KCRCC January Monthly Meeting (Unofficial Minutes)
Kootenai County Republican Central Committee meets each month to conduct its regular business. Below are the unofficial minutes made by a non-sitting member of the public.
Opening
♦ 7:00pm – Invocation by non-PC new guy; Pledge of Allegiance (one person said “amen” after)
Special Speakers
♦ 7:05pm – Superintendent Nina Nakarano(?) with Post Falls School District talks about Supplemental Levy; Wants to coin “Supplemental Levy” as “Fundamental Levy.” Based on changes in State Law, the school is underfunded (according to Nakarano). Current budget is $5M, asking for $1M (as supplemental levy) that would go towards safety like SRO officers, security cameras, renovating some buildings. Claims that total property taxes would not go up because housing market, yada yada.
–– PC Thompson: Why are you guys here? You already ran a levy, failed, and you’re running it again. Are you just going to just keep running, and running, and running over and over? Nakarano: That’s up to the school board.
–– Chairman Regan: What proportion of this new money will go to salaries vs towards assets (cameras, buildings, etc)? Nakarano: We don’t know.
–– PC Guenette: Have you guys tried asking teachers + parents about teachers carrying firearms? Nakarano: We did actually do a poll, and the overwhelming answer was no.
–– PC Macomber: Why are we giving more money when North Idaho’s national standings in education is sub-80%? Nakarano: I disagree.
–– Youth Chair Bell: I looked up the scores, and the Post Falls national standing is 66%. Is there no accountability, and leadership? Does more money solve the problem. Nakarano: Yes, we’re doing stuff. If we can’t do it, then the school board would need to find a new superintendent.
♦ 7:25pm – Superintendent Alicia Arnold with Lakeland School District. The way we have planned the schools in Lakeland allow for small schools in every community. Because of this priority the overhead for Lakeland SD’s budget for salaries is higher. It’s a 2-year supplemental levy. There are 2 levies: one $9.5M supplemental levy, and another $1.1M levy for Facilities. Property taxes will actually go down since they’re not increasing the amount from the previous supplemental levy and there are more residents too.
–– PC Jeff Taylor: Republicans seek for limited government, and best bang for our bucks. Lakeland SD also has the highest education rankings in N. Idaho.
–– Lakeland School Board Trustee Dave Quimby: The Superintendent has put the parents back in charge, gotten rid of CRT curriculum, transgender stuff, … I totally support the Superintendent.
7:45pm – Roll call and accept minutes
7:50pm – Treasurer’s Report. Went to bathroom and missed it the details. You can always look up their Sunshine Report’s on the Secretary of State website.
Commitee Reports
♦ 7:52pm – Recruitment Committee Report Chairman Rob Barrans.
–– We need candidates for various Water/Sewer/Highway/CommunityLibrary/KootenaiHealth offices. Reach out to me. February 28th @5:45pm will be the meet-and-greet. March 28th to hold the executive session to vote on the voting slate.
♦ 8:00pm – Lincoln Day Committee Beverly Guenette. It sold out! 👏👏👏
–– Rob Barrans is handling the dessert dash, and silent auction. If you want to donate something for the silent auction, please let Guenette know.
–– Nina Beesly is the volunteer coordinator. We need lots of hands to setup/breakdown.
♦ 8:10pm – Legislative Townhall Chairman Roger Garlock. The first townhall will be February 4th at 10:00am–12:00pm at Candlelight Church.
♦ 8:09pm – Region 1 Chairman Bjorn Handeen. Reporting on the Idaho GOP Winter meting. This is a continuation of the December meeting.
–– Idaho GOP Executive Director Kira Turnbull was confirmed.
–– The 2024 RNC Convention will be held July 15-18th in Milwuakee, WI.
–– Branden Durst is the chairman that handles legislative maps. Redrew the North Idaho districts into larger chunks.
–– Christy Zito is Resolutions Chair along.
–– Brent Regan Chair of Rules Commitee.
