Is RoxAnn Brown's troubled tenure as director of Metro's 911 Emergency Communications Center coming to a sudden end?

Word On The Street (6/1/07)

Apparently she and others believe so.

According to a top Metro source, Brown is shopping for a new job.

There is also an unconfirmed report that Brown has said she plans to resign on July 1.

That would please some co-workers, council members and those citizens who have had so much trouble just trying to get an ambulance to an emergency.

There are reports of serious problems between Brown and senior staff members.

Brown was named to head the new Emergency Communication Center in August of 2002 by Mayor Bill Purcell.

Her selection came after she resigned from a similar job in Oregon where there were the same problems that developed here.

Metro's Safety Council has voiced disagreements with Brown over a wide assortment of complaints, even threatening to slash her budget.

At a recent Metro Council Budget Committee meeting, about a dozen council members showed up to hear budget requests from Sheriff Darren Hall, Police Chief Ronal Serpas, Fire Chief Stephen Halford and Brown.

After Hall, Serpas and Halford outlined their budget requests and took questions, it was Brown's time to speak.

But there had been a mass exodus from the meeting room.

"I looked around the room," Budget Chairman Rip Ryman told me, "but there was nobody left in the room but me and one council member. There wasn't any need for me to ask Director Brown any questions."

If Brown is throwing in the towel, maybe it was for the best.

The truth is that the mayoral candidates that I have talked with have said they had no plans to keep the director if they are elected.