Porter County is “rolling the dice” that a significant hazardous materials accident won’t occur while it continues to operate without a hazmat commander, Emergency Management Agency Director Lance Bella told the County Council Tuesday evening.
He was asking to increase the salary for the unfilled position, which has been vacant since the Aug. 24 cancer death of former commander Greg Eckhard,t from $59,494 to $84,770. For perspective, Bella told the council that firefighters of no rank in Valparaiso and Portage earn $72,000 to $76,000 per year.
This is in a region that holds significant industry beyond the steel mills and the intersection of three east/west interstate highways. “When they did studies for vulnerability, the main east/west railway comes through here,” Bella said of the nation’s rail system.
“The commander of LaPorte’s team has been helping us out, but he’s getting tired,” Bella said, adding that as of Jan. 1, LaPorte will begin charging Porter County for hazmat callouts, a fee that could easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars for one spill.
A hazmat commander responds to a hazardous materials spill, mitigates the disaster and leads the cleanup. If evacuation is necessary the commander also determines the radius. The commander also trains area first responders on how to minimize the damage of a hazmat spill as it can take 45 minutes to an hour for the hazmat team to arrive on scene once it is called out.
Pre-planning, environmental background checks and investigating hazardous materials complaints from residents are also part of the job.
Bella said that recently, a train carrying hazardous material in which a pin that wasn’t designed for that purpose held the cars together “by a miracle, a true miracle,” preventing a derailment.
“We would have had another East Palestine,” he said, referring to the train derailment that poisoned an Ohio community. “It’s important that we fill that position for the public’s safety.”
“We’re putting the team in jeopardy,” he said of the all-volunteer hazmat team the commander oversees. “We have been very lucky. People are very concerned.”
The council, with two members absent, will put off the request until January when Councilwoman Sylvia Graham, D-At-Large, is replaced by Councilwoman-elect Michelle Harris, R-At-Large.
It did approve a $3,260 prorated addition to the salary for the remainder of this year, but with no guarantee of a continuation of the raise into 2025, the position is unlikely to be filled. Graham and Councilman Greg Simms, D-3rd, voted against the temporary increase.
Graham said she wasn’t comfortable approving a pay increase without Bella providing evidence to justify it. Bella cited two lengthy letters he sent to the council on Sept. 25 and Oct. 11 doing just that.
The Sept. 25 letter reads: “To date, 58 people have applied for the job. Of those 58, only three even possess the minimum requirements to perform the job. Additionally, all three of those applicants would have to take a substantial pay cut in order to accept the job.”
He goes on in the letter to explain that the position is full-time, salaried and the commander is on call continuously. He also pointed out that there is not currently a backup position for the commander, preventing the taking of vacation. While LaPorte’s commander was on a two-week vacation, the position had no coverage.
For that reason, Bella would like to add an assistant commander position, to be referred to as a watch commander.
Council President Mike Brickner, R-At-Large, took issue with the commander’s current ranking as third in the EMA hierarchy, meaning the deputy director would need a salary increase in second place to have a higher salary than the proposed hazmat commander. “You might want to go back and look at those job descriptions,” Brickner told him.
“I’m not comfortable with bumping the number two guy up by $24,000 just to approve that,” he added. “For all those years Eckhardt did it for that salary.”
“I would be comfortable to go $72,000 to $75,000,” Graham added. “I would like to have more validation.”
Bella replied that his Oct. 11 letter to the council included that research. The state fire marshal’s office provided Bella with a list of the hazmat commanders in the northern half of the state. Bella contacted them personally and their salaries range from $45,000 in Lake County to $144,200 in Tippecanoe County, with the average being his suggested $84,770.76.
The letter goes on to state, “The applicants for the hazmat commander’s position also expressed a concern about having no backup for the position.” Bella detailed the request in his 2025 budget proposal. “Seven years I’ve been talking about this backup position and been denied,” Bella told the council.
His letter explains that EMA receives a salary reimbursement from the Department of Homeland Security relative to the three current EMA salaried positions for $69,827.63.
“This money has never been included in the overall year’s projected budget,” the letter reads. “When the funds arrive, they are automatically deposited into the General Fund. I would propose these funds be used to pay for the watch commander position in place of simply being deposited into the General Fund.”
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
