Ex-Idaho AG division chief was paid $26K for unused vacation. Then the office re-hired him.

Yahoo

27-01-2025

The door to Attorney General Raúl Labrador's office at the Idaho State Capitol building in Boise on Jan. 6, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
Soon after Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador took office in January 2023, much of the office's senior leadership team changed.
The office's former civil litigation division chief — Steven Olsen — left his job Friday, March 3, 2023, according to public employment records on Transparent Idaho, but then returned to the office Tuesday, March 7, 2023, for a lower-paying position as an attorney representing the Idaho Transportation Department.
Even though he came back to work for the attorney general's office only one business day after leaving, the office paid him more than $26,000 for vacation hours he earned but hadn't used before leaving his former position, according to payment records the Idaho Capital Sun obtained through a public records request.
Olsen's payment — the sixth largest vacation payout of all state government employees recently — didn't align with Idaho's standard practice for vacation payouts, which requires employees separate from employment with the state or a department for at least one day, Idaho Division of Human Resources Administrator Janelle White told the Idaho Capital Sun.
Idaho law doesn't define 'separation,' she told the Sun in emails. But state law doesn't 'give the state the authority to' pay out vacation leave for employees who remain employed at the same department, White said.
'In my view, the reason this is not allowed is to avoid the appearance of favoritism and to promote fairness in how bonuses are applied across the state workforce,' she added.
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Asked whether she believed Olsen's payment was illegal, White told the Sun 'the courts would have to determine' whether the payment violated Idaho law.
In a statement in December, Idaho Office of the Attorney General spokesperson Dan Estes told the Sun the payout aligned with state law.
'Mr. Olsen was compensated for time accrued during his 18 years of service consistent with Idaho law and practice,' Estes said in a follow-up statement on Jan. 16. 'His situation is legally indistinguishable to those previously proved by the Division of Human Resources … and other state entities.'
Labrador and Olsen did not agree to an interview and did not directly respond to a list of questions or a summary of reporting provided by the Sun.
When employee's separate from state employment, Idaho Code says they can receive a 'lump sum payment' for vacation time they've earned but haven't used.
Unless employees separate from the agency they earned the vacation time under, White told the Sun, Idaho law 'does not provide a mechanism to generate a vacation payout.'
'We do not have authority to compensate an employee for unused vacation, unless they separate from the state,' she said in emails. 'If we were intended to have such authority, it would be provided for in the law, as it is with other forms of compensation.'
Employees who remain employed by the state can only receive vacation payouts, she said, if they 'transfer to a different agency and have a break in service to the state.'
'Absent that explicit authority, we do not have it,' she told the Sun in emails. 'Therefore, artificially separating an employee for the sole purpose of compensating them for unused vacation time is not aligned with State of Idaho employment practices.'
It's rare for employees who transfer to another agency or office, and have a break in service from state employment, to receive vacation payouts, White said, 'because breaks in service are disruptive to one's health benefits and (retirement), and most employees want to keep their vacation when transferring to a different agency.'
In some rare instances, an employee with a lot of unused vacation who transfers to another state agency 'may choose a break in service' to 'avoid a large financial liability for the agency where they are transferring,' she said. 'This typically happens when the employee is transferring from an agency with a large budget to a smaller agency with fewer personnel funds.'
But that's a different situation than Olsen's vacation payout, she said.
'We never see a state employee choose a break in service of just one day and stay with the same agency or office in a different role, in order to receive a vacation payout,' White told the Sun. 'This would not be approved under any circumstances within the agencies (the Division of Human Resources) serves.'
Estes, spokesperson for the attorney general's office, told the Sun in a January statement that the Division of Human Resource's policies, practices and employment manual 'are not law and only apply to state agencies under the Governor's control.'
'They do not govern the offices of other constitutional offices any more than the employment handbook and policies of the Idaho Statesman dictate the employment practices of the Idaho Capital Sun,' Estes statement continued. 'Any claims to the contrary are made out of ignorance or in bad faith.'
While White said constitutional offices are not required to follow policies of the Division of Human Resources, they 'must follow the same laws' the policies are based on.
Olsen's service for more than a decade with the Idaho Attorney General's Office as civil litigation division chief ended Friday, March 3, 2023, public employment records on Transparent Idaho show. The next Tuesday, on March 7, the attorney general's office rehired him, the Idaho State Controller's Office confirmed to the Sun.
Olsen's new job at the attorney general's office has a lower pay rate of $61.23, compared to his previous rate of $78.62, state records show.
In a statement in December, Idaho Office of the Attorney General spokesperson Estes told the Sun that Olsen's shift in the office came as the attorney general's office selected new chiefs for most divisions in early 2023, soon after Labrador officially took over as attorney general.
When Olsen was being replaced as division chief, Estes said 'he was given the opportunity to be rehired in a new position as legal counsel to the Idaho Transportation Department.'
'He took some time to decide whether he wanted to return to his employment with the state or pursue other offers he had received,' Estes said in the January statement, adding that Olsen 'is one of the most honorable employees working in our office.'
