MO emergency management chief returns to Greene County

Last edited 11:20 a.m., June 14, 2013

After just 84 days on the job as Missouri’s state emergency management director, Ryan Nicholls has resigned and will resume his previous post as director of the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management.

Springfield-Greene County OEM Assistant Director Larry Smith has served as interim director following Nicholls March 25 departure and will change to his previous position with Nicholls June 17 return, according to Springfield-Greene County OEM spokesman Dale Moore.

Moore said the county hadn’t yet started to search for Nicholls’ replacement, citing the county’s 90-day moratorium on replacing employees. “Everything will just revert back to the way it was. Ryan is still very plugged in, so there will be no transition period,” he said.

Nicholls, who would have earned a yearly salary of $97,000 at the state level and is returning to a salary of $61,069, cited personal reasons for his departure.

“I have enjoyed my time with the staff at the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency,” Nicholls said in a news release. “I decided that the timing for this position was not the best for me and my young family. I am grateful that the county and city have allowed me to return so that I may continue living and working where I consider to be home."

Calls for comment to Missouri Public Safety Communications Director Mike O’Connell were not returned by deadline.

In his work the last seven years at the Springfield-Greene County OEM, Nicholls had helped manage efforts in response to the severe ice storm in 2007, the catastrophic Joplin tornado in May 2011 and a 12-day deployment for Hurricane Sandy support.

In August, several federal, state and local officials joined Nicholls in cutting the ribbon on the $19.6 million Greene County Public Safety Center, for which the OEM received full accreditation from the independent Emergency Management Accreditation Program.

“We have an incredible team at the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management and will be happy to have Ryan back home in Greene County to continue the important work of emergency preparedness,” City Manager Greg Burris said in the release. “Despite the great progress we have made as a community, we still have much work to do.”