Commissioner Stages Political Stunt to Announce Candidacy

Commissioner Stages Political Stunt to Announce Candidacy

by Shari Dovale

For a candidate that craves attention, and is running for reelection on a fiscally conservative platform, Comrade Commissioner Luke Omodt fell flat with his political stunt on Tuesday, January 30, 2024.

The taxpayers are asking how much it has cost them to send Omodt down to Boise for the week to attend the Idaho Association of Counties (IAC) convention? Omodt chose to leave the convention after just a couple of short hours on Monday morning to fly back to Bonner County to stage a press conference out of range of the other elected officials.

Last week, Omodt began his political performance with the “citizen’s arrest” of 2 men at the beginning of the Budget hearing scheduled for 9:30am Friday morning.

Timing is important here, as is noted further down.

Omodt demanded a citizen’s arrest of the 2 men when Sandpoint PD refused to take part in the ongoing shenanigans that Omodt keeps perpetuating.

See: CommissionMEN Trespass Citizens for Not Disrupting?

As you can see in the above article and video, the 2 men had not spoken a word before the fearless warrior dictated that they be removed.

The First Amendment has been an ongoing bone of contention for our Potentate during the past year, as he continues to try to shut out the public from his meetings.

See some examples here:
Emperor Omodt has New Rules
Comrade Omodt’s ‘Rules for Thee but Not for Me”
Omodt’s Smirk Doesn’t Work Here

Sandpoint Police Chief, Corey Coon, notified Omodt at 9am Friday, prior to the scheduled Budget Hearing at 930am. In this letter, dated the day before, January 25th, Coon states (emphasis added):

“Because of the actions of the commissioners, I find myself having to draw a line in the sand to keep the City of Sandpoint and its Officers out of any potential future litigation.”

He goes on to state:

“This is to notify the Bonner County Commissioners that the Sandpoint Police Department will no longer be responding to trespassing complaints at their meetings …”

So Little Luke was aware of the stance of the Sandpoint PD before he made his play Friday morning. Maybe he was testing them to see if they really meant what was said? Calling their bluff? I don’t think that worked out quite the way he expected when he was compelled to insist on a “Citizen’s Arrest” thereby taking on all of the liability himself.

However, Lose It Luke chose to make this issue much larger when he treated it like an emergency by leaving Boise (after just a couple of hours) on Monday, 3 days after the incident with the 2 men.

He then compounded the faux pas by calling a press conference with his left-wing media buddies on Tuesday morning. The only problem is that the press conference did not say enough to call this a real problem.

Omodt referenced the US Constitution, and more to show his devotion to the first amendment, yet he refused to acknowledge that he shuts down public comment as a standard course of business. He talked of a few individuals that disrupt him, but he doesn’t like anyone to speak, even if they are not of those few.

Luke also made comments that said “ALL” employees, etc are entitled to a workplace free of threats of violence, yet he did not address the court-ordered Restraining Order against the Swearing Pastor Commissioner Steve Bradshaw for making threats against another sitting commissioner.

“The safety of the public, including the employees of Bonner County, will be maintained,” he stated. Does that include Commissioner Williams?

Comrade Chairman spoke for three and a half minutes without actually saying much. Then he took questions, some which seemed suspiciously like they were pre-written.

He made overtures that he will be contacting Governor Little and requesting the help from the Idaho State Police, since he is not getting the response he wanted from local law enforcement.

Mr. Omodt was very clear when he said that someone (presumably one of these 2 men) made a written correspondence that threatened to “shoot someone for doing their job.”

Through several Public Records Requests, I have seen all of the emails involved and have yet to see any that threaten “to shoot” anyone.

This is a very harsh statement that will need to be addressed, if not by the Attorney General’s office, then probably by the courts.

Charging One Person with Someone Else’s Crime?

When pressed later about the specific threats each man posed, Omodt suggested that each man was covered under a single email from a single individual.

Specifically, Rick Cramer was detained for trespassing due to an email written by Dave Bowman. This means that Omodt has trespassed one person for someone else’s email correspondence.

Will this be the new laws under which Bonner County will be run? If person A jaywalks, will person B get cited for it? If Suzy Homemaker runs a stop sign, will John Q. Neighbor across town get the ticket?

Luke has gone through the Twilight Zone if he believes this can stand. It is something out of a Communist playbook, not our Constitution.

Not only did Clumsy Smurf show his bumbling incompetence at his Clown Show Press Conference, but he did it on the back of his reelection announcement. Can someone say “Election Propaganda Stunt”?

A local leftist news outlet in which Omodt like to post has his Candidacy Announcement on the front page, yet, as of 645 pm this evening, there was no mention of the press conference. I am guessing that not many were very impressed with it?

Omodt did get the attention of other elected officials. A joint statement was released by Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall and Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler (emphasis added):

Joint Statement by Prosecutor Marshall and Sheriff Wheeler

We became aware of one email that was sent to the Commissioners from a constituent as a copy was sent by Commissioner Omodt and then he subsequently had a press conference where our offices were once again disparaged.

Two people were removed from a meeting on Friday January 26, 2024 and placed under arrest by Commissioner Omodt in his individual capacity. To our knowledge there has been no vote to trespass these individuals by the BOCC.

There was no deputy present at the administration building when this occurred; however, based on the videotape of the meeting there wasn’t any disruptive behavior displayed by anyone prior to the order to leave.

There is a distinction between the chairman of the board ordering someone to leave a meeting and trespassing someone from a public building. There are important steps to take which the prosecutor’s office has helped previous boards with. It is surprising at least one of the current board members chooses instead of receiving valuable advice to limit liability to the taxpayers of this county and to protect both the civil rights of constituents and the safety of persons within the administration building to instead continually cast aspersions on the Sheriff and Prosecutor.

Any alleged crime needs to be investigated by law enforcement and presented to the Prosecutor’s Office to file charges. This has yet to happen. We have rules in the criminal justice system; these rules must be followed.

County Commissioner meetings have been heated during the current session. However, no crimes have been committed in the presence of any of the deputies who have sat through the meetings.

These deputies have decades of experience dealing with agitated people on almost a daily basis. Deputies will react if the situation calls for it and crimes are actually committed.

We would encourage decorum in meetings. We would very much appreciate the Commissioners to respect each other, communicate and engage in the county’s business. However, blaming the Sheriff and Prosecutor for their own shortcomings seems political in nature.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall

Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler

Conclusion:

I suspect that we will hear more of his ramblings on his safety next week during the business meeting. It might even possibly include ways to shut the public out of the Regular Business Meetings altogether, and keep them private instead of public.

It is conceivable that he will continue showing them on zoom, or on You Tube, as his way of convincing himself that he complies with the “Public” part of the law. However, I predict this will bolster him to find new ways to shut down the county’s more popular Commissioner, Asia Williams.