Clallam: Crisis managment boss stepping down

PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s emergency management czar has taken a post with the Port of Port Angeles and will be starting his new job in 2006.

After more than 14 years as the county’s utilities division manager and emergency management director, Joe Ciarlo, 57, will officially leave the county on Friday to start as the Port’s public works manager.

“I’m getting more excited as I get closer,” Ciarlo said Tuesday.

As the emergency management and utilities division manager for Clallam County, Ciarlo has a disparate breadth of responsibilities and duties, including overseeing flood control and solid waste programs, plus coordinating emergency response for the county’s four Native American tribes and three largest cities.

During his tenure, Ciarlo helped start the Sheriff’s Department’s chain gang, emergency training programs and a cooperative working agreement for Clallam Bay, Sekiu and the state Department of Corrections for their sewer system.