The Summit Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday, July 22, to move the Emergency Management Office back under the County Manager’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office has overseen emergency management since 2023.

Commissioners have expressed concerns about the Emergency Management Office, and the Sheriff’s Office’s management of it, in recent months. The board passed a resolution in June that prompted a lawsuit from the Sheriff’s Office that argues the board overstepped its authority by directing the office to align with the County Manager’s Office.

Commissioner Nina Waters said the transfer will make the Sheriff’s Office lawsuit a “moot point.”

“That will save us costly tax dollars,” Waters said.

The board sent a letter to the Emergency Management Office in May that laid out expectations for the office and its manager and stated emergency management could be transferred back from the Sheriff’s Office to the county manager’s office if it did not meet expectations.

Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons wrote in an email to Summit Daily that the commissioners’ decision is “not only deeply concerning — it is retaliatory.” The board passed the resolution “just days” after FitzSimons filed a lawsuit and motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent “this kind of unilateral maneuver,” he wrote.

“The timing is no coincidence,” FitzSimons wrote. “It represents a blatant disregard for the legal process, the statutory authority of the Sheriff in matters of emergency management, and the public’s right to stable and accountable emergency leadership.”

Emergency management operating under the Sheriff’s Office has worked effectively, FitzSimons wrote, and the board making the transition “undermines not only public trust but the integrity of our emergency response infrastructure” and creates chaos.

A report written by County Manager Dave Rossi stated the county will appoint an interim emergency manager to “facilitate the re-dedication of a County Office of Emergency Management” and work with the Sheriff’s Office to transfer resources, including personnel, to the county.

Rossi said in the meeting that the interim manager will be appointed because the three employees currently working in emergency management are Sheriff’s Office employees. He added that the county will look to bring those three employees, including director Brian Bovaird, over to the transferred office.

“This would require cooperation with the sheriff, of course, and those individuals — and there are three — whether or not they would want to join us,” Rossi said. “We would welcome them with open arms.”

Rossi emphasized something commissioners have pointed out before — that the county has a statutory responsibility to oversee emergency management. He added that people often misunderstand the emergency management director role, not thinking about it until it is needed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rossi said, Bovaird did a great job as emergency management director to coordinate the county’s “award-winning” vaccination program. Emergency management was under the County Manager’s Office at the time.

After the successful pandemic response, the County Manager’s Office faced staffing shortages, Rossi said, and the board transferred emergency management to the Sheriff’s Office in part to alleviate the demands on the limited staff.

“Today, being fully staffed, we believe we are more than well suited to take this on again,” Rossi said.

Waters described the resolution as another way the county has adapted over the last few years to meet community needs.

Commissioner Tamara Pogue, who was on the board when emergency management transferred to the Sheriff’s Office, said the board at the time worried about staffing, and the sheriff said his office could provide cost savings if it took over emergency management.

Pogue said the board’s main concern at the time was about culture.

“Emergency management, if done well and effectively, really requires a culture of collaboration and coordination,” Pogue said.

The Sheriff’s Office has an environment that “fundamentally needs to be” command and control, Pogue said. She said the cost savings have not come to fruition, and she does not think the culture of emergency management under the Sheriff’s Office has focused on collaboration and coordination.

“I think it is in the best interest of our community to reestablish this office in the manager’s office, which, as we know, has a culture of collaboration and coordination,” Pogue said.

Commissioner Eric Mamula mentioned his hope that the emergency management employees come over to the county but focused his comments on what he sees as a “structural issue” with the Sheriff’s Office overseeing emergency management. 

Mamula said the Sheriff’s Office “presides over” unincorporated parts of the county, so issues arise when it is also in charge of a department in emergency management that “oversees the entire county.” 

The board wants to know about every emergency in the county, big and small, Mamula said, because of its responsibility to oversee emergency management.

“The sheriff, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily have the control over a fire, say, in Frisco, and may not know exactly what’s going on,” Mamula said. “Emergency management needs to know about those things, needs to contact us, because we have constituents in all parts of the county that need information.”

The commissioners unanimously voted to approve the resolution, starting the transition of emergency management back to the County Manager’s Office.

Other short-term goals mentioned in Rossi’s memo included updating the emergency operations plan, completing an evacuation assessment and starting the creation of a strategic plan for the department after the end of fire season.