Omodt receives cease and desist from county officials

SANDPOINT — A cease and desist letter has been sent to Bonner County Commissioner Luke Omodt after the county’s prosecutor, sheriff and coroner claim that he illegally removed IT access to county servers from a sheriff’s deputy.

According to the cease and desist, toward the end of January, Omodt instructed Bonner County IT Director Jacob Storms to “alter the credentials of Sergeant Marcus Robbins such that he can no longer safeguard certain digital public records” that are under the authority and control of Prosecutor Louis Marshall, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler and Coroner Robert Beers.

“We … are elected officials with custodial control over the records created in our offices as set forth in the Public Records Act,” the document said. “Neither you nor the board as a whole may dictate how we access, control or monitor those records.”

Marshall, Wheeler and Beers claim that with this change of credentials, Storms could be allowed to access confidential documents without their knowledge or consent.

“Given the highly sensitive nature of the records in dispute — which include active criminal and death investigations, victims’ information, [et cetera] — this is completely unacceptable,” the document said.

The trio demanded that Omodt immediately restore Robbins’s security credentials or else they will take legal action against him “to protect against this gross overreach and abuse of power.”

However, Omodt said that Storms was never commanded to alter the sergeant’s credentials, and he believes the cease and desist letter is “arbitrary, capricious and wrong.”

“The board of county commissioners are the chief executive authority of the county government according to Idaho law,” Omodt said in an email to Marshall. “The BOCC is also responsible for the classification and retention of records.”

Omodt provided his own list of grievances, dating back to January 2023. On Jan. 18, 2023, the commissioner claimed that Wheeler refused to conduct enhanced background checks on Technology Department staff, while simultaneously demanding and conducting the same background checks on maintenance and custodial staff.

In October 2023, Omodt said IT staff began notifying department heads of cybersecurity upgrades at regular meetings for the county’s department heads.

“The prosecutor, sheriff and coroner choose not to attend these monthly department head meetings,” Omodt said.

Department staff do not have the credentials to access the data on the servers in question, Omodt said. The Technology Department, he added, will continue to strengthen and protect Bonner County technology in accordance with the law, county policy and industry best practices.

“It is disappointing that in a world of Russian and Chinese cyberattacks, the three chief law enforcement officials of Bonner County prioritize politics and who cleans the toilets over the cybersecurity protecting the elections, emergency services, finances and taxpayers of Bonner County,” the commissioner said. “Your cavalier disregard for cybersecurity is not shared by the board of county commissioners, who will continue to protect the interests of all of Bonner County according to law.”