The Executive Committee of the Marshall County 911 Service Board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the Marshall County Board of Supervisors to act as its fiscal agent at Thursday night’s meeting in the lower level of the Marshalltown Police Department.

Consequently, on July 1 Marshall County officially takes over as fiscal agent from the City of Marshalltown.

In a letter to the Marshall County 911 Service Board earlier this month, Marshalltown City Administrator Jessica Kinser said the city would on June 30, “turn over all 911 surcharge funds to Marshall County with financial reports and transactions of the board to go through the county after that time.”

Kinser cited “the absence of all legal requirement (for the city) to continue as fiscal agent, the city of Marshalltown has no obligation to continue to perform the accounting function and reporter for the 911 Joint Services Board.”

Kinser also cited a staffing issue as another reason for discontinuing serving as fiscal agent.

As a result of Kinser’s letter, the 911 executive committee met June 19, and drafted a letter asking the city for more time to find a fiscal agent.

In her letter of June 26, Kinser said the city would extend the deadline to July 31.

Regardless, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors voted at its regular meeting earlier this week to serve as the 911 board’s fiscal agent.

Marshalltown had acted as fiscal agent for the Joint Services Board since 2010 as part of a 28E agreement.

A 28E agreement allows local governments to enter into contracts with each other and conduct business.

The Marshall County Auditor and Recorder’s Office will perform the fiscal agent tasks for the 911 board, reported the Times-Republican’s Adam Sodders

“In visiting with the people who will be doing this through the auditor-recorder’s office, they assured me it could be done and would be done on a timely basis,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Patten said.

Board Vice Chairman Dave Thompson said Bowman and Miller PC, the local firm that regularly performs the county audit, will audit the 911 board with the county as fiscal agent.

“Bowman and Miller already does the audit of our books and this would be no different than us being the fiscal agent for anybody else,” he said.

Thompson said the 911 board would have faced $3,600-$8,000 in costs if members had chosen to get separate audit services.

At Thursday’s meeting, Ferguson Mayor Dale Thompson thanked the Board of Supervisors for taking over as fiscal agent.

“I would like to second that,” Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer said. Greer is also a voting member of the board.

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Contact Mike Donahey at 641-753-6611 or mdonahey@timesrepublican.com