County council approves to advertise $100,000 appropriation for incident management team

A request for funding from the incident management team was approved by the Pulaski County Council but not the original amount the team was asking for.  
County council members met during a regular meeting Monday evening. All the members met by phone except council president Ken Boswell who was at the county highway garage meeting room. Boswell led the conference call meeting. 
One of the first topics addressed by the council was a request from the incident management team for $250,000.
Pulaski County Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer said there isn’t a plan of what the money will be spent on yet except for what FEMA allows such as mileage, supplies, equipment and overtime. 
Councilman Brian Young said he has spoken with  Origer, the county auditor and State Representative Doug Gutwein and he would like to see someone from the fiscal board be the financial person on the incident management team. 
Origer said the team is acting like a short-term department. He used the example that he doesn’t have to have three people to sign off when he has a claim as long as he is within the budget and rules for spending. 
Young argued that “it’s adding a layer of oversight. The county council should not have to beg for answers when you are asking us for a quarter of a million dollars.” Young said he was told by the health department that the county would be reimbursed for 100% of the funding not 75% back.  
A motion was made by councilwoman Kathi Thompson to allow an additional appropriation of $100,000 to be advertised and that one or two council members share a position on the team for “oversight only.” The motion was amended to include that the funding for the additional appropriation will come from the riverboat line item. The motion was then approved. 
A motion also was approved that councilman Rudy DeSabatine and Young will be part of the task force as part of the oversight.