EMA advisory committee to recommend new director

By Bev Woodruff, Staff Writer

Last Thursday, the Union County Emergency Management Advisory Committee agreed to recommend commissioners hire Dustin Glisson as the EMA director.

Glisson is currently filling the position in an interim capacity until applications could be accepted and an interview process for the position could be completed. Glisson is a former Franklin County resident who now resides in Union County. He currently volunteers with the Franklin County EMA, but will resign that position. He also works full-time for Fayette EMS.

If hired by the commissioners, Glisson will be classified part-time and will work up to 34 hours per week at a salary of $22,000 per year. If he is hired, one of Glisson’s primary goals will be to make sure the county qualifies for up to half of his salary costs to be reimbursed from the state.

The EMA received three applications and granted interviews to all three. The interviews were conducted by a four-member interview committee. EMA members serving on the interview team were EMA vice president, Joe Timberman, Ron Parker, 911 director Kristi Precht and Todd Fields, who is also an Indiana State Policeman.

The interview committee made its selection by a process where each committee member assigned a numerical value to the way those interviewed answered a standard set of 10 questions. Glisson scored the highest, Fields said.

EMA member and West College Corner Council President Juanita Fenwick had some concerns with hiring a person who was working full-time at another job.

“I would like to see someone who is available and can do the job,” Fenwick said. “We don’t want to go through all this again.”

The last two EMA directors have worked other jobs. Kirk Bryson is a full-time Union County Sheriff’s Deputy and also served as the part-time EMA director. After Bryson resigned as director, Cory Hill was hired. Hill worked as the part-time director and worked part-time at a second job. When he was offered full-time work at his other job, Hill resigned as EMA director. Hill had worked as the EMA director for less than a year.

A requirement of the job, will be preparing a monthly report of accomplishments and the status of achieving the 50 percent reimbursement. That report will be given to the EMA Advisory Committee. This requirement was included as part of the motion made by Parker to recommend the commissioners hire Glisson. Fields seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

Precht and/or the new director will give monthly reports to the county commissioners and council. Parker suggested the EMA committee meet monthly for the next several months to make sure things are progressing as expected. The next EMA meeting will be on Thursday, May 10, at 7 p.m., at the Union County Health Department.

On April 2, commissioners gave their approval of increasing the hours from 20 to 34. Getting county council to approve funding the increase proved to be a harder sell. Commissioner Tony Talbert and EMA members Timberman and Parker attended the April 19 council meeting to request the increase in funding. Chris Burris, who is the Indiana Department of Homeland Security District Six director, also attended the council meeting.

Talbert made a plea to council to approve the change for one year to see what could be accomplished.

“What I would ask, is you put a little trust in the EMA and the commissioners,” Talbert said. “Give us a year to get this done. If we don’t get it done, go back to the way it is now.”

After a lengthy discussion, council approved the change in a 5-1 vote, with councilman Burke Thomas casting the dissenting vote. Prior to that vote, Thomas made a motion to leave the position at 20 hours per week. The motion died for lack of a second.

Commissioners are expected to act on the recommendation to hire Glisson at the next commissioners’ meeting on Monday, May 7.