But a month before Olsen left the attorney general's office, the office had already announced in a February news release that Olsen 'agreed to stay with the Office, focusing on representing the Idaho Department of Transportation' as senior deputy attorney general.
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The payment to Olsen stood out as the only instance of vacation payouts to employees who temporarily left an agency, and then returned to the same agency, White told the Sun, saying she'd reviewed data from December 2022 to August 2024. Olsen's payment was in March 2023.
White has worked in state government human resources for more than a decade, according to her LinkedIn profile. Gov. Brad Little appointed her to lead the Idaho Division of Human Resources in January 2024. She refused an interview, but answered the Sun's questions via email.
Idaho law caps bonuses for state employees, White said, only allowing up to $5,000 for recruitment and retention bonuses and up to $2,000 for performance bonuses.
'If a state agency or office separated an employee briefly to generate a large payout of a vacation as some kind of bonus, the law clearly does not intend that,' White wrote. 'Vacation payouts are not allowed under law as a bonus or reward for existing employees.'
White told the Sun she couldn't disclose why Olsen's employment with the attorney general's office temporarily lapsed. That information is confidential by Idaho law, she said.
The Division of Human Resources hadn't been in contact with the Attorney General's Office about Olsen's vacation payment, White told the Sun in December. Idaho State Controller's Office Payroll & Workforce Manager Trish Grimes told the Sun in December the agency didn't have audit information about the payment.
But White said Idaho's Legislative Services Office 'would have the authority to determine if there are any legal, regulatory, or technical reviews related to this payment.'
Legislative Services Office Audit Division Manager April Renfro told the Sun on Jan. 13 the office hasn't worked on vacation payouts — generally or within the attorney general's office.
In limited research into Olsen's payment, Renfro told the Sun in an email, that 'while I agree it is unusual to have someone terminate from a high-level position and return to service so quickly, I don't see any statute that prohibits this with regard to the vacation payment.'
Olsen is the brother of Maria Nate, the Idaho state director for the State Freedom Caucus Network.
That network is inspired by the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative federal lawmakers that sometimes clashes with the broader Republican caucus. Before Labrador was elected Idaho attorney general, he served eight years in Congress and was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus.
Nate is also married to Ron Nate, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a right-wing think tank that is influential in Idaho politics.
Labrador did not respond to the Sun's question about whether Olsen's relationship to Maria Nate played a role in the Office of the Attorney General's vacation payment to Olsen. Maria and Ron Nate did not respond to the Sun's requests for comment.
In the 2022 primary election for Idaho attorney general, Olsen donated $1,750 to Labrador's opponent, Lawrence Wasden, state campaign finance records show. Wasden, a Republican, was Idaho's attorney general for 20 years before Labrador won; Olsen served in the Idaho Attorney General's Office under Wasden.
According to the Idaho Division of Human Resource's policy on vacation leave payouts for executive branch agencies, employees who leave state service will, in their final paycheck, be paid for all vacation leave they accrued but didn't use.
That payout is calculated, the policy says, 'based on the employee's permanent hourly rate of pay on the effective date of separation.'
The maximum amount of vacation employees classified as 'executive exempt' can accrue is 336 hours, the policy says.
Idaho law says bonuses for 'meritorious service' or 'taxpayer savings' for nonclassified employees — including all Idaho Office of the Attorney General employees — are capped at $2,000, unless the Board of Examiners approves an exception.
Idaho Division of Human Resources Administrator Janelle White told the Idaho Capital Sun the division does not oversee day-to-day employment transactions in constitutional offices, such as the Attorney General's Office.
Out of 6,107 vacation payouts Idaho state government agencies made to former employees between July 2023 and October 2024, the average payout was $2,066.38, the Idaho Capital Sun found in a review of data obtained from the Idaho Division of Human Resources. On average, former Idaho government employees received payments for about 63.4 hours of earned, but unused, vacation time.
This is not the first time the Idaho Attorney General's Office's payments to employees, under Labrador, have been questioned.
In 2023, an investigation by the Idaho State Controller's Office found the Idaho Attorney General Office's nearly $16,000 payment for overtime work — to deputy attorney general Mitch Toryanski, also a former state lawmaker — 'appear(ed) to have been a mistake,' the Idaho Statesman reported.
Idaho law barred attorneys from receiving overtime pay unless approved by the Idaho Board of Examiners, the Statesman reported. But it wasn't clear whether Idaho would recoup those funds, as requested by then Idaho Sen. Geoff Schroeder, R-Mountain Home.
The Attorney General's Office did not reply to a question by the Sun about whether Idaho recouped funds from that payment. State Controller's Office spokesperson spokesperson Mackenzie Reathaford told the Sun as far as the agency was aware, the funds weren't recouped.
'At the conclusion of the investigation, the (State Controller's Office) recommendation was to work with the (Attorney General's Office) and decide a path forward,' she told the Sun in a Jan. 17 email. The State Controller's Office 'placed the decision as to whether a remedy was necessary,' such as recouping all or some of the funds, 'in the hands' of the Attorney General's Office, Reathaford said.
