Bonner County board approves reclassifying hearing coordinator into Administrative Assistant 3

The Bonner County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 10 approved reclassifying the Planning Department’s Hearing Coordinator position to an Administrative Assistant 3 role, a change staff said will spread duties between two employees and reduce cost for the county.

Planning staff explained the department created the Hearing Coordinator role several years ago but found the position had not delivered the anticipated efficiencies. "By having two administrative assistant positions instead of one administrative assistant and one hearing coordinator that'll allow the department to just spread those duties between two staff members as circumstances dictate and hopefully avoid confusion," a Planning Department representative said.

Commissioners asked whether Human Resources had reviewed the change and whether the supervisor field in the job description was correct. HR confirmed the Administrative Assistant 3 job description already exists and the pay grade did not change for the position. Commissioners pressed for clarity about who would be the direct supervisor; the board requested the job description be updated to identify the assistant planning director as the direct report and voted to handle that supervisory clarification before final implementation.

A motion to pull the item from the consent agenda for separate discussion passed; the board then moved and approved the reclassification, with the motion noting a reduction in grade and direction to list the assistant planning director as the supervisor. The board’s action was procedural (personnel classification) and did not create a new job description, county staff said. Further administrative updates and any supervisory changes will be returned to the board once the Planning Department has a permanent director in place.