EMS Director Speaks Out Against Proposed Bill To Eliminate Department From Most Okla. Towns

The director for emergency management services in Sperry is speaking out in opposition to a bill scheduled to be introduced in the State House in the upcoming legislative session. The bill proposes amending a state statute to eliminate emergency management directors and staff in almost every Oklahoma town.

House Bill 2839, authored by State Representative Sean Roberts, proposes towns with less than 100,000 people in the state “shall not employ an emergency management director or an emergency management staff.” The bill calls for these municipal emergency management departments instead to combine with county departments.

“It’s a slap in the face of municipal emergency management departments,” said Sargent John Carr, the Director of Emergency Management Services in Sperry. “So now our guys that are doing the severe weather monitoring, sounding our storm sirens, we wouldn’t be here to do that.”

Sargent Carr has been involved in Sperry’s EMS department since 2017, and took over as director following the devastating flooding in 2019. He said that historic weather event was a prime example of why thebill should be struck down.

Sargent Carr told News On 6 that he has reached out to multiple legislators, including the office of Rep. Roberts, but he has not gotten a clear answer on why this bill was written.

“I have had no input back from legislators to tell me why this was introduced or what the reasoning behind it was," said Sargent Carr.

We also reached out to the office of Rep. Roberts multiple times but our inquiries went unanswered. House Bill 2839 is expected to be introduced when the legislative session starts on Monday.