SANDPOINT — The Bonner County Justice Services will be seeking to fill a juvenile detention officer position after being approved by Bonner County commissioners to reinstate one unfunded position. 

The additional position will allow the department to reduce overtime costs, improve staff well-being and ensure compliance with state standards, county officials said.  

Justice Services Director Ron Stultz kicked off the meeting, requesting to reinstate two unfunded juvenile detention officer positions. The two positions, according to Stultz, were originally unfunded due to COVID-19 recovery efforts and a lack of quality applicants for the positions. During a budget development session, it was determined by commissioners that if open positions in the department had stayed open for a lengthy period, funding would not continue for those roles.  

“We’re starting to see that turn around, and we’re starting to get qualified applications. In fact, we’ve filled all of the other positions. We’re fully staffed, minus those two unfunded positions,” Stultz said.  

Through filling other positions in the department, Stultz said the department had a quality candidate come through the application process, even offering a conditional letter of hire, before finding out that the juvenile detention officer job wasn’t funded.  

To meet state and federal standards, the juvenile center is required to have an eight-to-one plus one ratio — two workers for eight kids. However, Stultz noted that the department has three workers during the day shift, which requires additional staffing and additional paid overtime.  

“What it also does to staff is it burns them out because they’re working tons of overtime hours. They’re coming in when they’re sick because there’s absolutely nobody to replace them. If they don’t come in sick, then we’re just out of compliance,” Stultz said. “If we only have two people, then safety is greatly compromised for the staff as well as the other residents.”  

Commissioner Ron Korn prompted the question of the necessity of two additional positions and whether it was crucial to have two officer positions, or if the additional one would suffice and solve the overtime issues. To that point, Stultz noted that overtime issues could be eased by adding one staff member and requesting the second position during the county’s budget session.  

“Yes, we’d like to have both those positions back. But ideally, we’d be very, very happy and thankful if we could get one of those positions now, and then we can have future discussions,” Stultz said.  

Bonner County Comptroller Jessica Stephany affirmed that the department had enough funds in their salary budget line to fund the position, saying that there is $190,000 worth of room due to unfilled positions or reductions that have occurred. She also noted that lessening the impact of overtime would cushion the budget results of adding an extra salary. While the added position wouldn’t eliminate the need for overtime pay, it would significantly decrease it, according to Stultz.  

In a continued effort to reduce overtime costs, the department will be exploring part-time or on-call staffing.  

The position of the juvenile detention officer was unanimously approved by commissioners Brian Domke and Korn.