Commissioners minutes, June 11-12
June 26, 2012
***Monday, June 11, 2012, Commissioners met in regular session with Chairman Ron Smith, Commissioner Dan Dinning and Deputy Clerk Michelle Rohrwasser. Commissioner Walt Kirby was out of the office attending the Idaho Association of Counties Commissioners and Clerks Conference.

Blue Sky Broadcasting Reporter Mike Brown was in attendance of the meetings throughout the day.

9:00 a.m., Road and Bridge Superintendent Jeff Gutshall joined the meeting to give the departmental report. Mr. Gutshall presented a written report.

Mr. Gutshall said he is still working on Pine Island Road and working on culverts for Fawn Lane. Mr. Gutshall said because of the weather it doesn’t look like he will be able to use the hot patch until later in June.

Mr. Gutshall spoke of Fawn Lane and said the resident living at the end of Fawn Lane mentioned something about the business of milk trucks and that there may not be as much truck traffic any longer. Mr. Gutshall said he doesn’t know for sure if Fawn Lane will be surfaced this year, but if not it will be surfaced next year.

Mr. Gutshall said if the weather breaks he will stop all gravel hauling and switch to grader patching on a variety of roads. Road and Bridge will begin chip sealing after July 4th and that should only take one to two weeks. After chip sealing Road and Bridge will jump back to finishing Fawn Lane and District 5 Road. Mr. Gutshall said he will try to get the worst part of Moon Shadow Road cut out and repaired.

Mr. Gutshall said the Deep Creek Bridge bid opening is tomorrow. The project cannot start until late July or August, but it is supposed to be completed this season.

Mr. Gutshall discussed the erosion on Deep Creek Loop located at the first curve near the golf course. A section of guardrail had been taken out and the sheet metal that was placed there has failed. Mr. Gutshall said he will place jersey walls in that location and a street drain to catch the water. Mr. Gutshall said he is to receive three loads of jersey walls tomorrow. Mr. Gutshall said he will try to work on the drainage issue on Holmes Road and after looking at the issue there is no possible way the water diverts to the nursery there.

The meeting with Mr. Gutshall ended at 9:13 a.m.

Commissioners tended to administrative duties. Commissioners discussed receiving correspondence regarding county funding of the proposed Mental Health and Intoxication Center.

Commissioner Dinning moved to authorize the Chairman to sign the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Contract #HC755000 pertaining to mosquito surveillance, speciation, and/or pathogen detection. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner Dinning moved to sign the Independent Contractor Agreement with Panhandle Pest Control pertaining to mosquito surveillance. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner Dinning moved to authorize the Chairman to sign the agreements with the Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) for funds for the Community Forest Landscape Approach. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

9:40 a.m., Gary Leonard contacted Commissioners via telephone to inquire about waiving rental fees for use of the pavilion for the Fourth of July event he is hosting. Mr. Leonard said an art group would like to have an art show at the Pavilion. Commissioner Dinning said Commissioners have been instructed they can’t waive fees unless it was for another government entity. Commissioner Dinning asked if the art would be for display only or for sale. Mr. Leonard said he would talk with the group and find out if there was going to be art sales.

The call with Mr. Leonard ended at 9:41 a.m.

Commissioner Dinning moved to sign the letter to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho regarding an increase to the annual fee for law enforcement services. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

10:00 a.m., Boundary County Emergency Services Incident Commander Bob Graham and Director Dave Kramer joined the meeting to discuss notifications pertaining to emergencies and disasters.

Mr. Graham said he wanted to talk about Boundary County not receiving notification about Transcanada Gas’ natural gas leak that occurred a week ago last Friday. Mr. Graham said this release occurred at 10:00 a.m., Pacific Time and Statecom was not notified by the National Response Center (NRC) until 1:00 p.m., which is three hours later. Mr. Graham said Transcanada Gas informed Statecom at the time the emergency was over. These actions make a difference for Homeland Security, according to Mr. Graham.

The natural gas release took 90 minutes and was over by 11:30 p.m., Pacific Time. Mr. Graham said he has been working for one and one half weeks with Homeland Security, Statecom and Transcanada Gas to find out why Boundary County was not notified of this gas release. Statecom’s position was that Boundary County was not to be notified, but to notify the Local Emergency Responding Agency (LERA) representative. Mr. Kramer said he was the LERA representative at the time he worked at the City of Bonners Ferry.