The State Controller's Office report said Toryanksi received pay for comp time hours for hours he'd actually worked, 'even though he accrued comp time at a higher rate due to (a Fair Labor Standards Act) misclassification,' she said.
But she said the Attorney General's Office has said 'they felt the payout Toryanski received was roughly equivalent to the value of the compensatory time he would have received if compensated for all hours he worked and therefore decided not to recoup the funds from him.'
While the State Controller's Office 'may not share the same opinion on recoupment, where the investigation concluded the overtime accrual and payout was a mistake due to a misclassification, and not the result of any fraud, waste, or abuse, the (State Controller's Office) chose not to pursue any additional action,' Reathaford said.
Olsen's payment for unused vacation was the sixth highest vacation payout to Idaho government employees in about the past year, according to data from the Idaho Division of Human Resources. Olsen's $26,416.32 vacation payout was for 336 hours, or 42 eight-hour work days, the maximum vacation time he was allowed to have at one time.
The dataset includes vacation payments to former Idaho government employees from July 2023, when Idaho's new business system called Luma launched, until October 2024, White told the Sun.
The three highest vacation payouts in that time — ranging from about $30,000 to nearly $51,000 — were to former agency leaders.
Former Idaho State University President Kevin Satterlee, who retired in December 2023, received the highest vacation payout, of $50,994.62 for 240 vacation hours.
Another longtime division chief in the Idaho Office of the Attorney General, Brett DeLange, received $23,672.48 for 301.1 vacation hours. That was the ninth highest payout of state employees recently, the data show. In January 2023, DeLange retired from the office. He had worked there for over 32 years.
The attorney general's office's former chief of staff, Nicole McKay, received $23,518.08 for 288 vacation hours. That was the 11th highest payout, the data show. McKay also separated from the office in January 2023, after working there for 17 years. She now directs the city of Boise's Office of Police Accountability.
A new dataset from the Division of Human Resources shows 20 state agency employees who received vacation payouts later returned to working for the state — out of more than 900 vacation payouts.
Asked about those instances of employees returning to state after receiving vacation payouts, White said they were not inconsistent with state of Idaho employment practices.
Some state employees leave state service, which triggers the required vacation payout, but later return to state service — even the same agency — after 'an extended period of time,' she said.
But, she stressed that 'separating an employee for one day for the purpose of receiving a vacation payout and immediately hiring them back to the same office or agency is not consistent with State of Idaho employment practices. This never happens in the agencies under (the Division of Human Resource's) purview and would not have been approved under any circumstances.'
Only two employees who received vacation payouts and later returned to working for the state — both of whom left one agency and started working for another — were in the top 30 highest vacation payouts, the newer data show.
The vacation payouts to employees who returned to state jobs ranged from as low as almost $26 to as high as over $13,000.
That dataset, which includes data from Sept. 1, 2024 until Jan. 14, 2025, shows that 10 of those employees were rehired by the same agencies they'd left; six of them returned to the same agency for temporary positions.
In a review of the 30 highest vacation payouts in an earlier dataset, the Sun found two former state employees who received large vacation payouts were later rehired — by the same agencies they'd left — under temporary employee titles, according to employment records on Transparent Idaho.
Asked about those temporary rehires after vacation payouts, White told the Sun those instances are rare 'but not inconsistent with State of Idaho employment practices.'
'This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as needing the person to return to train a new hire or work on a limited duration special project,' she said.
Many temporary employees don't even accrue vacation time or receive benefits, she added, since employees must work at least 20 hours a week and be expected to work for at least five months to be eligible for benefits.
According to records obtained from the State Controller's Office, two employees rehired temporarily after vacation payouts are David Fulkerson, who rejoined the Idaho Division of Financial Management on March 17, 2024, after he retired Sept. 1, 2023, as deputy administrator and state financial officer after working in the division for over 19 years; and Denise Rosen-Stevens, an attorney who rejoined the Office of the Attorney General Aug. 16, 2024, after she left the office June 30, 2024, after working there for over 15 years.
Fulkerson received the 12th highest payout, of $23,284.80 for 336 unused vacation hours, according to the earlier dataset. Rosen-Stevens received the 25th largest payout, of $19,074.50 for 326.7 unused vacation hours.
Fulkerson's temporary position ended Nov. 19, 2024, records obtained from the State Controller's Office show. The Division of Financial Management rehired him temporarily to help with an audit, Idaho State Controller's Office spokesperson Reathaford told the Sun in an email.
Attorney General Labrador under ethics investigation by Idaho State Bar after complaint
Rosen-Stevens is a temporary deputy attorney general, records provided by the State Controller's Office show.
In February 2023, the Idaho Attorney General's Office announced Olsen's successor — naming Lincoln Davis Wilson as the new civil litigation and constitutional defense division chief.
About eight months later, Wilson resigned. He is now senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm.
A month later, in November 2023, Labrador signed an agreement to allow that law firm to represent Idaho, for free, in litigation.
Jim Craig, former general counsel for University of Idaho, now heads the attorney general's office's civil litigation and constitutional defense division.
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