(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson county’s Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator is threatening to quit.
Kate Whittrock told the county’s Emergency Managment Commission Monday she can’t work under the interim system the commission recently put into place. Sheriff Greg Baloun was named interim Emergency Management Coordinator after the commission voted recently to terminate Tim Kinnetz from the position. Whittrock was retained as Deputy Coordinator. But she told the board Monday the Sheriff has too many other things going on to serve as Emergency Management Coordinator. Wittrock says it isn’t a power struggle and that she doesn’t have a problem with Baloun as Sheriff, but she feels she’s the most qualified for the position of Emergency Management Coordinator. Whittrock said too many things are being taken away from her, and said she’ll tender her resignation if the situation doesn’t change. The board took no action on changing the iterim structure.
There was more discussion Monday stemming from a decision last week to combine the positions of Emergency Management Coordinator and 911 Coordinator. The main stumbling block is over how to fund a salary for the combined position. The Emergency Management and 911 commissions both voted Monday to form a joint committee to look into the matter and come up with a recommendation for both boards in three months.
