County HR to expand training, asks to be custodian of elected officials' employee records

Cecilia Sweet, interim HR director for Kootenai County, told elected officials April 15 that HR plans to expand training opportunities and is seeking to serve as the custodian of elected officials' employee records to better respond to public records requests.

Sweet said HR will offer an ICRMP supervisor training series with a weekly conference-room setup for employees to take live webinars and have HR staff available afterward to answer questions. She also announced a risk-management luncheon focused on workers' compensation, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, scheduled for Friday, June 5, and said HR will work to provide additional in-person training at the North Campus.

Sweet told the officials that while statute allows elected officials to retain employee records, several larger Idaho counties route those records to HR so HR may respond to public-records requests more consistently. She requested a legal opinion on whether Kootenai County should adopt that approach and said HR would seek to be the custodian of those records if the opinion supports the change.

"We would like to be the custodian of the records," Sweet said, adding that doing so would help HR answer public records requests more efficiently. She noted not all meeting content was on the published agenda and apologized for raising the item during public comment.

The moderator acknowledged the update and timing of the three-minute public comment limit; no formal action was taken at the meeting.