Sandpoint, Idaho — Bonner County commissioners approved a change to employee paid time off policy Tuesday, directing the Human Resources and payroll departments to compensate workers in cash for any PTO or catastrophic leave hours accumulated beyond established account limits.
The decision came during a brief regular business meeting in which commissioners addressed only three agenda items outside the consent agenda. Commissioner Asia Williams brought forward the proposal after identifying a growing problem: county employees who reach their maximum accrual limits are effectively losing earned benefits, and the county is often paying more in overtime as a result.
How the Current System Created Unintended Costs
Under the county’s existing personnel policy, full-time employees may accumulate up to 480 hours in a catastrophic leave account and 162 hours in a PTO account. Once those caps are hit, any additional hours that would otherwise be earned simply vanish. Williams noted that approximately 48 county employees have already reached or are close to reaching one or both limits.
The ripple effect, Williams explained, is a rise in overtime expenditures. When capped employees take time off to avoid losing accrued hours, departments operating below full staffing must call in other workers to cover shifts — often at time-and-a-half pay. The result is the county spending more money than it would have if it simply paid employees for the hours they earned.
“This is an earned benefit that staff should have the opportunity to receive the value,” Williams said, adding that the current structure effectively penalizes longevity. “The longer you’re here, we’re actually taking the benefit away from you.”
Under the newly approved policy, any PTO or catastrophic leave hours accrued beyond the maximum limits will be converted to straight-time compensation added to the employee’s bi-weekly paycheck. Commissioners Williams and Brian Domke approved the measure unanimously.
Sheriff’s Office Staff Speak in Favor of Change
Several employees from the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office attended the meeting to voice support for the amendment, with jail personnel among those most directly affected. Sheriff Darryl Wheeler endorsed the policy shift, noting that a number of his staff have lost significant leave balances accumulated through years of dedicated service.
Sergeant Levi Shiell also addressed the commission, describing how the cap hurts the department’s most reliable workers. He explained that the Sheriff’s Office detention and patrol divisions each operate on four teams, and that one or more teams frequently run at minimum staffing levels.
“Employees that have reached their maximum PTO accruals lose their PTO benefit if they are unable to get their shift covered,” Shiell said, noting that only the most dependable personnel tend to find themselves in that position — making the current policy’s consequences particularly unfair to high-performing staff.
Shiell also pointed to broader staffing challenges across law enforcement that have compounded the problem. When shifts are already stretched thin, the inability to take earned time off without triggering overtime for a colleague creates a cycle that harms both morale and the county budget.
What Comes Next
With the vote complete, the county’s Human Resources department is now responsible for revising the official personnel policy manual to reflect the approved change. The revision will formalize the process by which excess PTO and catastrophic leave hours are calculated and added to affected employees’ paychecks on a bi-weekly basis.
Williams framed the amendment as a matter of fairness, calling the prior arrangement inequitable for long-tenured employees who had built up substantial leave balances. The change is expected to reduce the county’s indirect overtime costs while ensuring workers receive full value for benefits they have legitimately earned.
No opposition was voiced during the meeting, and commissioners did not indicate any additional steps beyond the HR department’s policy manual update would be required before the new process takes effect.