SANDPOINT — Following a seven-and-a-half-hour Zoning Commission hearing on July 23, Bonner County commissioners are expected to discuss a hard stop time for Planning and Zoning commission meetings at next Tuesday’s business meeting.  

Volunteers who sit on the Zoning Commission aren’t unfamiliar with long hearings, especially if a file has drawn significant public interest. But when its three commissioners, along with the public and staff from the Planning Department, ended last Thursday’s hearing at 12:52 a.m., questions were raised about the health and safety of those individuals in attendance, who would still be required to come to work the following morning.  

Commissioners are expected to discuss a hard-stop time of 9 p.m. for both Zoning and Planning commission meetings.  

Zoning Commission meetings are scheduled for every other Thursday at 5:30 p.m., with Planning Commission meetings occurring every other Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. on opposing weeks. 

Although Bonner County’s Planning and Zoning commissions are separate and hold their own meetings, the Planning Department is required to support and assist in both commissions’ meetings, placing a larger burden on county employees who are required to attend long-winded meetings.  

“In fairness for the staff, because I think we need to have it, I think we should just set a policy in place for the two conditions to say that there needs to be a hard stop time because it's not fair to have the staff here this late to support those hearings. That's just not reasonable to me,” Commissioner Brian Domke said.  

Last Thursday’s meeting brought forth concerns that county commissioners had been raising for a while, with Commissioner Asia Williams pressing on the importance of a work-life balance.  

“There is risk in a person working a 17-hour day and going home,” Williams said. “If I worked a 17-hour shift and I went home and I got in an accident, I can say that shift caused it. There’s actually a point back to us for doing that; I think we owe it to them to stop doing that.”  

Commissioners did note that the start of a new hearing examiner may lessen the burden for the Zoning Commission.  

The decision is slated to go in front of the board next Tuesday, Aug. 4.