County settles with former director

SANDPOINT — An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit filed by a former Bonner County employee who claimed her civil rights were violated when commissioners fired her.

The terms of the settlement in Donna Wells’ lawsuit are not disclosed in court documents. Judge Edward J. Lodge approved a joint motion for dismissal on Sept. 17, documents filed in Idaho’s U.S. District Court indicate.

The matter had been set for trial in the summer of 2010.

Wells’ Hayden attorney, Lawrence Beck, did not respond to a request for comment on the outcome. Bonner County commissioners had not seen the settlement and had no comment, according to Pamela Allen, the county’s director of human resources and risk management.

Wells, the county’s former human resources director and risk manager, filed suit last year claiming her rights to due process were violated when she was dismissed without cause in July 2008.

In addition to the county, commissioners Joe Young and Lewis Rich, former Commissioner Todd Crossett and Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bauer were also named as defendants.

Wells, 60, began working for the county as a deputy clerk in 1994 and was promoted in 2001. Wells’ lawsuit alleged that she was railroaded out of her job on fabricated employee conduct and Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act violations.

The suit indicated Wells huddled with commissioners in May to discuss potential vacancies at Bonner Dispatch that were medically related. Wells revisited the matter with a dispatch supervisor a couple of weeks later.

Commissioners, the suit said, admonished Wells for exposing the county to liability for discussing matters protected by HIPPA privacy guidelines and suspended her.

Wells challenged the allegations lodged against her, which allegedly prompted county officials to make additional claims of misconduct. Wells’ counsel argued no evidence was ever produced to substantiate the allegations and there was no HIPPA violation.

Wells’ suit sought compensatory damages for lost wages and benefits, in addition to punitive damages for the “callous indifference” to her constitutional rights.