Don’t wait for a crisis

With Marion County once again looking to hire an emergency manager, it has an opportunity to do something that worked extremely well in the past.

A key element of emergency management is effective communication. Putting the communications branch of the sheriff’s office and emergency management under a single official would make both operations more professional, responsive, and coordinated. That, in turn, should translate into better service at lower cost.

Having a single point of contact for both emergency and routine communication would make cooperation routine and help resolve lingering concerns about coordination of services in both normal times and times of crisis.

— ERIC MEYER