Rich stands by misquote claims

SANDPOINT — Commissioner Lewie Rich stands behind his contention that he was misquoted in an article involving the Bonner County Property Rights Council.

Rich took exception with remarks attributed to him in a April 4 article published by the Pacific Northwest Inlander.

Rich was quoted in the article as saying that the property rights council was lacking in candor and transparency.

“I think it’s on the extreme right,” Rich was quoted as saying in the article. “They have the potential to really hurt effective planning and zoning.”

Rich said the candor and transparency remarks were misapplied to the council and were meant to refer to back-channel communications between Commission Chairman Cornel Rasor and Scott Bauer, the commission’s civil counsel.

Those communications are the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, which seeks to force the disclosure of the correspondence. Bauer contends the communications are exempt from Idaho’s public records law because they were conducted through his private email account.

“There was a lot of things that happened behind the scenes that I was not privileged to know about or cc’d on,” said Rich.

Rich said he unsure if he used the term “extreme” during his interview with the Inlander.

“I may have used the word ‘extreme,’ but I believe the overall makeup of the advisory council is skewed. It’s too far in one direction,” Rich said.

Rich noted that other advisory boards in the county have a political and philosophical diversity which produces robust discussions. The composition of the property rights council, meanwhile, is staunchly conservative.

Staff at the Inlander said Rich never contacted them about correcting the alleged errors and stand by the accuracy of their reporting. Rich said he never approached the Inlander because he was unaware that a story with his comments had been published.

“I did not even know the Inlander article was out there until Tuesday’s meeting,” said Rich.