Bonner County workshop narrows travel-policy draft; commissioners agree on several wording and process changes

Bonner County commissioners and county staff spent a workshop session reviewing a draft travel policy, agreeing on multiple edits and sending several items for follow-up rather than final adoption.

The workshop, called to discuss updates to the county’s travel and vehicle-use rules, produced informal consensus on removing a line that would have required elected officials to follow the policy, tightening language on who may operate county vehicles, and making reimbursements subject to the least-expensive practical mode of travel.

The revisions matter because the travel policy governs when the county pays mileage, per diem, lodging and other expenses and also touches insurance, workers’ compensation and safety requirements. Participants repeatedly cautioned that some matters—post-accident testing and DOT-specific procedures—are covered by separate workers’ compensation, drug-and-alcohol and safety policies and should be aligned rather than duplicated in the travel policy.

Early in the discussion, juvenile-detention staffer Devin Simmons asked that the policy’s exception for sheriff’s deputies be extended to Justice Services when the department transports nonemployees as part of normal duties. “I was going through the policy ... non employees may only ride in county vehicles with prior approval, and then…