Gwen Coleman, an employee of Warren County’s Emergency Management Agency for 32 years and its director for five years, announced Monday that she is retiring at the end of the month.

“I had my time in,” the 54-year-old Coleman said following a 20-minute closed session with the board, after which she announced her retirement and obtained permission to formally terminate operations officer Sam Barnes. She declined to discuss specifics of that move, but left open a chance to ease a transition for a successor — even if unpaid. The position is paid an annual base salary of about $45,000.

“I will help work something out, or I might volunteer my time,” Coleman said, adding her retirement papers had been filed with the state “months ago” and retiring this month prevents a two-year wait on financial benefits included in the state’s public employee retirement system that wouldn’t be available had she waited. “But, they’ll need a staff, because it’s hurricane season.”

Coleman’s departure from the courthouse follows retirement announcements this year by the chancery clerk, the tax assessor and a top deputy in each office.

Six people are vying to succeed Chancery Clerk Dot McGee, and five are running for Tax Assessor Richard Holland’s post.

The office serves as an emergency operations center where local, state and federal authorities stage efforts during storms and, in a continuing effort, the historic Mississippi River flood.

“We’re not through with this flood yet,” District 4 Supervisor Bill Lauderdale said, motioning for the board and county administrator to “see what kind of arrangement we can come up with” in the department.

Coleman started as a planner in the department once known as Vicksburg-Warren County Civil Defense in 1979. Coleman was named to the office’s top job in November 2006, ending more than a year of acrimony among supervisors, the city and the department concerning the office’s performance during Hurricane Katrina.

Six months earlier, former director L.W. “Bump” Callaway was voted out of the position on a 3-2 vote of the board after six years on the job. The bare majority of Charles Selmon, William Banks and former supervisor Carl Flanders based the vote on lax planning and preparation for the devastating storm. Then-E-911 Dispatch Center director Geoffrey Greetham headed emergency management for four months, then withdrew interest in the latter over the board’s handling of the shakeup.

A comprehensive plan to specify responses from local government to major storms and other hazards has been in various stages of review for all of Coleman’s time as director, complicated by the creation of a twin department in city government and indecision on how the city will contribute to 15 key support functions detailed in draft versions of the plan. They include firefighting, handling hazardous materials and search and rescue capability.

Last December, Mayor Paul Winfield proposed dissolving the city’s emergency management department, created in 2007 as a response to Katrina, as part of a larger streamlining of government. No consensus on a restructuring plan has been reached.

Barnes, hired a year ago this week, was the third operations officer to work under Coleman. The building permitting office is currently staffed by an office clerk and an inspections officer. An opening for a second clerk was advertised in April.