–––– Passed changes to Idaho GOP bylaws to prevent crossover voting. Disallows voters people from crossing over if they were affiliated with another political party in the previous calendar year.
–––– Passed bylaw that compels GOP County Commitees to pay their dues to Idaho GOP.
♦ 8:17pm – Outreach Commitee Chairman Nicole Barnett. Trademark the KCRCC logo. Added Brent Regan’s column in CDAPress to the KCRCC website. Will release a brand guide to reinforce KCRCC’s unique brand.
PC Updates
♦ 8:18pm – Ted Pettibone, Cheryl(?) Birch(?) resigned as PC.
School Levy
♦ 8:20pm – Opening floor to seek guidance on the stance the committee should take on the various School District levies.
–– PC Don Morgan: KCRCC should remain neutral.
–– Volunteer Coordinator Nina Beesly: postpone action until next KCRCC monthly meeting.
–– PC Phil Thompson: We should remain neutral as a rule, but we should reward high-performing school districts like Lakeland School District.
–– PC [???]: It’s wrong that levy elections are in March.
–– PC Garlock: I didn’t join this committee to remain neutral on anything. It’s our job as Republicans to take a stance whenever it involves taxpayer money. Totally disagrees with staying neutral.
–– PC David Russell: I agree with Phil Thompson. We should reward Lakeland School District, and remain neutral on the other school districts.
–– PC Terri Seymour: Because CDASchools has used very sneaky tactics to rename the CRT curriculum, and essentially do not listen to the voice of the people… they shouldn’t get taxpayer’s money.
–– PC Megan Rounds: Organizer of Parent’s Rights in Education. We should fund all levies. In order to change public schools, we need to get people involved in PRE to participate on school commitees. That’s how we change things.
–– PC Macomber: We should tie levy increases to a merit-based system (e.g., national education standings).
–– PC [???]: I’m not happy with what Post Falls School District. My daughter was sent home with an assignment that asked the student’s what “nickname” they want to be called. Something needs to change.
–– PC [???]: The State enforces certain curriculum like sociology that’s a trojan horse for Marxism/Communism. Their hands are tied! I’m voting against ALL of the levies.
–– Volunteer Coordinator Nina Beesly: My expenses have increased substantially. This is a real issue for me.
–– PC Jeff Tyler: Hey, I agree with Lakeland School’s levy… but CDASchool’s levy is a permanent $25M increase in their budget. Permanent. We need to take a stance.
–– PC Lisa Whitehead: Bad optics if we deny safety levies that will fund more SRO officers.
–– Chairman Regan: Idaho Constitution Article 9 stiuplates that public education be standardized “for the stablity of our Republican form of government” (paraphrased). I doubt if you asked any student what a Republican form of government is… they’d be hardpressed to answer you. Where’s the accountability in public schools? We need competition in public education… talk to your legislators to pass School Choice laws. Public education wasn’t created to create this calcified bureaucracy.
–– PC Thompson: Makes motion to support the Lakeland School District, and ignore the rest!
–– Volunteer Coordinator Beesly: Amended motion to postpone any action.
–– PC Dan Bell: I agree with Thompson.
–– [Beesly’s motion failed to postpone any action]
–– [PASSED Motion to support the Lakeland School District]
— [William’s corner: Shoulda taken the stance to say a big fat “NO” to CDASchool’s levy. Nobody made a motion for CDASchool’s levy, and at best, will wait until the next KCRCC meeting which leaves 2 weeks to take action against it… not good.]
Regarding KCRCC’s brand
♦ 9:05pm –– There’s things in the works to protect us against the various spoof accounts.
Announcements
♦ 9:15pm…
–– KCWRF Davilou Cummings Feb2nd Bst Western Inn, Edward Katz(?) Kootenai Classical Academy tuition-free.
–– North Idaho Pachyderms this Friday at JBs. Edward Katz(?)
–– Reagan Republicans meet 2nd and 4th Thursday. Mark Tilmer with Fulcher’s Office will be speaking.
–– Benewah GOPs Jefferson Day is April 29th.
Ajournment
♦ 9:15pm
