Douglas County needs to find a new director for its Emergency Management Department, but County Administrator Craig Weinaug doesn’t plan to start advertising right now.

“I’m not in any hurry because there are a lot of things to look at first,” Weinaug said.

Paula Phillips, who held the director’s job for nearly 18 years, resigned earlier this week without a public explanation. County Commissioner Jere McElhaney said she resigned at Weinaug’s request, but Weinaug won’t comment because it was a personnel matter. Phillips has been unavailable for comment.

Weinaug said he plans to consult with a lot of people about the director’s job before the process of hiring a replacement begins. Included will be members of the Emergency Management Executive Committee, as well as various agencies that work with Phillips’ old department.

Weinaug asked Jim Denney, director of Douglas County Emergency Communications, to work with Emergency Management in a temporary supervisory role on administrative and budget matters. Teri Smith, who had been assistant director of Emergency Management since 1995, now is acting director and handles daily management duties.

Smith said she will formally apply for the director’s job.

“I’m very passionate about the job,” she said.

Just as Phillips did, the next director will oversee a small staff that includes an administrative assistant and duty officer, as well as more than 100 volunteers who are involved in storm-spotting and a variety of other emergency-related jobs.

Smith said there are no plans to make immediate changes in the department.

“We’ll be taking a look at all aspects of emergency management,” she said.

Denney and others associated with emergency management say it will take a special person to handle the director’s job. He noted that the job duties have increased dramatically, especially since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

No one knows that better than retired Lawrence firefighter Bill Brubaker, who now is the northeast Kansas regional coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security. In the early 1960s, Brubaker saw his father spend about two hours a month working as Douglas County Civil Defense coordinator.

During the 40 years since, that Civil Defense job evolved from coordinating local response to nuclear war to include storm-spotting and responding to everything from natural disasters to planning for terrorist incidents and a pandemic flu outbreak.

“It’s gone to an all-hazards type of a preparedness office and more to becoming a coordinating center for local, state and federal agencies,” Brubaker said.

The expectations of county emergency management directors have increased and issues have grown more complex, Denney said.

Mark Bradford, Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical chief, agreed. There is a tremendous amount of planning that has to be done in conjunction with emergency services – and community leaders, businesses and universities, said Bradford, who is chairman of the Emergency Management Executive Committee, an advisory board.

“There are all kinds of partners. It just requires a lot of personnel type strengths,” Bradford said of the job.

The director’s job will be difficult to fill and will take a unique person, County Commission Chairman Bob Johnson said.

“It seems to me it’s the kind of department that flies under the radar screen until something happens and then everybody expects perfection,” Johnson said.