Mahaska County Emergency Management Commission Meets To Discuss Oskaloosa’s Plan For Outside Consultant
Mahaska County Emergency Management Commission met on Tuesday, September 27th, 2022
September 29th, 2022
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Emergency Management Commission met on Tuesday evening to discuss a plan from the City of Oskaloosa to hire an outside consultant to review EMA and 911, to see if there are ways to cut costs.
Mahaska County Emergency Management Director Jamey Robinson said he has no problem with the proposed consultation. “None whatsoever.”
Robinson did speak about a couple of issues that the City had cited for their reason, which was the comment that there was a disparity between what Mahaska County’s 911 costs are and surrounding counties.
Robinson used the 911 call center in Pella, which he says costs that community nearly $422,000.00 a year, while the city of Oskaloosa’s obligation to the Mahaska County 911 center is approximately $480,000 per year, with 1000 more people than Pella.
Robinson said that for the fiscal year of 2021, the total operational costs for 911 services in all of Mahaska County were 890,827, and he says that 97% is budgeted for salaries.
There was a cost increase in salaries, as Mahaska County 911 recently made their salaries comparable to neighboring communities.
Robinson said the average length of service for one of 911’s Dispatchers in Mahaska County is 13.6 years. In contrast, nationwide, the average length of service for a 911 Dispatcher is far less than that, with recent studies showing the burn-out rate for the profession to be up 40%.
911 Dispatchers are responsible from the mundane, from helping someone get medical attention if they suffer a sprain to life and death calls, where they often never learn the outcomes.
Robinson also expressed concern that the City’s language made it sound as though residents were receiving less than satisfactory services.
Robinson rebuffed that notion, saying that the citizens are getting “the premier EMA.”
To back up that claim, Robinson said his office fields calls from around Iowa and the Midwest asking about Mahaska County’s 911 center.
In a recent Oskaloosa City Council meeting, Oskaloosa City Manager Amal Eltahir said the request for the RFQ is to hire a consultant to review EMA/911 services being provided. Eltahir says the proposal is because the cost for those services “appears to be significantly higher” than other communities.
Councilmember Charlie Comfort questioned Eltahir saying, “compared to other counties, it seems to me just the data that I’ve seen shows that we might be coming in pretty comparable or less than what other counties are.”
“Are we going to be getting a true apples-to-apples comparison,” Comfort added.
Eltahir will attend the October 3rd Mahaska County Board of Supervisors meeting to ask the County to share the cost of the RFQ.
