York County now accepting applications for new emergency manager; interim in place until hiring is complete

YORK – The York County Commissioners are now accepting applications for a new emergency manager – which will be a full-time position, working for York County only. 

​Gary Peterson was the York County/Seward County emergency manager for many years – he recently retired. Following his retirement, the two counties decided to go their separate ways, as far as sharing an emergency manager. York County has decided to have its own emergency manager, working just for York County, and will now be accepting applications.
Meanwhile, to ensure the county can qualify for NEMA and FEMA funds should there be a natural disaster, the county is temporarily contracting with Fillmore County Emergency Manager Jean Engle.
As explained this week by York County Commissioner Chairman Daniel Grotz, “during the 911 advisory committee meeting, it was expressed by the police, fire and sheriff’s departments how we need to have an interim emergency manager, in case we have some sort of disaster, until we appoint a full-time, permanent manager.”
Commissioner Randy Obermier has been working on the job description for this position and he agreed how an interim should be contracted until someone is in the full-time position.
“The Fillmore County manager, Ms. Engle, has agreed to contract with us until then,” Obermier said. “She sounds very energetic and enthusiastic, and this would be the first step. As far as the permanent full-time position, everyone agrees this should be a stand-alone position so there will be more training and other opportunities. There has been interest from people already, who are interested in the position, so it might not take long for us to fill it.”
“If we have people qualified and interested, why not just hire a person right away? I’ve heard great things about Jean but do we need an interim?” asked Commissioner Andy Bowman.
“Yes, in case of a natural disaster because without one we wouldn’t qualify for any state or federal support,” Obermier said.
All the commissioners voted in favor of appointing the interim.
“I think it would behoove us to move quickly” with the entire process, Bowman said.
As far as the job description for the permanent full-time emergency manager for the county, Obermier said he’d been working with the county’s human resources company, Zelle, as far as the job description.
A representative of Zelle was also at this week’s meeting of the commissioners, offering how the language of the job description “is specific on the work environment so it’s clear they might be out in inclement weather, out in the middle of the night, etc.”
“This is the language we will be using for the posting and we probably need to set a wage parameter based on experience,” Obermier said. “It looks like the pay would be between $60,000 and $70,000 to start with. This year, we budgeted $38,000 (as it was split with Seward County),” and some of that cost is also supported by funds from the state.
“This hiring, this is one for which we have to keep the foot on the gas,” Bowman said. “I think we could post this, this job description, asking for applications. I’d like to see it out there. Zelle also said this does qualify as an exempt, salaried position.”
All the commissioners agreed to move forward and start posting the job position, along with requirement descriptions and salary range.
Work is underway on the posting at this time – it will soon be posted on Indeed, the York County website and on York County social media.