Supervisors OK County Engineer Serving As Interim In Pottawattamie County

The Mills County Board Of Supervisors gave unanimous approval Tuesday morning to a 28E agreement that will allow Mills County Engineer Jacob Ferro to serve as the interim engineer for Pottawattamie County.

Under terms of the 30-day agreement, Pottwattamie County agrees to reimburse Mills County $200 per hour and 100% of any actual cost associated with the engineer’s work during the term of the contract.

Mills County will pay Ferro $70 per hour for the hours he’s working as Pottawattamie County’s engineer.

The contract will be executed once its approved by the Pottawattamie County Board Of Supervisors.

Mills County Supervisor Richard Crouch said it was important to limit the contract to 30 days so that Pottawattamie County has incentive to hire a full-time engineer.

“It does give them incentive to keep looking,” he said. “That’s the reason we made it 30 days. If you give them 60 or 90 days, they can kind of relax and say, ‘We’ll think about it.’

“This way they have to hopefully step up to the plate if they can find someone.”

Fellow supervisor Jack Sayers also voiced his approval for terms of the contract.

“I think the cost is pretty good,” he said. “You’re getting $70 per hour, Jac, for hourly work up there in Pottawattamie and then we’re getting $200 per hour, so we’re getting reimbursed for you focusing on Pott County stuff and not on Mills County stuff.”

Sayers added that he supports raising the fees charged to Pottawattamie County should the contract need to be reapproved past the 30-day period. Mills County Attorney DeShawne Bird-Sell said the fees would increase in that situation under language of the original draft resolution agreement.

“Each time it comes before us, we’re raising the costs of Jacob’s fees to loan to Pottawattamie County,” she said.

Ferro said he’s comfortable with the agreement.

“I’m good with it,” he said. “The main things I wanted to see in here was the 30 days and also down at the bottom, they put in there, ‘not intended that the engineer will oversee personnel matters during the interim period.’”

The agreement comes just two weeks after the board of supervisors agreed to raise Ferro’s salary from $140,425 to $165,000, matching an offer he received from Pottawattamie County to become its full-time engineer.