Emergency Management/911 Commission/Communications Commission Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, January 8, 2025,
6:00 PM
Washington County EOC –
Emergency Communications Building
2183 Lexington Blvd.,
Washington IA 52353
In attendance: Richard Young, Mark Robe, Cara Sorrells, Ryan Miller, Marissa Reisen, Stan Stoops, Roy Felts, Melvin Rich, Allen Schneider (via Teams), and Millie Youngquist.
At 6:02 PM, Chairman Ryan Miller called the Emergency Management Commission meeting to order.
A roll call was conducted, and a quorum was present. Present were representatives from Brighton, Crawfordsville, Kalona, Riverside, Washington, Wellman, and the Board of Supervisors. Absent were representatives from Ainsworth, West Chester, and the Sheriff’s Office. The approval of the agenda was requested. Mark Robe made a motion to approve the agenda. Roy Felts seconded the motion, and the agenda was approved with no one opposed. Chairman Miller then requested a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting, dated November 20th, 2024. Millie Youngquist made a motion to approve the minutes. Mark Robe seconded the motion and the motion passed unanimously.
The only item on the agenda under old business was the siren system update. Marissa Reisen reported that they delivered the sirens and poles to the Secondary Roads shop today. They came in two pieces or two shipments and she has had email correspondence with the electrician. The project should be completed by this Spring. Chairman Ryan Miller asked about the status of the software component with RACOM and there has been no updates. Cara will reach out to RACOM. Mark Robe asked about the timeline for grant match contributions to be submitted. Reisen advised this fiscal year before June 30th. Washington and Brighton have already paid due to ARPA deadlines.
The next item on the agenda under new business was the coordinator report. Reisen’s first agenda item was a handout concerning Avian Influenza. She provided a brief update and advised that if anyone has questions to please reach out to her.
The next item was an update to the county handbook. The updates do affect Emergency Management. The changes were adopted by the Board of Supervisors on 12/10/24, and became effective 01/01/25. The changes include making Christmas Eve a permanent holiday, adding an additional personal day per year, granting 40-hours of vacation to new employees at their initial hire after 30 days of employment, and adding language prohibiting using county email for personal purposes. Mark Robe made a motion to adopt the revised county handbook and Robe’s motion was seconded by Roy Felts. The motion passed with no one opposed.
The next item under new business was FY ’26 budget discussion. Reisen handed out a proposed budget draft and outlined any proposed changes. There was a brief discussion about the proposed salary increase and the Board of Supervisors is recommending 2.5%, with no increase to the other overall budget line items without justification. There was also discussion on the replacement schedule for the truck and how much we are setting aside each year ($15,000). Richard Young advised their timeline is that it must be sent in by March 30th, and Marissa advised she must submit hers by February 28th.
Reisen had nothing for approval under purchases.
There was nothing for the Commission under public input. The next meeting was scheduled for February 5th, 2025, at 6:30 PM after the Assessor’s Conference Board meeting in the Emergency Operations Center.
Millie Youngquist made a motion to adjourn the Emergency Management meeting, and the motion was seconded by Roy Felts. The Emergency Management meeting was adjourned at 6:35 PM.
At 6:36 PM, Chairman Richard Young called the 911 Commission meeting to order. Present were representatives from Brighton, Crawfordsville, Kalona, Riverside, Washington, Wellman, the Board of Supervisors, and Emergency Management. Absent was a representative from Ainsworth and the Sheriff’s Office. A quorum was determined. Chairman Richard Young made a request for an approval of the agenda. Millie Youngquist made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Roy Felts seconded the motion, and the agenda was approved with no one opposed. A request was then made for a motion to approve the minutes for the last meeting dated November 20th, 2024. Mark Robe made a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting and the motion was seconded by Roy Felts. No one was opposed and the motion passed.
The approval of claims was next, and Cara Sorrells detailed the claims. This month’s 911 claims contained a payment to LiftOff for $7,016.85 for Microsoft Office 365 licenses with Cybersecurity, a payment to GeoComm for $5,781.51 for 911 database mapping maintenance and support, a payment to WCSO for $4,820 for IT services, and scheduled tower rent payments. The total of the claims was $29,687.67 and the total of the revenue was $2,589.58. Millie Youngquist made a motion to approve the claims as presented. Youngquist’s motion was seconded by Ryan Miller. The motion to approve the claims was passed unanimously.
Under new business Sorrells reported that the generator in the Emergency Communications building was serviced today and it has a bad controller that will have to be replaced. The estimate to replace the controller may be at least $6,000.
The next item on the agenda was the election of officers. 911 Commission elections are every 2 years and the last election was in 2023. Mark Robe made a motion to retain the same Chair and Vice Chair. Melvin Rich seconded Robe’s motion and it passed unanimously. Richard Young will remain the Chair of the 911 Commission and Allen Schneider will remain Vice Chair.
