House panel spikes change to Idaho agency appointments

An Idaho House panel has spiked a proposal that would have changed how a handful of state agency heads were appointed.

Currently, the directors for the Idaho Department of Correction, Department of Parks and Recreation and Idaho Transportation Department are appointed and overseen by their respective agency boards.

According to the HB 496, Idaho’s governor would have been in charge of appointing directors to those three agencies starting next year.

However, the House State Affairs on Monday raised too many concerns to advance the bill to the House floor.

Members made three different motions and all three attempts died in a tie vote after Rep. Tom Loertscher, chairman of the committee, briefly left the room.