The Board of County Commissioners met for a regular meeting on Monday, February 26.  For the next several meetings at the very least, the Board of County Commissioners will be meeting at 1:00 p.m. instead of the conventional 9:00 a.m.  this is in response to a call from community members about moving the meeting times to allow for greater attendance at the public meetings.  

The 1:00 meeting time is a compromise between the early morning slot and a requested evening time.  Chairman Lewis explained at the last meeting that the meeting was held during business hours because it required the participation of county employees, who would be off the clock after 5:00 p.m.  A series of town hall style information and discussion events are also planned, and will begin in April as a further attempt to engage the community in the county’s decision deliberation and adjudication processes.

Agreement with Fish and Game

The county has an agreement with Fish and Game concerning the maintenance of the facilities at Deep Creek, which was discussed by the county last year.  In order to ascertain the status of the agreement, a motion to move forward with having Commissioner Jeppsen meet with the Forest Service to clarify the arrangement was approved.

Juvenile Justice

Stace Gearhart from the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections and Gabe Jimenez from the local juvenile probation office presented their annual report on the county’s activity
in 2023.

ISP stated that 26 arrests were made in Oneida County, which is up from the prior year.  Detention admission numbers stayed fairly consistent with the last year.  11 recommendations for diversion were received, which was less than last year.  The petitions included 15 felonies, 9 misdemeanors, and 2 status offenses.  Some of the petitions included individuals with multiple offenses.  

Probation intakes were 12, with 9 releases.  Those are higher than prior years.  8 Diversions and 8 releases were also recorded.  The success rates for the programs are good for the state, especially the 100% successful completion rate of the diversions.  

An average offender is a 16-18 white male.  Native American and Hispanic demographics account for most of the remaining ethnic composition.  As with every year on record, males accounted for the vast majority of probation cases.  

A one day snapshot of the county from September 30 showed 13 kids on probation, and  8 on diversion.

Recidivism in the county looked at a cohort released two years ago.  At six months, zero percent had reoffended.  At twelve months, 17% had reoffended.  

The Juvenile Correction Act, Cigarette tax, and lottery revenue contributed to the funding of the programs.    

Drug Testing Policy

The county has received word from ICRMP (Idaho Counties Risk Management Program) to the effect that county boards were self-governed and were able to establish their own drug testing policies for elected officials.  Commissioner Jeppsen explained that any employees can submit to random testing on the part of the county.  He stressed that random testing was required for some county positions, primarily those involved in law enforcement, public trust and safety, and responsibility.  He did not feel that there was any reason for elected officials not to put their names in for testing, but that it was not required by state policy.  Ambulance drivers, EMTs and other emergency medical workers were deemed to have met the requirements for enrollment in the random drug testing policy, and it was agreed by the commissioners that adding them the testing pool should be instituted to prevent any issues of liability for
the county.

The Road and Bridge department is another group who has mandatory testing oversight as a result of state regulations.  Road and Bridge reported that they had been testing all new employees.

It was proposed to add the issue to the second meeting in March’s agenda.  The cost to the county is roughly $80 per person tested in the pool.  

Chairman Lewis suggested having the ambulance crew placed in a separate category of their own for the purposes of random drug testing.

A motion to table the decision on drug testing policy pending the receipt of information from the ambulance crew passed unanimously.

A Teen Assessment room will be established in the School District office and will become an available resource for faculty and parents when it is opened.  

Comp Time Policy

Several issues related to comp time in the sheriff’s office were discussed.  It was recently pointed out that comp time would be capped at 150 hours for Road and Bridge and Law Enforcement.  This policy did not include dispatchers, who accumulate a large amount of comp time over the year, well above 50 hours which the policy would hold them to.  Chairman Lewis proposed changing the policy language to reflect “Sheriff’s Department” rather than “Law Enforcement” to allow for dispatchers to be included in the exception.  The current staffing situation will not allow dispatchers to lower their comp hours below the threshold in the immediate near term.  

A motion to change the language in the policy to include other employees in the sheriff’s office, particularly dispatchers, was passed and will take effect immediately.  A motion to clarify that the comp and overtime figures for dispatch employees should be figured by the week, not an average of the pay period was also passed.

Fuel Tank

Commissioner Ken Eliason explained the bids he had received for the installation of the fuel storage tank and Fuel Cloud system.  Chairman Lewis wanted reassurance that the bid would cover maintenance and installation of the electrical and software systems that will run the tank and fuel dispensary setup.  Valley Wide and State Line are the two bidders for the project.  State Line recently completed the light pole replacement outside the Event Center.

State Line Electrical was awarded the bid of $5,257 for connecting the ambulance garage power to the cement pad for the reserve fuel tank.

Replacing PZ Member

Chairman Lewis recommended Rich Moore for the position opened on the Planning and Zoning board by the departure of Aysha Maddox.  Moore lives near the summit, which is considered an important area of the county for representation on the PZ Board.

Commissioner Jeppsen mentioned the bylaws, which state that the commission can have up to 12 members, with no more than one third who live inside the city limits.