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The office has been without a director — and any full-time staff — since earlier this year when the then newly-hired director and a deputy director resigned suddenly in January and the remaining deputy director was placed on administrative leave in February before later resigning.

In May, the Cayuga County Legislature voted to table a resolution to hire a new director over concerns with salary and other unanswered questions. The next month, county E-911 Administrator Denise Spingler floated a plan to consolidate some positions between E-911 and the emergency office in order to optimize communication and share resources between the offices.

That plan fizzled after the emergency office's deputy coordinators, along with the county's Fire Advisory Board and local emergency providers, said at the Legislature's June meeting that the EMO director needed a fire and emergency background.

After switching back to searching for a new director, the county now has 21 qualified candidates that can likely be interviewed by a search committee next month, county Director of Planning and Economic Steve Lynch said Wednesday at a meeting of the county's Judicial and Public Safety Committee.

Lynch, who along with Spingler has been leading the administrative side of the emergency office, said the county's Civil Service Commission had selected 21 candidates from those who had applied for the original and June job listings who were both qualified and interested.

Working with the Human Resources department, Lynch said the search committee would soon be working to build a short list of candidates to interview, likely in September, and a resolution to appoint a new director could follow in October.

The eight-person search committee contains representatives from a variety of stakeholders that interact and work with the Emergency Management Office, including paid and volunteer firefighters and ambulance services.

Lynch and Spingler both sit on the committee, along with Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck, Human Resources Administrator Lisa Lippoldt, Petrus, Southern Cayuga Instant Aid Ambulance's Wendy Hoose, Moravia Fire Chief Bill Anderson, and Auburn Assistant Fire Chief Mark Fritz and Weedsport Fire Chief David James, both of whom are also deputy coordinators.

The committee also approved a resolution that will provide what Lynch and Spingler described as an equitable pay framework for the deputy coordinators, who normally earn a yearly stipend of $1,400 but have "really stepped up" to keep the emergency office functioning while it is without staff.