BOCC addresses personnel policy regarding seeking elective office

At his last weekly business meeting on Tuesday, commission chair Dan McDonald recommended deleting the county’s personnel policy that puts an employee’s job in jeopardy if he or she were to choose to run for elective office against an incumbent.

Policy 440 currently states, “While Bonner County recognizes that the First Amendment provides Constitutional protections for the political activity of its employees, it also recognizes that this right is not absolute when balancing the right of the individual to become a candidate for office and the county’s interests in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.

“If an employee initiates candidacy against an incumbent Elected Official for whom he/she is a subordinate and there is a reasonable prediction of disruption in that Elected Official’s office, the employee must immediately resign or face possible termination."

The policy references a case law, Pickering v. Board of Education, which McDonald said addresses political speech not political candidacy.

He said that as the policy is written now, if you want to run for office against any elected official, you must quit your job. He said that commissioners want to eliminate this policy because they feel it is the constitutional right of employees to run for political office of any kind.

“As this is written now, this seems to me like it builds in a lot of obsolescence in that someone who has been working under an official would have a lot of knowledge. What we want to foster is experience rather than get someone green in there.”

A member of the public asked if the policy change had been run by the legal department. McDonald said that there was no need for legal to get involved in county policy.

“We saw that the case law we saw that it was cited incorrectly,” McDonald said and added that it is a policy not an ordinance. “We’re all for individual freedoms which I hope you would be as well.”

Another questioned if the policy change would be retroactive. McDonald said it would not and that it would be effective immediately. He said that it came about when an employee who works for him was planning to run for his seat.

“Fortunately, I was planning on vacating the seat, so it wasn’t an issue,” he said. This person was a department head and McDonald said that he felt it would be detrimental to the county to lose this person were they not successful in their bid for office.

Commissioner Jeff Connolly, who also was attending his last business meeting, added, “I just want to say I agree with that one hundred percent. And it doesn’t seem right to refuse them their right, their constitutional right.” He said it doesn’t make sense. If the candidate doesn’t win, the county has lost a valuable department head.

Commissioner Steve Bradshaw agreed. He said, “It’s a very unamerican policy.” He referenced it as what happens under a dictatorship and added, “There’s nothing right about it.”

The policy was approved unanimously.

In other council business, officials approved the consent agenda which besides liquor license renewals included invoices for Road and Bridge Department for $10,205 for deicing salt and $9,765 for the annual renewal of technology.

They also approved funding tuition reimbursement for employees who seek skill improvements; an update to the furlough policy which had been amended during COVID; awarding a bid to Pape for snow removing equipment to the tune of $296,742; approving the ordinance regarding Manfred zone change from Rural 4 to Recreation. This property is in Priest Lake.

Commissioners also accepted the Public Defense Commission Annual Report which summarizes activities and financial review of the public defender’s office.

At the recess of the meeting, before commissioners went into Executive Session, several attendees wished McDonald and Connolly well and thanked them for their service.

The next county commissioner’s meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 9 a.m. at the Bonner County Administration Building, 1500 Highway 2, Suite 338.