Mahaska County Supervisors Demand Meeting With EMA/911

Debate about legal costs surrounding a new radio system for first responders drew questions from Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk.

The legal debate about the EMA/911 28 E agreement continued on Wednesday.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The controversy over the 28E agreement between the Mahaska County 911 Board and the Mahaska County Emergency Management to provide 911 service continued this week.

On the agenda was item 12, “Discussion with counsel re: EMA/911 28E agreement”. This meeting would be made possible per Iowa Code 21.5(c) as a closed session. Oskaloosa News asked Mahaska County Supervisors Willie Van Weelden and Mark Groenendyk to consider making that discussion open session, to allow the citizens of the county to be more informed of the situation.

The supervisors decided that they would go into closed session with their attorney to discuss their next legal move.

Mark Groenendyk told those in attendance after returning to open session that he believes it’s the Mahaska County Board of Supervisors responsibility to make sure the code of Iowa is followed.

Groenendyk said that a petition has been drafted and that the attorney could mail that petition to the EMA and 911 Boards or they the supervisors could deliver it themselves.

Van Weelden told Russ Van Renterghem, EMA Chairman, that they would have two weeks to respond to the petition’s request to have a meeting to “see if we can work some of these things out without involving more legal counsel.”

Van Weelden said he believes the Supervisors legal counsel has presented “some pretty strong arguments on why this is probably not a – wasn’t done right when it was put together and that’s all outlined in the petition that we have.”

Van Weelden has denied that his close personal friendship with the former 911 director is influencing his decisions in the legal battle now brewing with 911 and EMA.

In other business, the board moved meeting times back to Mondays at 9:00.

Also approved was the Heartland Insurance Risk Pool renewal for 2018-19.

Approved was the estimate and installation of door security for the Mahaska Building currently occupied by DHS.

Posted by on Jun 8 2018. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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