Zim Schwartze to Lead Springfield’s 9-1-1 Center
By Brennan David, Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri)
Zim Schwartze, former director of the Columbia/Boone County Office of Emergency Management and Joint Communications, has been chosen as the new 911 director for the city of Springfield.
Schwartze will manage the emergency communications department’s 57 employees who provide 911 services to 21 emergency response agencies in Greene County. In the new position, she will supervise nearly double the staff she was responsible for in Boone County and will service nearly double the population.
She will not be in charge of emergency management as she was here. Springfield’s emergency communications department is set up similar to Columbia/Boone County in that it services several communities through a joint agreement.
“It’s a very professional environment,” she said of the Springfield 911 office. “In the dispatch world we always looked up to how” Springfield was “handling things. They have a wonderful new dispatch center. They saw the need and planned accordingly.” Boone County “has worked with them for years.”
Schwartze was director of the Columbia/Boone County 911 office from 2009 until May, when her position was eliminated. She worked for the Columbia Police Department for 17 years. She is married to Jay Bramblett, also an ex-Columbia police officer.
“The community in the last 20 years as well as the last six to eight months has been very supportive,” she said. “They know and appreciate what I have done. … I greatly appreciate the support I have been receiving.”
The new assignment begins in mid-January with an annual salary of $94,135. She was one of 135 applicants who sought to fill the position vacated in July as a result of retirement, said Springfield spokeswoman Cora Scott.
“We feel extremely fortunate to have Zim join our team,” Springfield City Manager Greg Burris said in the news release. “Her qualifications are tremendous, and she possesses an energy and zeal that will impress our community as they get to know her.”
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