The status of the Warren County Emergency Management director will remain &#8220interim” until supervisors meet with the parties most affected by the board’s shakeup of the office four months ago.

Supervisors again put off making a decision or agreeing to a new job description if Geoffrey Greetham, appointed interim director, remains head of operations at E-911.

Instead, Greetham and permitting office director Gwen Coleman will be asked to appear before the board together before any step is taken. The permit office will be a department separate from emergency management this year, with Coleman in charge, but the longtime county employee remains heavily involved in emergency planning.

Also pending in the background is any action since ads appeared for an operations officer in the department – a position for which supervisors have already rejected a nominee this year. The situation must be settled before Nov. 22, when the six-month period is up on Greetham’s appointment.

Opinions varied during supervisors’ discussion Thursday, from whether to elevate Greetham to full-time status or readvertise and take applications to fill the will-and-pleasure position.

&#8220If we’re going to use a tool to evaluate this emergency management director, it should be the job performance,” said District 4 Supervisor Carl Flanders, board president.

&#8220I can give a decision right now. I want a full-time person and I don’t want him (Greetham),” District 5 Supervisor Richard George said.

In May, L.W. &#8220Bump” Callaway was ousted from his appointed position on a 3-2 vote of supervisors and replaced on an interim basis by Greetham.

While Greetham has not received any additional compensation for holding two jobs – he makes $45,000 as director of the E-911 Dispatch Center – the arrangement has created ripple effects on the E-911 Commission and in the day-to-day operations of both offices.

His status as an employee of the E-911 Commission has kept him off that board, leaving it as a six-member panel since May. Other members include the mayor, police chief, fire chief, sheriff, county fire coordinator and a county supervisor.

District 1 Supervisor David McDonald, the supervisor serving on the commission, has not taken a position on either panel, saying only that each board must decide whether to have a part- or full-time director of either entity.

Greetham has made a point of participating in several professional development seminars since he was hired 18 months ago at E-911, something he has continued to do in the area of emergency management.

Most of those have been held out of town, and that has raised the ire of some in county government, particularly supervisors who voted against the change.

Coleman addressed the board later in the meeting to announce Warren County became eligible for $31,500 in grant funds for a program geared to help residents with the cost of building &#8220safe rooms” on their property to mitigate the effects of destructive natural disasters or environmental emergencies.

Nine applicants are already in from Warren County residents who received damage from Hurricane Katrina, Coleman said.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency will reimburse up to 75 percent of eligible construction costs in the program.