Pastor John Padula seeks Kootenai County commissioner seat again

John Padula is betting that a pastor’s testimony can carry him back into the Kootenai County commissioner race, this time with the county’s growth, taxes and public safety pressures much sharper than when he first ran for District 1 in 2024. Padula, 47, pastors at The Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene and says his campaign is rooted in a life that includes addiction, incarceration and, by his account, a turning point 18 years ago when he gave his life to Jesus Christ.

Padula has tried to turn that personal history into a governing argument. He says “success is character,” and frames his ministry work as preparation for public office because it taught him to meet people where they are, carry responsibility under stress and keep service at the center of decision-making. He also points to business experience in property management and insulation sales as evidence that he can handle the practical demands of county government. Padula is married and has four children, a detail that fits the family-and-community pitch he has leaned on as he asks voters to see him as more than a first-time political hopeful.

The seat he wants is not symbolic. The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners is the county’s governing body, taxing authority, contracting body and chief administrator of public funds. That means District 1 helps shape budgets, staffing and service levels in a county that the Census Bureau estimated at 188,323 residents on July 1, 2024, up from 171,362 in 2020. County materials say Kootenai County covers 1,310 square miles, with 18 lakes, 56 miles of navigable rivers and 360,000 acres of National Forest, a landscape that adds pressure on roads, public safety and land-use decisions as more people move in.

Those pressures are already showing up in the budget. Commissioners approved a $131 million fiscal year 2025 budget that levied 2% more taxes, then later approved a $144 million fiscal year 2026 budget with a 2.5% tax levy increase. The sheriff’s office has been a major flashpoint, proposing a fiscal year 2025 budget north of $50 million after the county’s adopted fiscal year 2024 budget set aside about $44 million, and then seeking a $54 million fiscal year 2026 budget with about $4.5 million in new funding requests. Padula, who launched his first District 1 campaign on Dec. 5, 2023 and lost the 2024 Republican primary to Marc Eberlein, 11,153 votes to 39% of the total, is trying again in a county where the decisive question is no longer whether growth is coming, but who will pay for it and how.