Growth in EMA budget concerns county supervisor

MARENGO — As the county prepares its budget for fiscal year 2027, Iowa County Supervisor Abby Maas questioned the growth of the Emergency Management Agency’s budget.

If county supervisors agree to the 13% pay increase for EMA employees to match raises proposed by the compensation board — which they won’t — the EMA budget would hit $713,526, a 445% increase from 10 years ago when the budget was $130,900, Maas said.

The EMA budget used to be 2% of the county assessment, said Maas, but is now nearly 7%.

The EMA budget for this fiscal year is about $698,000, Maas said.

Maas, who has been looking for ways to keep property taxes low, was opposed to the $8 million, 10-year Emergency Management contract with Racom for communications equipment and maintenance last year. “We totally got screwed,” Maas said.

Still, the Racom money is less than half of the EMA total budget, she said.

Maas, who attended an EMA meeting this month, told the County Board of Supervisors during its Jan. 16 meeting that several line items in the EMA budgets from 2021 through last year “were drastically overspent” and that as the last fiscal year was ending, Iowa County EMA spent $12,000 on a hydraulic rescue tool, ending the year $6,000 over the $8,000 budgeted for equipment.

The department had money left in other line items and moved it to buy something rather than saving it for the next fiscal year, said Maas.

Maas questioned the need for some of the equipment the county pays for.

“We have eight drones,” said Maas. “Why? I don’t know.” The county has five drone operators, she said.

Maas also wondered if the county could save money by not duplicating turnout gear.

Maas said she was told that some members of fire departments have turnout gear at their fire station and another set of gear at the EMA station. Maas said the county should look into sharing gear and the cost of it with the cities.

“There’s a lot of money spent on turnout gear,” said Maas. “We’re one of the few EMAs that pays for the rescue gear for their people, I guess.”

“I suppose that maybe the dual turnout gear is probably for response purposes,” said Degen. “And the turnout gear, it's not the old days. It has expiration dates.”

As the county looks for ways to save money, it should look at collaboration with other governments, Maas said. ‘I think that’s something that I want to explore further.“

In the education line item of its budget, EMA allotted $10,500 but spent $13,500, said Maas. The department spent $4,095 for CrisisGo for a school and an additional $3,990 for CrisisGo for the Iowa Valley and English Valleys school districts, said Maas.

CrisisGo is a software application that allows schools to see which students are in attendance each day and where they are during emergency situations, EMA Director Josh Humphrey said during an interview in May.

“What is this ap doing? Is this really necessary?” Maas asked.

“That’s a lot of money that we’re not assessing to the schools,” said Maas. “And the concern that was brought back to me is, well if we don’t do this, they’re not going to pay for it.

“At what point do we say. people are going to have to be responsible for their own needs?” Maas asked.

“I get this department is … very important. It does a great job,” said Maas. “But I don’t know how much more the county can do.” The county is already buying new radios and providing maintenance for communication systems for everyone, she said.

Maas said she mentioned during the EMA meeting that EMA has gone over budget the last three years. “I was told it’s because the county doesn’t give them enough money. And I responded with, well, if we have money in the bank at the end of the year to buy a $12,000 set of Jaws of Life, … maybe we don’t do that.”

The money could have been rolled into the next fiscal year, said Maas.

As with the secondary roads department, EMA doesn’t return unused money to the county. It stays in the department’s account, Maas said.

“I just don’t think we continue to fund this department to what it’s been at. And if we have extra money to buy things at the end of the year, that means, to me, that they don’t need as much money coming into it,” Maas said.

“I think it’s something that we need to address, because this is one department we can’t say no to,” said Maas. She encouraged the other county supervisors to look into the EMA budget.

EMA’s spending affects other county departments, said Maas. It takes away raises from other departments, she said.