Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Eddy County Commissioners Glenda Collier and Jeff Pfau attended the Foster County Commission meeting on Tuesday, June 5 to discuss the emergency management position.
As was previously reported in the New Rockford Transcript, Foster County Commissioner Becky Hagel told the Eddy County commissioners that she had many concerns with the agreement Eddy County had proposed to newly hired Emergency Manager, Jessica Earle. The most important of those concerns was the absence of a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA), which Hagel said the Association of Counties had advised Foster County to put in place.
At the Foster County meeting, Hagel reiterated her position about having a JPA and sharing the costs of the salary and benefits, but she realized that budgets had already been set for the year and that Eddy County may not be able to make those changes at this time. She also told the commission that she had discussed the option of a six-month trial period with the Eddy County Commission.
Collier then presented the Foster County Commission with a proposal that Eddy County would reimburse Foster County for the eight hours of pay per week while Earle is at work for Eddy County. Because Earle is currently working 35 hours for Foster County, such an agreement would result in her being paid for 43 hours of work each week.
On top of that, Eddy County offered to pay a pro-rated portion of fringe benefits, half of Earle’s expenses when she travels to conferences, meetings and trainings and half of Earle’s cell phone bill. Earle would use her Foster County-issued computer to do work for both counties, which can be a cost saving measure.
Hagel was pleased with the proposal, which would effectively put a JPA in place. Collier commented that the JPA would be effective for a trial period through the end of 2018 to give the two counties time to address any issues that may arise before re-signing a JPA for 2019.
fter a short discussion about start dates, Hagel moved to approve the adoption of a JPA between Foster and Eddy County, which was ultimately approved by the Foster County Commission.
