SL Co. Not Prepared to Coordinate in an Emergency

None by Lara Jones

Council Nixes Mayor's Request to Fund New Position on Subject

(KCPW News) Should a natural disaster or other such emergency strike, Salt Lake County government is not prepared to coordinate a response. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon had hoped to create a new position to do just that.

"We have an emergency operations center, but we have nobody in our own government - Salt Lake County government - whose job it is to coordinate all our activities in Salt Lake County. So if there is an earthquake or flood or something, [we need] to have everybody in our government know what they're supposed to be doing."

The emergency management coordinator job would have paid approximately $86,000 a year. It was just one of the democratic mayor's mid-year budget requests turned down yesterday by a Republican-dominated county council. Corroon says he's disappointed the council didn't agree with him, given the lack of emergency management expertise he's witnessed.

"We had a training exercise at the end of last year that really made it clear that we just don't have the knowledge that we need to have in case something happens. I felt that was critical and didn't get it."

The county council also turned down Corroon's $72,000 request to fund an environmental programs coordinator in his office. For more from the mayor on mid-year budget corrections in Salt Lake County, click here.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW