BOCC declines to act on resignation

SANDPOINT — Two of the county's three commissioners abstained from voting on a measure to act on Bonner County Sheriff Darryl Wheeler's resignation, effectively ending the motion.

Wheeler announced his resignation in mid-December, emailing county officials and posting a statement on the sheriff's office's social media accounts. According to a letter submitted to county commissioners and shared with the Daily Bee, Wheeler planned to file for retirement benefits before beginning his fifth term as sheriff on Jan. 13, 2025. 

In order to be eligible for retirement benefits, Wheeler said he needed to be separated from county employment for 30 days.

Commissioners Asia Williams and Steve Bradshaw both contended the resignation was effective when Wheeler sent it. However, Korn contended the resignation needed to be approved by commissioners first before taking effect, hence the Dec. 31 motion on the commission's agenda.

The proposed change in the resignation's effective date worried both Williams and Bradshaw with the pair noting it could open the county up to a potential lawsuit.

"Bonner County commissioners do not have the authority to accept or deny a resignation," Bradshaw said. "All we do is receive it and say, 'thank you' and that is it. We have no authority to do anything more than that."

Not only would taking action open the county to potential litigation, Williams said the issue could also have a financial cost as the county would have to pay Wheeler's salary during his one-month retirement.

Bradshaw said his interpretation of applicable statutes — and past county practice — made the resignation effective as soon as it arrived, in this case via email Dec. 13; not when a recipient happens to open the email as contended by Korn.

"The only reasonable way to read it is that the resignation is effective when accepted and in parentheses is the word received by the board, and that occurred when Darryl sent it," Bradshaw said. "And for me, that's the end of the story. We received it. He resigned. Done. We have no say so whatsoever, one way or the other. We do not have that authority. We can't question why he did it, how he did it. All we can say is, yep, he did it, and that's it. "

However, Korn said legal doctrine does not indicate a correlation between receiving something and accepting something. Failure to act on Wheeler's resignation — and to act on it — opens the county up to a "huge liability."

Korn said that his understanding of the case law indicates the board has a statutory duty to both accept the resignation and to do so quickly.

"I want to make sure it's done in a timely manner and that we don't hold up any legal issues pertaining to the person that's requesting this," Korn said in regards to why he put the issue on the agenda. "So the longer we drag this out, I think it's just going to make situations worse when it's quite clear and quite evident that we do have a statutory duty to accept this."

Bonner County Republican Central Committee Chair Scott Herndon said that, because Wheeler opted to resign immediately, the Board of County Commission needed to act on the move to set an official "time stamp" on that resignation so that county officials could appropriately act to ensure public safety.

Herndon said his recommendation to Wheeler was to withdraw his resignation because not enough time was given to follow the process. However, since Wheeler was not present to withdraw his resignation, the BCRCC chair said it was the commissioners' duty to proceed to act on the matter.

Korn agreed, saying the county was obligated to follow state statute and not past practice; otherwise, it opens the door to potential legal questions.

"It has nothing to do with why the sheriff is retiring or why he's resigning," he said. "It has nothing to do with his motives. It has everything to do with following the law and following state statutes. He has made a request to resign, and the next step, the ball is in our court, as the BOCC, is to accept his resignation. I see it as a quite simple operation."

Williams said she preferred to delay action until the county's legal department had a chance to weigh in with additional comment.

"Unless and until a legal opinion says the board needed to have done something different, I can't cast a vote on this topic because legal is advising me that I don't have that type of a vote," she said.

Williams initially asked Korn if he would be willing to pull the item from the agenda, giving the commission time to get additional legal input.

The board chair said that, while she seconded Bradshaw's motion to remove the item from the agenda to allow for discussion, she felt the county's legal department needed to weigh in due to the conflicting interpretations of how Wheeler's resignation should be addressed.

While some applauded the county moving to take action, other commenters said formal action by the board on Wheeler's resignation was unnecessary. Still others questioned Wheeler's motivation on working to claim retirement benefits while at the same time as collecting his annual $109,505 salary.

Most said the county needed to follow past practice and not change how resignations are handled at this point.

"You still have a precedence that's already out there that is standing and, until it has been rewritten and changed, you don't just automatically change things," Wayne Martin said.