Bonner County HR workshop limits travel, moves Safety Plus costs into HR budget and flags drug-testing review

Bonner County held an HR budget workshop beginning at 10:30 a.m. to review proposed line items for training, travel and software subscriptions; the meeting adjourned at 11:17 a.m.

County officials and HR staff prioritized limiting travel to expensive conferences and tying attendance to clear training outcomes, debated whether the county should pay for employees’ personal professional development, agreed to add Safety Plus as a budget line for onboarding and training, and flagged a separate policy review of pre-employment drug testing and use of background-check results.

The discussion opened with a proposed travel allowance for two HR staff members to attend the Munis users conference (the county noted the event is expected to be in Las Vegas next year). HR staff said the request included airfare, hotel and per diem for two people; workshop speakers urged the county to limit the number of attendees, require returning employees to train colleagues and to evaluate course offerings before approving travel. The HR presenter said the county should “confirm we need to and doing our work to see these are courses we'd like to take,” and argued for training that produces internal training capacity rather than sending multiple staff to the same sessions.

Commissioner Legg called for remote participation options at outside conferences. “I have asked…