Potter County Commissioners approved a policy exemption to allow the county fire chief to be paid overtime while serving on TIFMAS mutual‑aid assignments, but commissioners debated whether to limit the number of deployments and how the court should be notified.

The exemption was presented to enable payroll processing for the chief's overtime on mutual-aid assignments. "We're just asking for that to be reinstated so that when he is out ... he can be compensated," the county's fire chief (Richard) said, describing benefits the deployments provide for maintaining certifications and skills.

Supporters argued the deployments provide training and additional reimbursement to the county. Richard said FEMA/FMAG processes can allow reimbursement for hours worked during qualifying incidents and that "the county will be compensated for that." Commissioners also discussed operational concerns: one commissioner said the chief must be present to run the department and suggested limiting deployments to one or two times a year without further court approval, while others preferred the department head retain flexibility to deploy when needed.

County staff clarified that the agenda item before the court was narrowly to create an overtime-exemption for payroll purposes and that additional policy elements (frequency limits, notification procedures, FMAG language) should be considered in a separate policy process. On a motion and second, the court approved the payroll exemption; commissioners asked staff to draft a fuller policy for later consideration that would specify limits and notification requirements.

Next steps: staff will draft a formal policy capturing any agreed limits and notification procedures and return to the court for formal adoption.