The Okanogan County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved a resolution granting short administrative leave to employees affected by smoke and odor after a fan motor failure at the prosecutor’s office.

Shelly Keesman, the county’s HR director and risk manager, described the incident and requested a targeted resolution. “Apparently, on Friday late afternoon, they had a fan motor that burned up, and some employees had to leave. We had someone with asthma. So I'm asking… I'd like to do a resolution for, like, an hour and a half admin leave for those employees that were affected by that,” Keesman said during the meeting.

The board moved to approve resolution 95‑2025, authorizing administrative leave for affected employees. A motion and second were recorded and commissioners voted in favor by voice vote, with no further public discussion recorded.

Keesman told commissioners she would try to prepare the paperwork immediately but noted pay‑period timing could require handling the authorization at next week’s meeting; she also said the board could authorize the county administrator to sign and ratify if timing demanded. The leave adopted at the meeting is limited to those employees identified as affected by the HVAC event and is intended as short, paid administrative leave to address health and safety concerns.

The board gave staff direction to finalize the resolution language if it was not completed the same day and to ensure appropriate signatory and payroll steps were taken for timely implementation.