A request to hire a deputy director in the Emergency Management Agency sparked a contentious end to Monday’s meeting, as Warren County supervisors shot down the choice of the agency’s director.

The recommendation was made by Emergency Management Director L.W. &#8220Bump” Callaway, just over a month after the board agreed to allow him to begin accepting resumes for the position, one that would start at a salary of $30,000.

Twenty applications came in and that field was narrowed to four based on experience, Callaway said later.

The motion to accept Callaway’s recommendation to hire retired engineer and state emergency management official David L. Benway was rejected 3-2, with District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon and District 2 Supervisor William Banks leading the discussion on the grounds that another long-serving employee should have been recommended.

&#8220I still can’t understand why you have an employee in there with 20 years of experience in there and not recommending her,” Selmon said.

&#8220We’re at a standstill with it now, because I feel we have a well-qualified individual that could do the job,” Banks said after the meeting.

The employee is believed to be Gwen Coleman, administrative officer in charge of planning in the agency.

When Callaway informed supervisors during an informal meeting last week of his intentions to recommend a final candidate, he confirmed Coleman was among the last of the applicants to submit paperwork.

Callaway has said the move is in keeping with a policy adopted by the board within the past year to seek candidates for county employment from inside and outside a department.

He declined to reveal the names of the other three finalists or say if Coleman was a finalist.

Board president and District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders opposed it on organizational grounds, saying after the meeting that filling the position was not necessary.

&#8220It is an unneeded position, and the county taxpayers do not need to foot the bill,” Flanders said.

Four months ago, Flanders proposed eliminating the position of emergency management director and shifting emergency management responsibilities to the E-911 dispatch director. That motion died without a second.

Selmon later moved to recess the meeting until March 20 at 9 a.m. Despite a suggestion from board attorney Paul Winfield to close the session, the motion already on the table to recess passed 3-2 along the same lines as the motion to kill the recommendation.

In other business, the board: