Alpena County mulls options for pending emergency services manager vacancy

ALPENA -- Alpena County Sheriff Steve Kieliszewski presented an option to the Alpena County Courts and Public Safety Committee during its meeting Thursday that could help it fill its soon to be vacant emergency services director position.

The job was paired with the 911 director position, but the county decided to split the position into a pair of jobs because of the workload and time needed to do the job appropriately.

Mark Hall, who held the titles of 911 Director and Emergency Services Manager is retiring and will leave the county on, or before, April 1.

Kim Elkie was named the new 911 Director earlier this week after having her interim label removed.

Kieliszewski proposed Sergeant JP Ritter from his department be awarded the position because of the experience he already has in planning for and responding to emergencies of all types. Ritter has worked side by side with Hall on numerous occasions, is familiar with county emergency plans, and the emergency response assets the county has at its disposal.

He has already passed several courses toward his emergency management certificate, which is required by the state.

"If the county were to hire someone off the street, they would have to obtain this certificate within two years, but because of Sergeant Ritter's law enforcement position that would be waived," Kieliszewski said. "He is my go to guy. If I need to get things done, he is the guy that I go to."

The county is still undecided on what it will do to fill Hall's position when he retires.

It could take Kieliszewski up on his recommendation, which would require promoting a deputy and hiring another deputy to replace whoever the promoted deputy is. It could also decide to hire someone from a pool of applicants the county hasn't put together yet or hire someone to take the job on a part-time basis.

Hall emphatically encouraged the board to hire a full-time emergency services director because of the amount of work involved and to make sure everything is in place in case of an emergency.

He also gave Ritter a vote of confidence and recommended him and attested to his abilities and knowledge to do the job.

"This is a full time position and I can't express that enough," Hall said. "I know the costs but you have to invest in emergency management and hope you never need it, but we just went through a two-year cycle of COVID, which nobody saw coming. You have weather changes with heavy rains and we have multiple dams in our county, you have school safety (too) and (the) emergency manager is the person to get you ready to mitigate those things."

Because of the timeline in making a hire, the committee will have a special meeting on March 10 to consider the pros and cons of all of the options. Hall and County Administrator Mary Catherine Hannah will draft plans for full-time and part-time options, and review the sheriff's proposal.

The board of commissioners as a whole will make the final determination on the hire.