The next item on the agenda was discussion on the FY ’26 budget. Sorrells advised that she has not completed it yet and is waiting on a couple of pieces of information. The monitors and computers in the 911 center have been running since 2021 and need replaced. She is waiting for an estimate from IT on the possible costs. There is also an ongoing discussion on how the IT costs will be funded this coming year and that will affect both the 911 and the Communications budgets. She will present the proposed budget at the next meeting along with the annual PSAP expenditure report that is due to the State.
Under old business the update on the Wellman tower was next on the agenda. Sorrells shared a photo of the tower with equipment hung on it. Tower crews have been on site and RACOM should be starting work very soon installing the radio equipment.
The Pro QA implementation is continuing and there will be a 3-day in-person class in the EOC January 21st-23rd and most of the rest of the training is online. The entire project is still on track to be live in March of 2025.
The next 911 meeting was also set for February 5th, 2025, at 6:30 PM. A motion was made to adjourn the 911 Commission meeting by Mark Robe and seconded by Marissa Reisen. The 911 Commission meeting was adjourned at 6:48 PM.
At 6:48 PM, Chairman Ryan Miller called the Communications Commission meeting to order. Present were representatives Stan Stoops, Ryan Miller, Mark Robe, Millie Youngquist, and Richard Young (sitting in for Jack Seward). Alternates Melvin Rich and Allen Schneider were also present. A quorum was determined.
Cara Sorrells advised Chairman Miller that there was one amendment to the agenda and that was a personnel change. Chairman Miiler made a request for an approval of the agenda as amended. Mark Robe made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Millie Youngquist seconded the motion, and the amended agenda was approved with no one opposed. A request was then made for a motion to approve the minutes from the previous meeting dated November 20th, 2024. Mark Robe made a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting and the motion was seconded by Richard Young. No one was opposed and the motion passed.
The approval of the claims was next, and Cara Sorrells detailed the claims. The total of the claims was $41,669.06 and that included an IT services payment to WCSO for $32,247. There was no revenue reported. A motion was made by Mark Robe to approve the claims as presented. Millie Youngquist seconded the motion, and the claims were approved with no one opposed.
There was a committee report from the Mayor’s meeting for the Commission this month. The Mayors of each contract town met prior to the regular meeting at 5:45 PM. Present was representatives from Wellman, Kalona, Brighton, Crawfordsville, and Riverside. A motion was made by Melvin Rich to retain the current primary and alternate representatives on the Communications Commission. Rich’s motion was seconded by Mark Robe. Ryan Miler and Mark Robe will be the primary contract town representatives and Melvin Rich and Allen Schneider will be the alternates. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting was adjourned at 5:48 PM.
There was a personnel change for approval by the Commission. The change was the resignation of full-time employee Shannon Tong Van, effective January 5th, 2025. She has received another job offer and resigned her position immediately. Mark Robe made a motion to approve the personnel change as presented. Youngquist’s motion was seconded by Millie Youngquist and approved with no opposition.
The next item on the agenda was the election of officers and is done by Communications yearly. Stan Stoops made a motion to retain the current Chair and Vice Chair for another year. Stoops’ motion was seconded by Melvin Rich. Ryan Miller will remain the Communications Chair and Jack Seward will remain as Vice Chair.
The annual appointments of Communications Officer and Communications Supervisor were next on the agenda. Mark Robe made a motion to appoint Sheriff Jared Schneider as Communications Officer for another year and to appoint Cara Sorrells as Communications Supervisor for another year as well. Robe’s motion was seconded by Millie Youngquist and the motion passed unanimously.
The next item on the agenda was discussion on the FY ’26 Communications budget. As stated earlier, the Board of Supervisors recommended a 2.5% increase on salaries and no increase to the other line items in the overall budget. Sorrells did not have a budget proposal ready to present and was waiting for the outcome of the IT funding discussion to see what she would need to allocate for that.
The next item for approval was the update to the County handbook. The changes also affect the Communications staff and are positive for new and existing employees. Mark Robe made a motion to adopt the revised county handbook. Robe’s motion was seconded by Millie Youngquist. The motion was approved unanimously.
Following suit with the prior meetings, the next Communications meeting was set for February 5th, 2025, at 6:30 PM. Millie Youngquist mentioned that there will be a legislative forum coming up on January 17th, 2025, at noon at the Washington City Hall if anyone is interested in attending.
Under old business the update to the Wellman site was covered under the 911 Commission meeting. The staffing update included that Cara would reach out to the current part-time trainee to see if there is interest in moving to full-time.
Mark Robe made a motion to adjourn the Communications Commission meeting. Stan Stoops seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 PM.
Respectfully submitted by,
Cara Sorrells
Official Publication, minutes to be approved at the February 5th, 2025, meeting. Any amendment to the minutes will be reflected in the following meeting minutes
Published in The News, Thursday, January 23, 2025 L-336
