The 2026 H. Sydney Duncombe Award

The Idaho Association of Counties (IAC) is comprised of individuals whose careers have come to define what public service should look like — not through grand gestures, but through decades of steady, quiet, selfless work that strengthens the institutions Idahoans rely on every day. IAC and its members have the honor of awarding distinguished and deserving recipients each year at IAC’s Annual Conference. This year we are honored to award and recognize Glenda Poston as the H. Sydney Duncombe award recipient.

Glenda Poston – H. Sydney Duncombe Award

Few positions in county government carry the breadth of responsibility that the County Clerk’s office does, and few have carried that responsibility longer, or more capably, than Glenda Poston. Appointed Boundary County Clerk in March 2004 and elected to the position soon after, Glenda has now served more than 22 years in a role that encompasses Clerk of the District Court, County Auditor, Recorder, Chief Elections Officer, and Clerk to the Board of County Commissioners — a statutory workload that would challenge any one person.

Her influence, however, has never stopped at Boundary County’s borders. Glenda served as President of the Idaho Association of Commissioners and Clerks (IACC) from 2010-2011 and President of the Idaho Association of County Clerks and Recorders (IACRC) from 2015 to 2016. 

For many years, she represented District 1 on the IAC Board of Directors, and also lent her expertise to the IAC Intergovernmental Affairs and Revenue and Taxation steering committees. Throughout her public service, she has facilitated training sessions for clerks and other officials across the state, sharing her hard-won practical knowledge with the next generation of county leaders. Her commitment to the GemPlan Board of Directors since 2013, where she currently serves as Vice Chair, and her work on the Magistrate Commission, round out a record of service that touches nearly every corner of county government.

Glenda’s impact is perhaps most visible in two major infrastructure projects that will serve Boundary County residents for generations. She served as the county’s primary contact in acquiring a former National Guard Armory and overseeing its conversion into consolidated office space for Probation, the Sheriff’s Office, and Driver’s License services. This project improved county operations by bringing scattered services under one roof creating easier access for constituents. More recently, she played a key leadership role in transforming a former grocery store across from the county courthouse into Boundary County’s new Justice Center, which will provide modern, ADA-accessible courtrooms and significantly expand public access to justice. Both projects required years of planning, financial oversight, and coordination across multiple county offices and departments.

What sets Glenda apart is not simply the list of roles she has held, but the manner in which she has held them. Her tenure has spanned floods, wildfires, a train derailment, economic downturns, sweeping changes in election technology, and twenty-one transitions in elected county leadership. Through every one of those challenges, she has provided the stability and institutional memory that allows county government to function smoothly even amid turnover and crisis. Colleagues across the state describe her as a trusted mentor — someone who has spent as much energy building up the next generation of county officials as she has spent managing her own office. She has, by every account, placed the success of county government above her own recognition, a quality that earned her the H. Sydney Duncombe Award — IAC’s highest honor bestowed for excellence in county government.