Bonner County CommissionMEN and CameraGATE
by Shari Dovale
Some weeks ago, Commissioners Omodt and Bradshaw threw hissy fits like little school girls over a Sheriff’s Deputy attending their meetings with his required body camera. They did not want to be recorded without their express permission.
Ok, let’s look at that, shall we?
It has been determined that the Deputy is on site to protect Commissioner Williams from the credible threat of bodily harm or worse, issued by Commissioner Steve Bradshaw. This was noted by the courts and signed off on a year-long restraining order.
As elected officials doing public business, they have no expectation of privacy and should anticipate being photographed and recorded.
But this is not about their dramatized wish for control over the deputy and their fellow Commissioner. It is another case of “Rules for Thee but Not for Me.”
Not only have these two CommissionMEN surreptitiously purchased and placed cameras to record Commissioner Asia Williams without her knowledge or consent, but they did it nearly a year ago. When she found out about them, Luke Omodt denied her access to the recordings.
Information was obtained through Public Records Requests for verification. Some of it includes the following:
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(Pics taken by Redoubt News)
As you can see, there are more than 2 cameras. One camera can look directly into Commissioner Williams’ office, yet no camera can look into either of the other 2 commissioner offices.
Commissioner Williams requested information on the cameras and equipment, including the following:
Director Storms responded with quite a bit of information, including:
Director Storms seems to be doing his best to comply with the requests from Williams, yet he has been placed in the unenviable position of being caught in the middle, as he had already been told by Chairman Omodt to not allow access to Commissioner Williams.
This gets a bit tricky here, as Luke used the excuse of needing the legal department to explain the process to him before he allowed access to the surveillance footage. We have seen Omodt’s lack of respect for the legal department, and his disregard for any opinion that does not agree with him.
I would like Luke Omodt to point me to the statute, or law, or ordinance, that allows him to control all access to information, and who is to receive it. And, (since Luke likes to quote statute numbers) he has seemingly put Director Storms in the position of violating Idaho statute 74-102, which is clear in that “Every person has a right to examine and take a copy of any public record of this state and there is a presumption that all public records in Idaho are open at all reasonable times for inspection except as otherwise expressly provided by statute.“
Commissioner Williams did not do a PRR, as she is an elected official working in her official capacity, which actually gives her more access than the general public. There is no reason that Director Storms should even be asking permission from Omodt as to whether or not to give her this information.
Furthermore, Luke Omodt is not the Supervisor for Commissioner Williams. He knows this. This has been stated repeatedly. It was made clear again in this email thread:
The next problem with his response is that, right from the outset, Jessi Reinbold had full access to the footage:
Likewise, this brings the wiretapping laws into question. I am not an expert on these laws, nor do I play one on TV, but as I understand it, if they obtained information in this manner, and then acted upon this information that could not be obtained any other way, then they should be receiving visits from multiple people that are more versed in these laws than I am.
The next legal problem is with more violations of Open Meeting Laws.
This indicates that there was a quorum to approve the purchase. The total amount spent for this equipment was $1,551.59. This approval or invoice was not brought to Commissioner Williams, and the information was denied to her for months.
Way too many people were involved in this clandestine operation against the newly installed Commissioner. Even Clerk Rosedale had to know about it because he was the one responsible for paying the bill. The only meeting this will likely be found is the approval of a combined BATCH from the Clerk’s office.
We have heard for months that the ladies in the BOCC office were afraid to be alone with Commissioner Williams claiming she made statements alleging they wanted to do her harm. This was reported by Clerk Rosedale in his statement in defense of Commissioner Bradshaw in August 2023.
This new information suggests that camera equipment was ordered and in place during the first month after Commissioner Williams took office. Right out of the gate!
Regardless of all of the other issues that need to be scrutinized, the fact is there is video saved of what actually happens in that office. There will be proof of whether or not these ladies are afraid to be alone in the office with Williams. There will be no video of these ladies laughing with her, of them staying in the office when everyone else has left for the day, or of them sitting and chatting with her either inside or outside of her office.
It is time to shine some light on this covert ‘CameraGate’ operation and see some real truth.
