Linn County Emergency Management gets new coordinator

The Linn County Emergency Management Agency, charged with disaster preparation, response and recovery, has a new coordinator.

B.J. Dvorak, who has been the agency’s plans and exercises officer since 2019, will start as the agency head effective Saturday, according to a news release from Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner, chair of the county’s Emergency Management Commission, which voted Monday night to hire Dvorak.

Dvorak succeeds Steve O’Konek, who retired Tuesday after leading the agency since 2018. Dvorak was one of 30 applicants for the job.

Dvorak’s salary will be $87,491. He will continue to live in Johnson County because Linn County requirements say the coordinator simply must live within 20 miles of the agency’s office, Gardner said.

Dvorak, a volunteer firefighter in Tiffin, has served as supply management officer with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since January 2012.

Before working for Linn County EMA, he was the emergency management security coordinator for Mercy Iowa City and the plans officer with the Johnson County EMA, the release states.

Dvorak has an associate degree in police science from Hawkeye Community College and a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Upper Iowa University.

O’Konek, 60, was a Cedar Rapids police officer from 1985 to 2018, when he was hired to lead Linn County’s EMA.

In a Jan. 18 resignation letter, O’Konek noted that during his tenure, the agency updated emergency plans, studied hazardous materials being transported in the county and transitioned tornado sirens from Duane Arnold Energy Center to the county, among other accomplishments.

The agency dealt with two federally-declared disasters: COVID-19 and the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho.

“This will end my 40-plus years of public safety service,” O’Konek wrote in his letter.

Linn County EMA faced scrutiny after the derecho when some community members did not think the response for shelter and food was fast enough. An after-action review released in September 2021 showed some of the biggest challenges were communication with the public and among communities and some public officials going outside the chain of command to request resources that might not have been needed or expected.

The Linn County EMA was praised for quickly deploying disaster services teams after the Feb. 19 Geneva Tower fire in downtown Cedar Rapids.

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