Bonner County tobacco policy resurfacing

SANDPOINT — If you’re looking to be hired by Bonner County in 2014, you may want to consider kicking tobacco as a New Year’s resolution.

The county is slated to reconsider a proposal to avoid hiring new employees who smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco, according to Commissioner Mike Nielsen.

Nielsen plans on revisiting the issue during a department head meeting on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014.

“It will be discussed, debated and cussed,” said Nielsen.

Nielsen first tried to implement the policy in 2011, but it was not supported by former Commissioner Cornel Rasor, who has a strong libertarian bent, or Commissioner Lewie Rich, a frequent opponent of Nielsen initiatives.

Nielsen said tobacco use will not necessarily be a deal-breaker for the most qualified candidates for any given position. If a tobacco user is selected for hiring, they will have six months to quit using it if they want to remain on the county’s payroll, however.

The policy will have no effect on existing employees who smoke or chew, although they are already exempted from a 20-percent discount on their health insurance costs. Nielsen expects the discount to increase in 2014 to encourage employees to steer clear of tobacco products.

The main objective, Nielsen said, is to encourage a culture of healthy lifestyles and avoid taking on employees whose tobacco-related illnesses place drag on health care costs.

“Why should the taxpayer pick that (cost) up?” he said.

Nielsen will also seek to implement a tobacco-free campus policy which will forbid employees from smoking on county property or in vehicles to further discourage tobacco use. The campus policy would also apply to the public.

The issue was divisive among county employees and elected officials, with some contending it was an unnecessary reach into peoples’ private lives. Others, though, supported it as a way to drive down health care costs and increase productivity.

The county’s civil counsel contends the policy is not discriminatory because tobacco users are not a protected class in Idaho.

The sheriff’s office already requires its job applicants to be tobacco-free for 11 months before they can be hired.