The Board of County Commissioners met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, January 22.  All three commissioners were present.

Comp Time

The issues of comp time and payout for county employees was the subject of discussion again.  At issue is when the county’s obligation to pay out accumulated PTO kicks in.  The county and state policies on the issue need to be clarified and reconciled moving forward.  County attorney Lyle Fuller suggested that quarterly comp time reviews would help mitigate the problem ahead of when it becomes acute for affected employees.  While the policies affect all county employees, it is primarily the Sheriff’s Office and the Road and Bridge Department that end up with overloaded comp time.  Lyle Fuller will continue to review the state and county policies regarding comp time, and the commissioners will need to clarify the county’s procedure once it is settled.

School Resource Officer
Agreement

The commission has been discussing a Resource Officer for the School District for the last month and half or so.  A grant from the School District to fund an officer from the Sheriff’s Office to maintain a presence in the schools was received, and all parties involved in the discussion have consistently agreed that an SRO was an important and necessary figure in the schools.  The School District will pay the county to fund the hourly rate for the SRO, which is currently the nature of the details that remain to be worked out.  Because the officer would end up working overtime hours, and the pay would need to include benefits, PERSI, and other components of the hourly pay, the exact amount listed in the contract is still be negotiated by the involved departments and agencies.  

Drug Testing Policy

In an ongoing discussion over the last meetings, the commissioners once again discussed the county’s drug testing policy.  ICRMP (Idaho Counties Risk Management Program) is the county’s provider of property and casualty insurance and risk management.  ICRMP requires drug testing as part of its coverage, but it leaves the details of the testing to the counties themselves.  Clerk Lon Colton spoke with other counties about their approaches, and found that only 1 county tested all county employees.  Most operated similar to Oneida County, which primarily tests what it deems to be “sensitive positions.”  Sensitive positions, in this case, refer to jobs for which employees carry firearms, have access to homes and businesses, work in child care, public health and safety positions, and/or operate heavy or dangerous equipment.  Under this reading, it was suggested that probation officers should also be included in the screenings along with Road and Bridge and the Sheriff’s Office.  

Because the exact rules for the testing are within the county’s discretion to determine, the commissioners discussed potential changes to expand the pool of who is tested, increase the frequency of testing, and the overall number of people tested.  Lyle Fuller explained some other pre-hiring checks that might also be worth considering for county employment, such as those regarding civil issues such as fraud, bankruptcy, etc. 

The commissioners will continue discussing the issue in future
meetings.

ARPA funds remaining balance

The commissioners approved a motion to use the $26,402 remaining ARPA fund dollars toward the cost of compliant furniture fixtures required for ADA accommodation in the county building.  

One time expense budget

Bids for the extra fuel storage system are still being evaluated by the commissioners. 

Economic development

Molly Beseris from the 4 County Alliance asked for an invoice, which was authorized by the commissioners.  

County Vehicle Policy

A discussion of the county vehicle policy centered on the issues of whether drivers would need to leave for their events from the office or from home, and the accompanying question of whether the keys could be kept at home at any time.  The policy will be updated in the future.  

First Responder counseling

Katie Leavitt, Counselor from Bannock County, updated her rate for Oneida County.  Last year, the charge to the county was $100/session for first responder counseling for more than 70 total sessions.  At under 70 sessions, the rate was $125/session.  This year, she wanted to amend the agreement to a $10,000 flat fee with unlimited visits available to the county.  The commissioners were interested in verifying that the services were being put to good use.  Chief Deputy Doug Williams stated that in his experience, counseling could be very helpful in the short and longterm for first responders who have experienced traumatic scenes on the job.  Discussions with other counties concerning their experiences with counseling services are ongoing, and no decision was made pending further research and discussion.

Life Flight Insurance

Some issues with the county’s LifeFlight insurance coverage were discussed.  It was determined that there were issues with the limited coverage provided.  As a result, the commission moved to decline continuing the offered LifeFlight insurance and seek other coverage options.

Excess property sale

It was reported that the fixtures that are being replaced inside the courthouse will almost all be used in other county facilities.  Lon Colton requested that county departments gather lists of items that are no longer needed so that they can be auctioned to the public according to policy.

Updated employment posters

Posters with information about FMLA and other issues, as well as information resources were printed by the county to be kept available at all county offices.  This is a requirement of federal labor law.

Meeting change ideas

A number of citizens came before the council to discuss the potential for changing meeting times for commission meetings.  Allen Nielsen, Vilate Nielsen, Mary Young, Ray and Brandi Hubbard and other county residents spoke before the council, explaining that the early Monday morning timing of the meetings meant that people were often unable to attend.  During December, meetings were held at 1:00 p.m. rather than the conventional 9:00 a.m. in order to allow the participation of acting county attorney Vic Pearson.  Those in attendance stated that the later time had made for easier attendance, though an even later start time would be a further improvement.  

Chairman Lewis stated that one reason the meetings were held during business hours was that most of the required attendants at the meetings were county employees, who would need to attend meetings after work hours or with potential overtime pay.  

Vilate Nielsen explained that watching public meetings was a great education in the function and efforts of local government, and everyone would benefit from access to the meetings. 

The potential for streaming the meetings was raised, as was a potential “Town Hall” approach.  Lon Colton expressed the opinion that a later meeting would be fine, and also related that the streamed meetings that were held by necessity during COVID were not well-attended, which is why the county eventually discontinued them.  The idea of rotating times to allow access to a wider group of interested citizens was also raised.  Another idea, to focus one meeting a month on the most publicly oriented events was also discussed. Because the discussion was not an action item, no changes to the meeting schedule were made, although the commissioners agreed to take the matter under advisement and brainstorm potential methods for increasing accessibility for those expressing an interest in being able to observe or attend the meetings.