Commissioner irked over grizzly email

Boundary County Commissioners were among many to receive an email Friday from John O'Connor, ower of Bonners Books, criticizing the "shrill" letter county commissioners sent to the Idaho Congressional Delegation and Governor Butch Otter Aug.on  22.

"I became immediately irritated when I read this email," commission chair Ron Smith said. "He showed absolutely no compassion for Jeremy Hill or his family."

Titled "An open letter to Sen. Jim Risch," O'Connor's letter begins, "You were recently sent a shrill letter from our Boundary County Commissioners, dated Aug. 22, having to do with the shooting of a grizzly bear by local resident Jeremy Hill.

"The letter was sent without the full support of the community, and obviously before the commissioners bothered to gather important facts about the case. The letter claimed the bear killed was a female with cubs; in fact it was a male cub that was shot. It inferred a human was killed by a bear in 2004, when no person has ever been reported killed by a grizzly in Boundary County. The letter claimed the responding Fish and Game officer made a recommendation not to prosecute Mr. Hill, when no such recommendation was made."

Instead of referring to a human killed by a grizzly, the letter sent by commissioners in Hill's support, in fact, referred to the last reported grizzly killed at human hands, citing the success of the collaborative effort between local officials and federal and state agencies in working toward recovery and de-listing of the grizzly bear as a threatened species. And despite O'Connor's allegations, commissioners had discussed the case with Idaho Fish and Game.

"We did have information from Idaho Fish and Game that said there should be no charges brought in this case," Smith said. "Our action in this matter wasn't spur of the moment or uninformed by any means."

"Perhaps most importantly, the letter claimed children were in the yard with the bears," O'Connor went on. Clearly there is much question about this point, because Mr. Hill has not made this claim, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife chose to consider prosecuting the case.

"It seems our commissioners wrote you in an effort to have this case tried in the heated court of public opinion, or behind political doors, rather than to let cooler heads gather facts and make informed decisions via the court system.

"I hope you did not do as they ask and 'do all in your power' to aid them in this graphic example of bad government. Government by fear does not well serve the governed," he concluded.

"The only person I've heard so far with negative comments about the action we took in this matter is John O'Connor," Smith said. "Based on the facts we had, I believe it was our obligation to take the actions we did in asking the District 1 legislators and the governor for assistance on behalf of Jeremy. While I personally don't believe he should have had to pay a fine, I have to think that what we did helped bring this case to a resolution that spared Jeremy and his family any more stress than what they'd already been put through. In the same circumstance, we'd do it again. In this situation, it was our obligation to a citizens right to protect his family and property as we did, just as it was Jeremy Hill's right and obligation to defend his family."