Commissioners reviewed a document listing the protocol for notification and in this case, the emergency was not called in by the local jurisdiction. This emergency was called in by NRC who had been notified by Transcanada Gas, but not until the gas release was over.

Commissioner Dinning said when the first agency was notified the incident had already been concluded. Mr. Graham said that is one of the complaints he has.

Mr. Kramer said to clarify, Transcanada Gas had a gas release, and their crew shut it down then notified the NRC who then alerted the State Bureau of Homeland Security. At that time Transcanada Gas said there was no emergency. Transcanada Gas did notify the City of Bonners Ferry who asked what they should do and was told nothing because the incident was already done. It was said a mass emailing about this was sent out, but Mr. Kramer was not on the list. Bureau of Homeland Security Local Area Field Officer Jay Baker also forwarded an email to Mr. Graham and Mr. Kramer and this was how they found out about the incident. Mr. Kramer said his concern is this incident was established as a regulatory event. Mr. Kramer said he does have a meeting with Transcanada Gas to correct any concerns and regardless of whom the spiller is, it would be nice to have local eyes on the scene.

Commissioner Dinning said being how the incident reported was already over Transcanada Gas probably felt there was no need to notify anyone else. It was said although Transcanada Gas contacted the City of Bonners Ferry to notify the LERA, it was done incorrectly. Commissioner Dinning said Transcanada Gas had made the decision on how to notify agencies.

Transcanada Gas made a mistake and did not notify anyone until the incident was over, according to Mr. Graham. It’s been learned over the past that you can’t rely on the spiller until the incident was over. Mr. Graham said he wants what the flow chart says should’ve been done. Mr. Kramer said there may be confusion over the flow chart. Mr. Graham said it doesn’t matter if the event was regulatory or not, the flow chart was not followed. Statecom was notified first who then contacted the Bureau of Homeland Security who contacted the City of Bonners Ferry who was told they didn’t need to do anything. Mr. Kramer said the LERA representative contact information needs to be updated.

Commissioner Dinning asked if Mr. Graham wanted Transcanada Gas to notify the County even if it is a regulatory event and Mr. Graham said yes.

Mr. Kramer said the first step to work on is updating the LERA contact with Transcanada Gas and the next thing is to have the local agency notified so the State is not taking the word of the spiller that the spill is over, etc.

Mr. Graham said if the flow chart was followed, the County would have been notified shortly after Statecom and he could’ve taken a look at the incident and notified Statecom to let them know the status. Mr. Graham reviewed the protocol to follow: a subsequent conference call would be set up with the necessary agencies and the Bureau of Homeland Security sets up a moderator for a conference call involving 143 individuals. Mr. Kramer clarified the list of 143 individuals involves those who wanted to be notified of events, but wasn’t specific to this event.

Chairman Smith said it looks like the notification needs to be made locally whether it is regulatory or not and he asked what Commissioners need to do to correct this for future events.

Mr. Graham said the way it has always worked is the County gets notified of any incident in Boundary County and once that happens, he goes to the site of the incident to make an assessment. Once he makes an assessment, Mr. Graham will contact Statecom, which is a requirement for all hazmat events. Statecom will determine who they are to notify about this incident, then call Mr. Graham back to set up a conference call with those who have been notified.

Commissioner Dinning asked if there is a different protocol than this. Mr. Graham said after he makes an initial call to Statecom they set up a conference call. The moderator of this call asks Mr. Graham what the incident is and he describes it. After the incident is known, the moderator asks Mr. Graham for the plan of attack. Once the conference call is over the moderator and Statecom communications officer decides if the incident is a level one, two or three, or regulatory or non regulatory. Mr. Graham said he doesn’t care if the incident is non-regulatory or not, he and Mr. Kramer want to know what the incident is.

Commissioner Dinning said what happened was the event occurred and was corrected in 90 minutes. During that time or after, however the state was contacted they were at Statecom. The incident was over as reported by Transcanada Gas. At that point Statecom made a decision there was no need for any other calls or emails based on what Transcanada Gas told them. So the trust issue is with Transcanada Gas who reported the incident so that is where the County will want to check.

It was said the flow chart was sent to Mr. Graham and Mr. Kramer by the Bureau of Homeland Security. Mr. Graham said he wanted to know from Statecom what their protocol was and why Boundary County was not notified.

