Should Winneshiek County employees be allowed to keep their county cellphone after they leave their job?

Winneshiek County currently allows employees who have a county-purchased cell phone to keep that phone when they leave their job.

The practice has been approved in the past because the cell phones were used for county and personal business and former employees just forwarded phone calls about county business after they retired from the county.

Now comes a move, however, to specify in writing how the practice will work in the future.  For instance, departing employees may be required to pay for part of the purchase price of the cell phone they are keeping.  That's normally not a concern, since the county tends to buy inexpensive cell phones.  But the new policy will include a dollar value beyond which the departing employee must pay to keep the cell phone.

The policy will come before the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors after it has been prepared by county staff.