MANSFIELD — The Richland County Board of Commissioners on Thursday afternoon accepted the resignation of Richland County Emergency Management Agency Director Rebecca Owens.
On March 18, commissioners had placed Owens on a performance improvement plan, Commissioner Cliff Mears told Richland Source in a statement issued Thursday.
“Thirty days later, Rebecca (Owens) chose to resign, effective today, April 17,” Mears said.
No other comments were made by commissioners Thursday. A call and voicemail left Thursday afternoon with Owens was not returned.
Owens was hired as director of the Richland County EMA on Dec. 1, 2022, he said.
Before taking the position, Owens was the regional director for Catholic Charities, which included work as the disaster response coordinator for the Toledo Diocese. According to previous Richland Source reporting, the EMA chief was paid $66,000 annually.
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Owens also had previous service as chair of Richland County Organizations for Disaster Assistance for more than a decade, leading disaster recovery efforts during 2011 and 2014 flooding events and a tornado in Shelby in 2019, Richland Source previously reported.
Improvement plan
Information obtained through a public records request — made by Richland Source to the Richland County Department of Human Resources — detailed the performance improvement plan put forth by commissioners.
The plan cited concerns with Owens’ alleged “significant failure to implement and comply with the Board of Commissioners’ Personnel Policy Manual,” as well as “directives” from commissioners.
Issues identified in the plan included communication gaps, which “affected the execution of strategic initiatives and the smooth functioning of the agency.”
Listed areas of improvement included frequency of communication, clarity and precision, proactivity and compliance with the Personnel Policy Manual.
Owens’ action plan included bi-weekly one-on-one meetings with Mears. Her timeline for improvement was 30 days.
The plan said that if outlined objectives were not met by the end of the review period, further action may be taken, “up to and including termination of employment.”
EMA to search for third director since 2021
The departure of Owens means the Richland County EMA will be searching for its third director since October 2021.
Three years ago, Owens replaced Joe Petrycki, who resigned from his EMA director role in September 2022.
Petrycki retired in June 2021 as the Mansfield Police Department assistant chief and accepted the EMA post four months later, according to previous Richland Source reporting.
During his 11-month tenure, he handled a variety of emergencies, including a winter storm that dumped a foot of snow in February 2022 and a powerful thunderstorm in June 2022 that spawned a tornado and created a power outage in most of the county.
