LONGVIEW — Cowlitz 911 Executive Director John Diamond announced his retirement last month after about two years leading the county dispatch center.
Wednesday was Diamond’s last day leading the Cowlitz 911 Public Authority. The board of directors and interim director Bob Gregory will begin the search for a new executive director later this year.
Diamond, who took over the agency April 2022, oversaw the 911 center’s move from the Hall of Justice into its own dispatch center along Ocean Beach Highway. Diamond said he is preparing to retire and spend more time with family now that he is 58.
Though he is done at the county 911 center, he said he may look into other options to keep him busy.
“This might be a partial retirement deal, I just wanted to explore some other options near the end of my career,” he said.
Diamond was the third director the 911 center had brought on in less than six years, since it separated from Cowlitz County as a standalone agency at the beginning of 2019. Cowlitz County Sheriff Brad Thurman, the chairman for the board of directors, said the stress of handling emergency calls on long shifts led to a lot of turnover for dispatchers and pressure for the director.
“It is a challenging and demanding job. We are hoping to get somebody onboard who will stick with it for the long term,” Thurman said.
The Cowlitz 911 Board of Directors called a special meeting May 2 to name Gregory as the interim director for the agency beginning immediately. Gregory is a former Longview city manager and had served as the center’s interim executive director in 2020 during a previous director search.
Thurman said Gregory was hired as a part time contractor, being paid $200 per hour and capping out at 20 hours per week. Gregory oversees the big-picture functions of the agency and works directly with the board for changes that need to be voted on while the operations managers and other staff lead the day-to-day working in the interim.
Gregory and the board of directors will work together to start the permanent director search shortly. Thurman said the director pay would likely be at least $130,000 per year, which is slightly above where Diamond’s salary began in 2022.
