County approves financial separation delay with ambulance district

SANDPOINT — Bonner County Ambulance District was approved to delay its financial separation from Bonner County until the start of fiscal year 2026.  

In its second meeting of the month, BCAD approved the delay of a financial separation from the county to support an efficient, cost-effective transition.  

The efforts to separate the ambulance district from the county stems from an over eight-month effort to distinguish BCAD as its own taxing district, not a county department.  

According to a memorandum, the financial separation of the county and ambulance district is fully supported by HR and auditing, however, the county departments agree that a mid-year separation would introduce unnecessary complications.  

The county presented three considerations surrounding the delay, suggesting it wasn’t necessary to separate the two entities by July 1, as originally projected.  

Comptroller Jessica Stephany shared that an early separation would pose complications to benefit tracking, allocation and reporting, as the county and ambulance district shared several benefit packages related to medical and dental, among other benefits.  

Additionally, Stephany shared that an audit increase would occur due to the necessity of reporting on and reviewing two distinct systems for a partial fiscal year. According to a memorandum, the two reports would further complicate the auditing process.  

Stephany further acknowledged that separating the entities three months before the end of the fiscal year would be minimal, and that there would be no financial or operational gain from separating early.  

The ambulance district board unanimously approved the delay, noting that the district’s bookkeeper, Jennifer Wyman, would still be working throughout the three-month delay period to help appropriately separate the two entities once the new fiscal year began.