Group To Publish Guide On Its Own After Controversy, League Decides To Go Ahead Without County Funds For Printing

The League of Women Voters has decided to publish a citizens guide on its own, without using Kootenai County money.

The league will seek contributions to pay for the pamphlet, according to a statement released Monday.

The annual guide provides Kootenai County residents with information about their representatives in federal, state and local governments, as well as court listings and information about schools and various public services.

Last year, about 4,000 copies were printed at a cost to the county of 5 cents a brochure.

This spring, however, the project ran into a snag when county commissioners objected to the pamphlets being printed on county printing presses. Commissioners didn’t want the League of Women Voters name on the front of a brochure they felt should be an official government document.

Commissioner Ron Rankin, who led the opposition, also said he was opposed to the brochure because the league’s founding members were “card-carrying communists” and because the group’s local chapter opposes a 1 percent tax cap initiative he has championed unsuccessfully for years.

Rankin added that he would be against printing the document with public funds regardless of what group puts it together. He said the county has no business printing brochures for any private or nonprofit groups.

Commissioners Dick Compton and Dick Panabaker said they were in favor of moving the League of Women Voters name - now in bold print on the brochure’s first page - to small print on the last page, giving the group credit for researching the information.

The League of Women Voters tried to downplay any conflict surrounding the brochure.

But Gloria Klotz, the league’s chairwoman, objected to Rankin’s characterization of the group’s founders as communists. League members also were left wondering if Rankin’s opposition to their brochure isn’t simply punishment for the group’s stand against the inveterate tax activist’s 1 percent tax cap initiative.

Klotz said the purpose of the League of Women Voters is to educate the electorate and register voters. The group occasionally takes stands on issues, she said, but only after careful consideration.

“We’re just asking that our name be on the front of the pamphlet,” she said last week.

“Because we do all the labor in gathering information, we feel like we’re paying our way,” she said. “It’s a little different from just being another nonprofit group.”

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