FARMINGTON – A woman who has worked for Franklin County’s Emergency Management Agency since 1992 was updating her resume Tuesday to apply for the job she’s held for years.

County commissioners voted to post in-house countywide the deputy EMA director position held by Olive Toothaker of Wilton at their attorney’s recommendation.

Commissioners approved the job description in December and requested the county clerk to have counsel review it to make sure they were not circumventing the county’s personnel policy.

Previously, there was no job description to define the duties of the position.

“The position has been filled with no recognition,” Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon said in December.

More money was included in the 2008 budget for an increase in pay for Toothaker to reflect the job she is doing.

The position will be advertised to people who work in county government.

EMA Director Tim Hardy, noting that commissioners created the position four years ago, asked if that meant that Toothaker still had to go through a formal hiring process.

Commissioners said yes. She would have to apply just like anyone else who is interested in the position and already employed by the county.

“I guess I am concerned about that,” Hardy said. “From my perspective it looks like it is a little bit of a slap in the face” to make her go through a formal hiring process.

Commissioner Fred Hardy said it is a housekeeping item for the position created four years ago.

“The most qualified person for the position will get the job,” Hardy said.

Commissioner Gary McGrane said commissioners expect others to follow the hiring process and they need to do the same.

If nothing else, McGrane said, Toothaker would update her resume.

Toothaker was sitting in her office, a floor below commissioners working on her resume.

She ran the office in 2003 when Clyde Barker held the part-time EMA director position. When he retired, Toothaker was named interim director until Hardy was hired full-time as director. Toothaker said her duties were expanded to the assistant director position about 2003.

“I think it’s a slap in the face,” Toothaker said.

Her increased duties should have been recognized back then, but there was a mistake made and it wasn’t done and now she had to reapply, she said.

In other business, commissioners directed the Sheriff’s Department to post a dispatcher’s position in-house after they heard a union grievance on the issue.

The panel also voted to hire Tara Hamlin as a full-time corrections officer to fill one of two vacancies, pending sheriff’s approval. She works part time now.

They also voted to increase the mileage rate reimbursement to 50.5 cents as set by the federal government.