Commission to review applicants for EMD at Thursday meeting

By Buck Collier, Special Correspondent
Posted 12/10/20

HERMANN — The Gasconade County Commission will go behind closed doors tomorrow morning to review the applicants for the post of emergency management director (EMD). Today is the last day to …

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Commission to review applicants for EMD at Thursday meeting

Posted

HERMANN — The Gasconade County Commission will go behind closed doors tomorrow morning to review the applicants for the post of emergency management director (EMD). Today is the last day to apply for the post being vacated by Dan Dyer.

Dyer, a professional firefighter with a St. Louis County fire protection district, is leaving the position because of family issues. Dyer began his second stint as Gasconade County EMD in January. His successor will assume the post on Jan. 1.

Dyer has drawn high praise from the County Commission throughout the year. “Dan has been doing a heck of a job and we appreciate him,” said Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, at last week’s session.

Also at this week’s session, local University Extension Center Director Lydia Nipper is expected to present her agency’s 2021 budget request. Originally scheduled to outline the budget request at last week’s session, Nipper requested a delay until this week’s session. The Extension Center historically has enjoyed strong support from county government, which provides a small portion of the local center's operating funds.

At last week’s session, County  Clerk Lesa Lietzow presented the Commission with an agreement with the Circuit Court regarding the county’s portion of payment to attorneys representing juveniles in the Juvenile Court system. The agreement limits the amount an attorney can charge per case to $600.

Each of the three counties that comprise the 20th Circuit — Gasconade, Franklin and Osage — budget an amount for the attorneys. The program went overbudget in 2019 and, according to Lietzow, would have gone overbudget this year, as well, if the overcharges had not been noticed.

“No one knows how it happened,” Lietzow said. “But it won’t be happening again.”

Lietzow’s office was instrumental in working with the Circuit Court in uncovering the overcharge and crafting a solution to the problem. Circuit Court Associate Judge Ada Brehe-Krueger, who serves as the Gasconade County juvenile judge, recommended the Commission sign the agreement.

The cost of the program is not insignificant. Lietzow said it amounts to about $30,000 a year with the cost rising. “It’s been climbing,” she said, adding that it “has small increases every year.”

The commissioners are continuing to consider a strategy to again seek voter approval of a use tax — a revenue source that’s becoming increasingly attractive as the coronavirus pandemic has led to an explosion of online retail sales that don't generate sales tax revenue for local governments.

“We’re going to be looking at doing something again,” said Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann.

Voters have rejected proposed use tax issues a half-dozen times in the past decade. County administrators are hoping to point to the sharp increase in online sales during the pandemic — and the lack of revenue from those sales — when they make their case for a use tax to the voters. The April General Municipal Elections will be the next available opportunity the county will have to seek a use tax.

Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, is hoping voters will recognize that local merchants are being hurt by the surge in online sales. “I believe anyone who wants to support brick-and-mortar businesses in Gasconade County would support this,” he said.

The Commission will not meet during Christmas week, but will have a session on Wednesday, Dec. 30, rather than on Thursday, Dec. 31. That meeting will be used to conduct year-end routine county government business, as well as provide the setting for the initial hearing on the 2021 budget. That day also could include the swearing-in of the officeholders beginning a new term Jan. 1.