Cascade County Commissioners voted to formally move Disaster and Emergency Services under the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.
Commissioners decided earlier this year to incorporate what was a county department into CSSO but approved the formal resolution during their Sept. 9 meeting.
The move follows significant funding reductions for county DES from both the federal Emergency Management Performance Grant and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
County officials discussing CCSO budget, including absorbing DES and potential ICE contract
“Operations of DES and CCSO have significant collaboration and overlap in planning for, mitigating and addressing natural disasters and related emergencies,” according to the county.
In March, Jason McAllister, who’s been servings as interim county DES manager, and Trista Besich, county finance director, told commissioners that they were notified they’d only be receiving $47,000, in comparison to the $131,000 maximum McAllister of EMPG funding had requested through the U.S. Emergency Management Agency. The grant is the bulk of county DES funding.
County considering options for projected DES funding shortfall
The move will put the new DES manager under the sheriff’s management and the operations will physically move to the CCSO, freeing up the existing DES building at 521 1st Ave. N.W.
Sheriff Jesse Slaughter told The Electric this week that he has selected the new DES manager through the county hiring process, but didn’t want to publicly release their name until they start the job in a few weeks.
County makes selection for new DES manager [2024]
The DES administrative assistant position was also vacant, but with the shift, the county is not filling that position and the new manager will use CCSO administrative support. The move also cuts another 0.15 position, county officials said during a May 19 CCSO budget meeting.
During the May meeting, commissioners and the sheriff said they intended to moved the DES position into CSSO on July 1.
County hires new emergency manager [2020]
Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken said in May that he wasn’t concerned about space availability at the CCSO building, but they’ll need to determine the square footage being used for their federal grants and budgets.
Commissioner Joe Briggs told The Electric that once the physical move to the CCSO office, county officials will look further into possible uses for the current DES building.
McAllister, chief of the Vaughn volunteer fire department, has been acting DES chief.
DES coordinator resigns; county considering folding office into CCSO [2020]
Commissioners had selected Joey Zahara for the DES position in April 2024 and by February 2025, he had resigned. The position has been vacant since.
The county print shop has been reactivated and is in the same complex as the DES building.
New county DES coordinator selected [2019]
The print shop has been effectively closed since April 2024 when the manager resigned. Commissioners had voted in February 2024 to move the print shop from the county clerk and recorder’s office to the commission office.
The county elections office has assumed oversight of the print shop and Terry Thompson, county elections administrator, told The Electric that the new print shop employee started Sept. 8 and was going through training.
County discussing future of print shop operations [2024]
The county print shop is printing ballots for the November general election for Belt, since it only requires 50-75 ballots, Thompson said.
She expects the print shop will start printing ballots for the school election in May 2026 and they’re pulling print jobs from county departments back into the print shop, but doesn’t plan to take on city print jobs for the foreseeable future.
