Bonner County HR registers for SIDES portal after nearly $100,000 in unemployment reimbursements over three years

Bonner County’s human resources director told county commissioners she has started registering the county with the U.S. Department of Labor’s SIDES online portal after finding the county reimbursed almost $100,000 for unemployment claims over the past three fiscal years.

"Bonner County is a public employer, so we're a direct reimburser back to the state unemployment insurance fund," Director Holmgren said, explaining the county pays benefit reimbursements directly rather than through experience-rated payroll taxes. Holmgren said that direct-reimbursement status makes it important for HR to be able to respond quickly and document separations that the Department of Labor will review.

Holmgren told the board the county paid roughly $25,500 in 2022, $28,934 in 2023, $7,052 in 2024 and $29,561 in fiscal year 2025, and that the three-year total is just under $100,000. She said she calculated a 15.76% increase from 2022 to 2025 but cautioned commissioners that the county currently lacks claim-level documentation needed to identify which payments, if any, were avoidable.

"There's almost $100,000 that has been paid out in reimbursement to unemployment insurance claims," Holmgren said. "Some degree of that potentially may be leakage. And we don't have anything in place as of right now... So this is a problem that I've identified."

Several commissioners pushed back on labeling the total figure as leakage. "I don't want to say that there's leakage of that because it's not leakage," Commissioner (Speaker 1) said. "That's just the cost you haven't — that's just the cost. We don't know the percentage of that money that is leakage." Holmgren agreed the county needs claim-level review before assigning a figure to avoidable payments.

To get that documentation and faster notice of claims, Holmgren said HR began the SIDES registration process and will attend a Department of Labor webinar on the 30th to learn how employers interact with the portal and what information the agency seeks. She plans to request educational materials from the Department of Labor and to use them to train supervisors on separation communications and the county’s standard operating procedures.

Holmgren recommended HR work with the county auditor and clerk to build year-to-year monitoring of claims, and suggested HR could then provide commissioners with more precise estimates of avoidable costs or budgetary impacts. Commissioners agreed the registration and webinar were reasonable first steps and asked Holmgren to return with updates.

What happens next: HR will complete SIDES registration, attend the Department of Labor webinar, request educational materials, and develop supervisor training and internal SOPs for documenting separations and responding to unemployment claims. The board asked for future updates once HR can review claim-level records and provide any estimates of avoidable payments.