Sheriff: Agreement Reached

Sheriff Richard Nugent confirmed Tuesday he has reached an agreement with the county administrator to transfer emergency management operations to his department.

Nugent said the two sticking points that held up negotiations that began in May have been resolved and the official transfer - pending county approval - becomes effective Jan. 1.

The agreement comes before county commissioners at their Dec. 2 meeting. Before the move is approved, the board will have to vote to allow the chairman to sign a memo of understanding.

The board must also formalize the sheriff's duties and responsibilities to county commissioners and to the operations of emergency management.

Nugent said he and County Administrator David Hamilton were able to come to terms with two issues, the first dealing with grant writing.

Nugent said the county took grant writing responsibilities for the county out of its finance department and put it under the purview of emergency management. Given the cutback in that department's staff from 6.5 to 5, that was a concern for the sheriff.

Nugent said he did not object to writing grants strictly for emergency management but he drew the line on taking on anything larger.

The agreement calls for the emergency management staffers to write their own grants, which amount to six or seven per year, Nugent said. The county would take back all other grant writing responsibilities, he said.

The second obstacle regarded floodplain mitigation, which the county wants under the auspices of emergency management, he said.

Nugent was again concerned that a five-person staff, which would be folded into his office, would be able to take on the extra responsibilities associated with such things as making sure coastal homes are properly elevated or keeping track of land use issues and making sure projects are monitored for flood hazards.

Those duties belong in the county planning department, he said.

"What we've agreed to do is emergency management will continue to do floodplain mitigation until the county is in a financial position to take that over," Nugent said.

There is no financial impact involved in the transfer. The county will shift the budget for the five emergency management employees to the sheriff's office budget.

And, if this agreement is approved Dec. 2, Cecilia Patella would become emergency management director and no longer be interim, Nugent said.

Patella would report to Director of Information Services Bill Kickliter, who would then report to Chief Deputy Mike Hensley and Nugent.

Nugent said he welcomes taking on the additional responsibilities and believes it will benefit taxpayers.

"This brings to emergency management some stability they've been lacking related to continuity of leadership and better service to the citizens," Nugent said.

Former Emergency Management Director Tom Leto was fired May 9 after a sheriff's investigation and a county audit revealed questionable management practices.

County Commissioner Jim Adkins said having the emergency management department under the operations of the sheriff's office is "a good fit" and is done in other counties.

It makes sense, he said, to have all emergency management employees under one roof at the operations center - off the State Road 50 truck route and adjacent to the sheriff's office - instead of a few miles away in the government center.

Adkins said he presumes the agreement will allow county commissioners to monitor the progress once the transfer occurs to make sure the arrangement works.

This is another example, he said, of shifting resources to get "the biggest bang for the buck" during these times of budget austerity.