Brand Inspection Division outlines maintenance requests and staffing; most inspectors are POST‑certified

Noah Peterson presented a brief overview of the Brand Inspection Division’s budget, saying the division provides protection to the livestock industry and is largely funded by the State Brand Board Fund. Peterson said the division has about 41.42 FTP allocated and a high fill percentage.

Cody Verlisle, executive director of the Idaho Brand Board and state brand inspector, told the committee that historically most full-time brand inspectors were POST certified and that the division recently created two classifications to allow an underfill position to become a post-certified inspector. "Historically all of our full time inspectors were post certified…we have about 28 post certified brand inspectors," Verlisle said.

Peterson and Verlisle noted FY27 replacement-item requests including six trucks (many with more than 190,000 miles) and modest IT hardware needs; the division requested $288,100 in dedicated-fund replacement items for vehicles and $15,100 for laptops and tablets. Verlisle said post-certified inspectors perform regulatory and inspection duties and also can be assigned law-enforcement functions when needed.

Committee members praised the division’s fiscal stewardship (Representative Harris commented on vehicle longevity) and asked questions about dual functions and certification requirements; Verlisle said certified inspectors perform the regulatory work and are the staff turned to for law-enforcement duties.

The committee concluded the ISP section and moved to adjourn; no votes took place on the Brand Inspection Division requests during this session.