County looks at drug testing

BY JOY HAMPTON The Claremore Daily Progress Wed Oct 08, 2008, 03:58 PM CDT

October 8, 2008 — Rogers County Commissioners say they will explore options for drug testing of county employees.

“We said last year we would revisit this,” Commissioner Kirt Thacker said. “I put it on the agenda so we could talk about it again.”

Last year’s attempt at introducing county-wide drug testing erupted into a controversy that commissioners want to avoid this time around. They said they will look at a sample policy available through the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma and will talk with other elected county officials before creating a Rogers County policy.

LAST YEAR

In March 2007, District 2 Commissioner Mike Helm presented the Board of County Commissioners with a Risk Management Resolution based on a preprinted form prepared by Traveler’s Insurance. That resolution would have established a county-wide policy that included drug testing.

Assistant District Attorney Barry Farbro told commissioners the resolution as written was too broad, in his opinion, and that he would rework it for their consideration.

Eventually, commissioners met with health officials about contracting for drug testing. Concerns over how the policy would be carried out and what the appeals process would be were among the details that needed development.

On April 2, 2007, Farbro told commissioners that a majority of elected county officials would need to approve the proposed resolution because the drug-testing requirement would set personnel policy for county departments.

Including the three commissioners, there are eight elected county officers. Each of the remaining five officers declined by letter support of the resolution.

“After reviewing the proposed resolution establishing a risk management policy, I decline to approve,” read the letter from Court Clerk Candi Czapansky.

The other four letters signed by County Clerk Peggy Armstrong, County Treasurer Cathy Pinkerton Baker, County Assessor Melissa Anderson, and County Sheriff Jerry Prather varied slightly in wording but each carried the same message.

They stated that they were not against drug testing in general, but in particular pre-employment testing. They balked at putting control in the hands of the board of commissioners for implementing and overseeing the other departments.

Commissioners voted April 23, 2007 against adopting the risk management resolution. In a 2-1 vote, Helm was the lone supporter.

At the time, Prather was one of the strongest opponents of a drug-testing policy being imposed upon his department by commissioners.

Prather said he preferred to handle issues in-house and did not feel the need for drug testing for his department. Prather said he supported pre-employment screening, post-accident testing and probable-cause testing, but believed random drug tests were a waste of taxpayer dollars.

THIS YEAR

Rogers County employees are subject to drug testing. According to state law, operators of heavy equipment with CDL licenses are subject to random drug tests. So are commissioners.

Chairman Dan DeLozier has said he has routinely been tested.

The county also requires drug tests of employees prior to hiring, according to the request of the hiring officer.

Emergency Management Director Bob Anderson said a policy had been approved by county commissioners of previous years. He asked if a current policy would amend or change that policy.

Commissioners said they would research the matter.

Prather will retire at the end of this year. His replacement will be elected in November.

Commissioners said they might wait until after the election to finalize a drug-testing policy so that they can include the new sheriff in their considerations.

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