Sheriff's Office lobby to close on Fridays

COEUR d’ALENE — Lobby hours at the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office are being curtailed as employees in its records and civil divisions deal with increased workloads and diminished staffing.

Sheriff Ben Wolfinger announced Thursday that beginning today, “due to extreme and unplanned staffing shortages as well as unfunded state and district court mandates,” the Sheriff’s Office’s lobby will temporarily be closed on Fridays. The temporary operating hours will be Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We’re doing more work with the same number of people,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Detective Dennis Stinebaugh.

The Sheriff’s Office’s records division is feeling the pinch the most.

There are 10 employees in that division and one of those positions is currently vacant, Stinebaugh said. In addition, there are two or three other unexpected staffing shortages.

The increased workload stems mainly from technical, procedural and legislative changes in the way records and other documents are processed, although there are other factors.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in public records requests over the last few years,” Stinebaugh said.

The new, statewide, electronic court records system — the iCourt Portal unveiled last spring in Kootenai County — has also had a dramatic effect on the work done by the Sheriff’s Office’s records division employees. Previously, hard-copy paperwork was sent to the courthouse. Now, everything has to be input electronically.

“It’s added two more hours of work per day. It’s very time-consuming,” Stinebaugh said.

Traffic collision data, statistics to be analyzed by the Idaho Transportation Department, used to be collected by ITD, he said. That workload has now shifted to the Sheriff’s Office’s records division.

There have also been changes in the way concealed weapons permits are processed, creating yet another time-suck for the division.

The civil division continues to deal with an increased workload due to a recent legislative change that requires the Sheriff’s Office to process all protection and no-contact orders in the county, work previously done by the individual police agencies.

The Sheriff’s Office has asked the county commissioners, who hold the purse strings for the agency’s budget, for funding for additional staff for the records division, Stinebaugh said, but it hasn’t been approved.

Employees in the Sheriff’s Office’s records and civil divisions will still be working Fridays. By closing the lobby, the employees will be able to get caught up without interruptions, Stinebaugh said.

The Sheriff’s Office will contine to process and respond to all essential and life safety requests during the temporary lobby closure.

Anyone needing emergency assistance is encouraged to call 911. For non-emergency assistance, call 208-446-1300.