Pulaski County will continue to have a full-time emergency management agency director next year. In the 2021 budget adopted Monday, the county council reversed its previous decision to cut the position to part-time.
During Monday’s meeting, EMA Director Sheri Gaillard complained that she hadn’t been asked about the change and noted that almost half of her salary is actually covered by state funding. “I mean, I’m a first responder, just the same as police, fire, and EMS, by statute,” she told council members. “You guys said you weren’t cutting from emergency services. That’s why I didn’t speak up at the last meeting because, in the very beginning, you said you weren’t cutting from emergency services.”
But beyond that, Terri Hansen with the Pulaski County Health Department pointed out that without a full-time EMA director, the county could lose its access to emergency equipment during a potential disaster.
In another reversal, part-time Building Department Assistant Karla Pemberton will finally be moved up to full-time status, after years of pleading from Building Inspector Doug Hoover. He said he needed the help, not only to take advantage of potential solar development revenue, but also to clean up the county. “I get a lot of calls on people: trash and crap, houses and all that,” Hoover said. “I can’t do it, guys. I don’t have enough time. Karla don’t have enough time. We’re a dirty county.”
Hansen noted that Pemberton also provides a great deal of help to the Health Department. “She’s a college-educated woman, and she’s brilliant down there, and it’s amazing,” Hansen said. “She’s completely running the solar project by herself.”
But a measure that would have allowed Pulaski Circuit Court to move a part-time staff member to full-time without a major impact on the budget was denied by a vote of four-to-two.
The proposed budget totaled just over $17.7 million going into Monday’s meeting, before the staffing additions were made. As for where the additional money is going to come from, county officials plan to redirect tax revenues that had been going to the Aviation, Cumulative Building, Health, and Reassessment funds to the General Fund. Council President Ken Boswell said he hoped the shift would only be temporary and that the tax levies would go back to their current allocations in 2022.
Pulaski County’s 2021 budget now goes to the state for final approval. Council Member Kathi Thompson abstained from the final vote.
