Woodbury County staff to revise mobile‑device policy after departments request exemptions for field and hourly workers

The board heard from Human Resources Director Melissa Thomas about a mobile device management policy adopted last fall that requires employees who access county organizational data on personal devices to enroll in a Mobile Application Management solution.

"This policy was passed last fall by the board," Melissa Thomas said, explaining the policy excludes hourly employees because off‑clock email access could create compensable time under the Fair Labor Standards Act. She also flagged a potential FOIA issue: "if you have your own phone and there's information that's requested regarding FOIA request ... that phone you might have to hand over," she said, urging caution about privacy and legal exposure.

Dan Heisel, director of Woodbury County Conservation, asked the board to consider exemptions for field staff who do not work standard office hours and who rely on mobile calendars and email to coordinate programs. "Our naturalists work weekends, they work nights ... this is 99.9% of the time our work schedule," Heisel said, adding that brief compensable out‑of‑office punches should be permitted when staff must handle time‑sensitive items.

A secondary roads representative noted union contract provisions require preapproval for overtime, which would limit unapproved off‑hour work on mobile devices and reduce county exposure. Board members asked HR and legal staff to draft clearer policy language that protects the county from uncompensated work obligations while allowing necessary operational access for field employees. The revised policy and a proposed list of exemptions will be brought back to the board for approval.