Fired official sues Bonner County

SANDPOINT – The former human resources director for Bonner County in North Idaho has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the county, alleging she was unfairly forced out of her job last summer.

Donna Wells, 59, filed the lawsuit earlier this month in U.S. District Court, seeking unspecified damages.

Wells has also filed a tort claim in state court. The tort claim filed in 1st District Court on Tuesday is a precursor to a lawsuit against the county, and in it Wells states she will seek damages of $525,000.

Wells alleges that her constitutional right to due process was violated when she was forced from her job last summer.

Named in the filings are county Commissioners Todd Crossett, Lewis Rich and Joe Young. Also named is Scout Bauer, the county’s deputy prosecutor who serves as the board’s legal counsel.

Bauer did not immediately return a call from the Associated Press on Friday.

According to the filings, Wells was hired as a deputy clerk in 1994 and became human resources director in 2001.

She was placed on leave, the documents say, after commissioners said she exposed the county to liability by recording a phone conversation she had with a Bonner County dispatch shift supervisor concerning medical issues within the department, as well as possible vacant positions.

The commissioners said the recording violated privacy rules involving medical records, the lawsuit says. The commissioners said confidential information could be made public if someone requested a copy of the recording through Idaho’s public records law.

Wells contended the recording was exempt from the state’s public records laws.

Wells declined to resign after being asked, and was fired July 2.