Mr. Graham said he hopes Commissioners will write a letter to the Bureau of Homeland Security about that their flow chart and to correct the LERA contact information. Mr. Kramer said he would like to talk to Fred Apt or Mr. Baker with the Bureau of Homeland Security about their flow chart. Commissioner Dinning said there is no check and balance system for the spiller and Mr. Kramer said that is correct. Had Transcanada Gas contacted the County it would have been a different situation.

The meeting with Mr. Graham and Mr. Kramer ended at 9:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m., Deputy Clerk Nancy Ryals joined the meeting.

Commissioner Dinning moved to go into closed session under Idaho Code #31-874. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously. 10:40 a.m., Commissioner Dinning moved to go out of closed session. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner Dinning moved to review indigent account #2012-7 for reimbursement purposes in January 2013. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioner Dinning moved to write off indigent account #2005-5 in the principal amount of $1,990.32 plus all accrued interest due to it being past the statutory time limit to collect. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

Deputy Clerk Nancy Ryals left the meeting at 10:44 a.m.

Commissioners tended to administrative duties.

11:00 a.m., County Attorney Phil Robinson contacted Commissioners via telephone.

Commissioner Dinning moved to go into executive session under Idaho Code #67-2345(1)c; to conduct deliberations concerning labor negotiations. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Commissioners voted as follows: Chairman Smith “yes” and Commissioner Dinning “yes”. Motion passed unanimously. 11:45 a.m., Commissioner Dinning moved to go out of executive session. Chairman Smith yielded the chair to second. Motion passed unanimously.

Commissioners reviewed claims for payment. Fund totals are as follows:

Current Expense $40,374.99
Road & Bridge 40,875.73
Airport 4,051.40
District Court 4,001.30
Justice Fund 33,135.86
911 Funds 4,135.44
Indigent & Charity 7,820.09
Parks and Recreation 3,536.40
Revaluation 589.87
Solid Waste 9,356.14
Tort 714.70
Veterans Memorial 155.53
Weeds 6,711.12
Restorium 2,994.06
Waterways 1,473.83
Juvenile Probation, Lottery 990.58
Grant, Fire Mitigation 25,715.00
Grant, EECBG 6,487.00
TOTAL $193,119.04
Trusts
Auditor’s Trust 2,928.00
Drivers License Trust 8,683.50
Magistrate Trust 31,238.09
Motor Vehicle Trust 93,650.28
Sheriff's Trust Fund 887.66

TOTAL $137,387.53

GRAND TOTAL $330,506.57

Citizens are invited to inspect detailed records on file in the Courthouse (individual claims & Commissioners’ allowance & warrant register record 2012).

Personnel Classification Committee members Tracie Isaac and Ken Carpenter joined the meeting to discuss positions at the Sheriff’s Office.

Ms. Isaac said the Committee reviewed a couple job descriptions; one being the current job title of Administrative Officer/Civil Deputy/Drivers License/Marine Supervisor and the other is an Assistant position to the first listed. The Sheriff’s Office has requested the first job description change to be called 911 Operations Manager. It was said the bottom line is this change would lower the employee’s grade who fills this position from 14 to 12. The job description is just not there to support the existing job grade of 14, according to Ms. Isaac and Mr. Carpenter.

The proposed Assistant position is a grade 8 and the person in this position will be very busy. Mr. Carpenter said if the position of 911 Operations Manager is seen as a sideways step, he doesn’t have a problem with keeping a grade level of 14, but otherwise the points didn’t add up. The duties of Communication Supervisor in the original description of job functions had been left out so if the Committee reviewed the information again, the grade level could maybe increase to 13, but Mr. Carpenter said he didn’t know if that could be possible.

Those present discussed the question of existing employees deciding to change their current job duties, but not lowering their pay. Commissioner Dinning said the change would affect a new hire coming on board. Commissioner Dinning said he disagrees somewhat by keeping the grade the same as the employee knows and is making a conscious choice to change duties.

Commissioners said the job description for the Administrative Assistant position is fine, but it won’t be submitted just yet as it may not take affect if the proposed 911 Operations Manager position is not created.

The meeting with Ms. Isaac and Mr. Carpenter ended at 12:00 p.m.

There being no further business for the remainder of the or for Tuesday, June 12, 2012, the meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m.


/s/
RONALD R. SMITH, Chairman

ATTEST:


/s/
GLENDA POSTON, Clerk
By: Michelle Rohrwasser, Deputy