MEMA chief Robert Latham will retire, again

JACKSON -- Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Robert Latham announced his retirement Tuesday.

In a statement released by MEMA, Latham said he gave Gov. Phil Bryant official notice of his retirement, effective Jan. 31.

Latham served as executive director from February 2000 through June 2006 under Govs. Ronnie Musgrove and Haley Barbour, managing the state's preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation efforts for 13 federal disaster declarations, including Hurricane Katrina.

During that time he was also appointed to the position of Homeland Security adviser, which he held from 2002 to 2004. He retired from MEMA in 2006 to enter the private sector but returned in January 2012 at the request of Bryant.

"After retiring in 2006, and moving to the private sector, I never had any intentions of returning to MEMA," Latham said. "The one thing that I never factored into the equation was being asked by a governor to return."

The agency met many challenges, from 2005's Hurricane Katrina to a major reorganization, budget cuts and staff reductions, he said.

"The MEMA staff is resilient, much like Mississippians," he said. "When met with disaster or hardship, MEMA staff have made the tough decisions and made personal sacrifices to ensure that the state can prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters."

Bryant, who begins his second term next month, said he plans to nominate Col. Lee Smithson to succeed Latham. Since April 2005, Smithson has been director of military support for the Mississippi National Guard. His nomination must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Smithson has served in his current job through tornado outbreaks; Katrina; hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008 and Isaac in 2012; the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010; and the 2011 Mississippi River flood.

"He has a wealth of operations knowledge from his time at the Mississippi National Guard," Bryant said of Smithson, "where he has worked closely with MEMA during many disasters, and this will allow him to seamlessly transition into the role."

Smithson earned a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and master's degrees from the U.S. Army War College and the Naval Postgraduate School. During his military career, he has served in Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 9:29 PM with the headline "MEMA chief Robert Latham will retire, again ."