it is done in the name of
civil justice (Is. 5:20). If the civil magistrate oversteps the boundaries
established for him in Scripture, one result can be various forms of theft,
including oppressive taxation.
. . .
We believe that churches should accept various burdens and entanglements of
civil regulation and taxation only under protest, acknowledging the weight
of such tyrannies as a judgment from God upon a disobedient church.
We deny that to receive this chastisement is compromise. The justice of such
chastisement is received from the hand of God, but not acknowledged as just
or right in the hand of the magistrate."

(Mind you, I'm practically sitting on my fingers to keep from bringing in
the apparent conflict of interest in a county commissioner also filling the
executive director seat for the Moscow Chamber of Commerce!)

I found the Idaho Code sections Mr. Fox shared with us interesting --
thanks!  If I'm correctly understanding (and there's no guarantee that I
am!), the appropriate part of 59-704 would be:
"(4)  If he is an elected public official of a county or municipality, he
shall disclose the nature of a potential conflict of interest prior to
acting on a matter and shall be subject to the rules of the body of which
he/she is a
member and take all action required by the rules prior to acting on the
matter. If a member requests to be excused from voting on an issue which
involves a conflict or a potential conflict, and the body of which he is a
member does not excuse him, such failure to excuse shall exempt that member
from any civil or criminal liability related to that particular issue. The
public official may obtain an advisory opinion from the attorney general or
the attorney for the county or municipality or from independent counsel. The
public official may then act on the advice of the attorney general or
attorney for the county or municipality or his independent counsel."

I freely admit to being ignorant about way to much of how government works,
so would anyone care to discuss his/her interpretation of the above section
with respect to Commissioner Kimmell voting on Christ Church and related
ministries matters?


TIA,
Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
-Edmund Burke