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Brown County authorizes emergency management director to explore contract with McPherson County
Summary
Brown County's emergency management director briefed commissioners on a request from McPherson County to contract for emergency-management duties; commissioners authorized further exploration and directed staff to assess costs, travel needs and potential deputy staffing.
Brown County commissioners authorized Emergency Management Director Scott Meitz to continue exploring a contract arrangement to provide emergency-management services for McPherson County, which currently lacks a statutory emergency-management director.
Scott told the commission he met with McPherson County commissioners and found they have limited capacity to fill the required role. He described examples of other counties sharing services and said such arrangements typically include an administrative component from the contractor county plus a local deputy or on-the-ground contact in the contract county for immediate incident response. "I think it'd be something that we'd have to be up there at least once a week, probably," Scott said.
Scott noted potential financial frameworks mentioned in other counties: examples ranged from roughly $15,000 to $30,000 annually depending on scope, with some contracts including mileage or escalators. He also said if McPherson were included in LEMPG (Local Emergency Management Performance Grant) the county would qualify for additional funds tied to the position.
Commissioners voted to authorize Scott to pursue additional meetings and gather contracts or templates from counties that currently share services, and to return with specifics on workload, travel expectations and potential compensation models.
