Kalamazoo County commissioners to consider changes to emergency management

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Changes may be coming to the Kalamazoo County Office of Emergency Management.

The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners will consider an update to the county’s Emergency Management Resolution to designate the county administrator/controller as the emergency management coordinator, moving the office from the sheriff’s department to county administration.

According to county documents published Friday, the goal of moving the department is to centralize and enhance “coordination of emergency management efforts.”

Plans to move the office first became public at a county commission meeting on May 19. That night, the commission went into a closed session to discuss an attorney opinion. When they came back to the commission room after the 50-minute closed session, commissioners voted unanimously on a motion to authorize the county administrator to take the necessary steps to “move the Emergency Management Coordinator per MCL 30.409 under the purview of the County Administrator’s office.” There was no discussion in open session about why the change was being made or what was discussed in the closed session.

News 8 submitted a Freedom of Information Act request in June for emails to or from County Administrator Kevin Catlin regarding the emergency manager’s office.

Emails show that the closed session was supposed to take place on May 7, the same night an EF2 tornado hit portions of Kalamazoo County, including the city of Portage. The board of commissioners meeting scheduled for that night was canceled, and the issue was taken up at the May 19 meeting.

Most of the emails received in the FOIA request were redacted under the attorney-client privilege exemption in Michigan law, but one unredacted email gives some insight into what the commissioners were discussing.

In an email at 3:37 p.m. on May 7, Catlin replied to Commissioner Wendy Mazer’s question about printed copies of an opinion that was emailed to commissioners ahead of the meeting. Catlin replied that the legal opinion they were to discuss “simply states there is no legal impediment to appointing me as the County’s Emergency Management Coordinator.”

The issue wasn’t brought up in public meetings again until an Aug. 7 board of commissioners meeting, when Commissioner Jeff Heppler publicly thanked the county administrator for his work in the emergency manager’s office since the tornado hit May 7.

Board documents reveal that while Catlin will serve as the emergency management coordinator, the office will be led by an emergency management director and will be supported by an emergency management specialist.

Catlin has also asked for $75,000 from the general fund to help with the transition. The money would go toward creating “an effective EOC environment in the County Administration Building” as well as purchasing equipment and vehicles.

As part of the transition, a parallel move will be made to move the Office of Community Corrections to the sheriff’s department. Board documents say the move is “designed to enhance operational synergies and better align the goals of community corrections with the law enforcement and public safety objectives of the Sheriff’s Office.”

The board will meet Tuesday, Sept. 3 to vote on the proposal. If it passes, the transition of the Kalamazoo County Office of Emergency Management to the administrator’s office will begin immediately, with help from the sheriff’s department.

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