JEFFERSON COUNTY - Even in the face of federal financial limitations and statewide adjustments, and even while juggling the responsibilities of multiple roles across two counties, some of John McKee’s departments in Southeast Nebraska have still had plenty to celebrate so far this year.  

Adding to incumbent national budget concerns, since taking office this year, the Trump administration has steadily administered cutbacks to many different government agencies that offer services at the federal and state level. And the effects of some of those cuts will be strongly felt by officials at the local level, not to mention the people that live there. 

John McKee, who is the director of emergency management services in both Saline and Jefferson Counties, knows that well. During a status update meeting with the Jefferson County Commissioners this week, McKee said departments like his across the state are going to feel the effects of these cutbacks. 

“All federal funding has been put on hold for us. Right now even the state of Nebraska, NEMA is being paid out of the governor’s emergency fund because federal funding has stopped,” McKee said Tuesday. “So it’s a day-by-day thing with them. FEMA’s future is up in the air. States could be taking on more, with less people, that’s basically what it is.” 

McKee says cutbacks to programs like the National Weather Service that provide services to people nationwide could have costly downstream effects, and stressed that Nebraska citizens will need to be more mindful as severe weather season approaches. 

“I understand that there’s probably fat to cut in federal government, but when they start eliminating weather balloon launches and start eliminating staff from the weather service offices going into a time of year that’s not the best time to do it...they’ve assured us that they will still get timely alerts out even with less people,” McKee said. “Now launches need to get approval from the federal government – Oklahoma will let Omaha know if they can launch a weather balloon if there may be severe weather on the horizon. Everyone is going to really need to be weather-aware.” 

McKee wears many hats in his work across the two Southeast Nebraska counties. He's also the weed superintendent in Jefferson County and manages the planning and zoning department as well, and said it's become common for officials like him to have to hold multiple roles. 

“There are weed superintendents that are commissioners or supervisors, there are some that are also road and highway superintendents, zoning administrators are also covering weed...what we’re trying to get them [at the state level] to understand is, that we’re not sitting here as weed superintendents only,” he outlined. “All these statutes that were put in place years ago were really just creating things to help keep the weed superintendent busy through the wintertime to help them keep their position. Other superintendents I’ve talked to in other counties, [county governments] have been looking into combining other things with them.” 

But even with all those different roles to manage, McKee’s departments have earned their share of success so far this year. The Jefferson County weed department received a perfect 100% score this year in a state assessment that considers criteria such as number of inspections completed and documented, 15- and 10-day notice results, superintendent education, and department public relations. Achieving that perfect score was not always a typical outcome under previous state evaluators and administrators. 

Elsewhere, McKee reported that in the face of rising import costs due to U.S. tariffs, local departments are looking to use and acquire “American-made stuff,” especially as it relates to the Jefferson County’s fleet of half a dozen drones. McKee has drafted an assessment of how other similar counties are managing solar projects, and sent that on to the planning and zoning commission for review. If there are changes, it would need to be approved through a public hearing and the passage of an amendment. They’re also looking for a new building to serve as a local home base, and the county’s I.T. department would likely be housed there as well. 

Coincidentally, the county’s I.T. supervisors, Brad Eisenhauer and Jeff Nelson, were next up to present at Tuesday’s meeting. They presented a proposal to switch the live stream service of the county’s weekly meetings to Microsoft Teams. That’s a plan they’d been working on for a while, but it’s one that was well-timed and especially well-received this week because someone in the meeting’s Zoom lobby managed to hack in and take over screen-sharing privileges, disrupting the proceedings by playing loud noises and displaying disturbing images.  

The commissioners also accepted the resignation of ambulance director Jeff Klaumann and appointed deputy director Bill Seher to serve as the interim head of the department as they work to identify a successor.