Changes to familiar staffing headed to 911 dispatch and emergency management in Fond du Lac County

Changes to the way Fond du Lac County staffs their Director of Communications and Emergency Management Director were ok’d at Tuesday’s County Board meeting, but the changes are nothing new for the county, rather it’s reverting back to the way things were once done in the past.

The positions went back to being ran by two different people rather than one which was the case for the past several years.

County Executive Sam Kaufman said when the County’s 911 Communications Center is ran by an individual civilian, and then that person chooses to leave, as has happened twice now in the last two years, it creates instability, because policies that person had in place will likely change with a new person taking charge of the department. A problem that is eliminated if the department is ran by the sheriff’s office which is how things will be ran now. Kaufman says if the person running things leaves the sheriff’s office, the policies will remain in place, and a new member of the sheriff’s office can immediately be put in place, rather than going through a two to three month hiring process to get another civilian leader.

The change in dispatch leadership allows the job of County Emergency Manager to go to a full time position, and Kaufman says he is filling the void left with previous Emergency Manager Amy Hasse leaving with John Ross who comes in with 20 years of Emergency Management experience as the former leader of the position in Clark and Jackson Counties.

The sheriff’s office will immediately take over their roll as Dispatch Center leaders and Ross starts his new position April 5th.