Columbia County Transit to update drug and alcohol policy after ODOT review

Columbia County Transit will amend its drug and alcohol policy after a review by an ODOT-contracted reviewer, county Transit Director Chris Wheatley told the Board of County Commissioners on June 25. The proposed changes are largely technical and relate to testing methods and application of pre-employment screening rules.

Wheatley said RFS and Associates conducted the review for the Oregon Department of Transportation and recommended that the department’s policy language be updated to reflect current testing methods and regulated procedures. “They changed the urine to make it say to include oral fluid because we're gonna have that test hopefully pretty soon,” Wheatley said.

Other edits proposed include removing references to railcars and trolleys that do not apply to Columbia County Transit operations and clarifying that pre-employment testing requires a drug test but not a breath-alcohol test. Wheatley told the board these are the primary substantive changes and that the department undergoes this review on a regular cycle.

The board did not take immediate adoption action at the meeting; Wheatley requested that staff prepare a resolution and place the amended policy on a future consent agenda for formal adoption. He said the amended policy may be ready to appear on a future board consent calendar, possibly not until the next regular meeting.

Commissioners thanked Wheatley for bringing the updates forward and asked that the formal resolution and updated policy be included in the consent materials when prepared. No public testimony or additional discussion items were recorded on this agenda item.