By several measures, Kootenai County elected officials had a rough year in 2005.

In February, their road got bumpy when a district court judge effectively ended a juvenile drug court program by quitting it, leading to the resignation of and an ultimate $69,150 settlement with program administrator Marina Kalani. Later, Prosecutor Bill Douglas was involved in a court test to prevent the release of 1,060 e-mail exchanges between Kalani and him. And another woman in his office filed a $354,000 tort claim, alleging Douglas harassed and intimidated her.

The Kalani flap set the tone for the county for the year: Former sheriff’s captain Sam Grubbs won a $267,400 settlement from the county’s insurance company as a result of a controversial firing. The commissioners made headlines when they received a jar of Vaseline, a tube of lipstick and instructions on how to use the products from a deputy public defender who was upset about pay raises. In November, commissioners and the sheriff suffered the worst stroke when the same voters who’d previously embraced the local-option sales tax rejected their push to renew the half-penny tax to expand the jail.

As they prepare to take up the issue of the local-option tax again, commissioners have hired a new local public relations firm to polish the county’s image: Taggart & Clarke Effective Communication. Although corporations routinely hire communications experts to put a good face on their product, it’s unsettling when a governmental entity does so. After all, elected officials are using tax dollars to make themselves look good – in this case, at $75 per hour.

In a statement to The Spokesman-Review, commission Chairman Gus Johnson spelled out what he wants the new firm to do: write two press releases per month, publish a quarterly newsletter, improve internal courthouse communications and produce “positive” county stories. He had the county’s somewhat tarnished image in mind when he told The Spokesman-Review: “There are times where the county doesn’t get the story out as well. It always has to be a negative before we can get in the paper. We would like to see some positive.”

Unquestionably, the county’s new public relations firm is capable of carrying out the chairman’s directive, consisting of Cynthia Taggart and Ric Clarke, former award-winning reporters of this newspaper and the Coeur d’Alene Press, respectively. A press release about noxious weeds shouldn’t challenge them. However, the moment they spin controversial stories or act as a shield against public scrutiny, they will be stepping across the narrowest of lines.

The arrangement between the county and Effective Communication should be watched. By Idaho law, the county can’t spend public dollars to campaign for the local-option sales tax. Also, the public should expect the commissioners to handle questions on hot topics rather than handing them off to the new public relations firm. In a county election year, commissioners should understand that they have the same boss as their public relations firm does: the public.