Kootenai Health seeks dissolution of dormant hospital taxing district
Kootenai Health asked commissioners to dissolve a district that has had no staff, assets or hospital control since Jan. 1, 2024. The move would end the last required public elections for a taxing district that has not levied tax since 1995.
On May 12, 2026, Kootenai Health asked Kootenai County commissioners to dissolve the hospital taxing district that still exists on paper but has had no staff, assets or control over the hospital since Jan. 1, 2024. The district has not exercised its taxing authority since 1995.
Joel Hazel, a lawyer for Kootenai Health, made the request during the commissioners’ May 12, 2026 status update in the Kootenai County Administration Building in Coeur d’Alene. The agenda item was listed as “Business Request for Dissolution of Kootenai Health District,” and the minutes recorded that the Kootenai Hospital District declared itself nonfunctional as of Jan. 1, 2024.
Under Idaho Code 39-1325, county commissioners have authority to dissolve a nonfunctioning hospital district after two years in that status. Kootenai Health planned to seek formal dissolution as soon as the district became eligible on Jan. 1, 2026.
The push follows Kootenai Health’s conversion from a public hospital district to a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which took effect Jan. 1, 2024. That conversion transferred the district’s assets to the nonprofit and ended the district’s taxing authority, sovereign immunity and eminent domain powers. The change was meant to strengthen financial sustainability, expand access to grants and philanthropy, and improve access to capital.
Even after the conversion, Idaho law kept the district’s elected trustees in place. The board still had to hold brief monthly meetings and elections even though it had no staff, no assets and no operational control of Kootenai Health. The board’s only remaining theoretical power was the ability to levy a tax, but there would have been nowhere for that money to go.
The district stayed on the ballot in May 2025 because dissolution had not yet been allowed. Luke Sommer, Karina Angiletta and Cynthia Clark won seats in that election, and Clark edged David Bobbitt by 353 votes. Those results did not affect hospital governance or operations.
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