KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — The Kootenai County assessor is answering uncomfortable questions after he admitted to secretly recording his employees and elected officials.
During an awkward meeting of the Kootenai County Commissioners, assessor Béla Kovacs found himself in the hot seat.
"My question is do I have an attorney representing me?" Kovas asked commissioners during the meeting. "And I'm okay with long pauses of awkward silence until I get a satisfactory answer."
"Well, what makes you think you need an attorney to answer for your own behavior as a public official?" County Commissioner Bruce Mattare replied.
Kovacs told commissioners he has secretly recorded elected officials and other Kootenai County employees.
Kootenai County treasurer Steve Matheson said he learned about the secret audio tapes when he emailed Kovacs asking if he ever recorded their conversations.
"Bela has disclosed and forwarded to me 15 conversations," Matheson said. "It's apparent from these recordings that I'm not the only one he's targeting."
In Idaho, it's legal to secretly record someone as long as one person in the conversation is aware. But, county officials believe these recordings could be subject to public disclosure. Kovacs said he also recorded one executive session, a closed meeting where commissioners can freely discuss sensitive issues like litigation and employee matters.
"If the assessor is recording these conversations, he's creating a public record when there is not meant to be one and he actually enhances the liability to this county, significantly in many cases and I find that to be extraordinarily troubling from an elected official," Mattare said.
Kovacs said he planned to use the recordings as notes.
"Typically in those situations you tell people 'I'm going to record this for my own notes,'" Mattare asked.
Kovacs provided another reason.
"Other elected officials have given me cause for concern as to whether or not the conduct and the actions have all been narrowly legal," Kovacs said. "And I'm going to leave it at that."
According to KREM 2 News partner the Couer d'Alene Press, Kovas resigned from his Spokane County job in 2018 rather than be fired following an investigation into his behavior.
The Press reports multiple Spokane County staff described Kovacs as "paranoid," saying he forbade some employees from speaking to one another without him present and even threatened to have office doors removed to prevent staff from having private conversations.
Kovacs did not respond to KREM 2's request for a comment. The Kootenai County prosecutor is asking Kovacs to preserve those recordings and the devices he used. He told commissioners his office is looking into the issue.
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