County Officials Seek a New Head of the Bureau of Emergency Services

At a Jan. 10 meeting with first responders from all over Putnam County, County Executive MaryEllen Odell talked about finding a new person to head the Bureau of Emergency Services and dispelled rumors that the county’s 9-1-1 call center would be closed.

Past Commissioner Adam Stiebeling, who was appointed to the position in 2012 by Odell, was not reappointed for 2015.

Odell said she had approved five new dispatch positions for the 9-1-1 call center in the past month.

“We are not dissolving the 9-1-1 call center, no jobs will be lost,” she said, according to a press release. “We are also not dismantling this building or the bureau of emergency services. We are trying to make sure we are fiscally responsible, we are meeting our opportunities for efficiencies and we are delivering the optimum safety emergency services to the community, to the constituents we serve.”

Odell said that former Commissioner Robert McMahon epitomized what a leader of emergency management should be. McMahon retired from the bureau in September 2012 and died in October 2013.

A seven-member search committee is to be appointed.

Officials said the committee will be led by Director of Personnel Paul Eldridge, and will include a member respectively from the fire advisory board, the emergency management safety board, the fire chiefs association, an emergency medical service worker, a representative appointed by the chairman of the Putnam County Legislature and one other person to be determined by the first responder community.

The committee’s job will be to devise a set of questions to ask all candidates, go through the applications, and choose a smaller group to interview. The committee is to submit three recommendations to Odell.

Odell would then meet with the candidates and identify up to two people on whom the personnel department would conduct background checks. Then she would make an offer to one, which would be conditional until confirmed by the legislature.

Officials said the county personnel department will start advertising the vacant position in newspapers, on the county website and through social media next week. Tentatively, the deadline to submit an application will be Feb. 6. Odell intends to name the new Commissioner during her State of the County address March 12.

Photo Caption: County Executive MaryEllen Odell speaks to first responders and other members of the community about what the process will be to find a new commissioner of the Bureau of Emergency Services at the TOPS building on Saturday, Jan. 10./contributed