PROVIDENCE — Six weeks after the executive director of the state Emergency Management Agency was fired over a crippling snowstorm, the state has now posted the job vacancy — without requiring experience in emergency management or public safety.

The job posting was listed without notice on the state Department of Labor and Training’s Web site yesterday, with an application period that began yesterday and ends Friday. Another wrinkle: all applications must be mailed, not faxed. The governor’s office didn’t respond to questions yesterday about the vacancy.

The person heading the state EMA is responsible for coordinating the state’s emergency preparedness and response. The agency handles millions of dollars in federal grants each year that are distributed to other agencies and communities to purchase equipment, develop plans and train responders in emergencies. The EMA conducts frequent training and drills, coordinates the National Flood Insurance Program and assists the local directors in plans to aid their communities in handling emergencies. While the executive director runs the daily operations, he or she answers to the adjutant general of the Rhode Island National Guard and serves at the governor’s will.

Yet, the listed salary of $74,168 to $85,220 is about $40,000 less than salaries for similar positions in neighboring states, and at the lower end of the scale nationwide. That salary is about the range for mid-level state chiefs in Rhode Island, such as the head of the Office of Film and Television, the chief of auto body wreckage and salvage for the Department of Business Regulation, and various “executive assistants” and “assistant policy directors.”

While the state wants applicants who know the laws and regulations regarding emergency management and homeland security, and can “advise, guide and cooperate” with state and local officials on crisis management, it doesn’t ask for experience demonstrating those abilities.

The state wants applicants with a master’s degree in fields of national security affairs, public administration, business administration, biological sciences, graduation from an armed services war college or other closely related field. For experience, applicants should have been employed in a “responsible administrative or operational position involving the application of a broad range of scientific principles relating to emergency/disaster relief and related programs” — or any combination of education and experience from the listed requirements.

The former executive director, Robert J. Warren, whom Governor Carcieri appointed in August 2005, was the first EMA head in at least 20 years with experience in emergency management and public safety. Warren had a 30-year career in fire service and emergency management, and taught as a certified instructor for FEMA, the National Fire Academy, and the U.S. Department of Justice Center of Domestic Preparedness. He was credited with professionalizing the state EMA and making Rhode Island a national leader in emergency management.

But Warren was fired five days after a Dec. 13 snowstorm caused hours-long traffic gridlock throughout Greater Providence and left about 100 Providence students stuck on buses well into the night.

Although he’d been at the command center during the storm, Warren’s powers to help were limited. None of the communities, including Providence, wanted assistance. The governor was traveling in the Middle East. Maj. Gen. Robert T. Bray, who oversees the EMA and Warren, had called out sick but remained in contact and in charge. Both Bray and Carcieri’s chief of staff decided against fully staffing the Emergency Operations Center. Meanwhile, governors in Connecticut and Massachusetts both took action during the storm.

After Carcieri returned to criticism about the state’s handling of the storm, he fired Warren, whose salary was nearly $75,000. The governor’s spokesman has said that Carcieri based the firing on discussions with Bray. Warren said he was being made a “scapegoat.”

Rhode Island’s snowstorm debacle has been playing out on a national stage. “It’s being watched by everybody. The emergency management community is not a small community,” said Marty Bahamonde, spokesman for FEMA’s Region 1 in Boston, who declined to comment specifically on Rhode Island’s situation.

Most other states also have emergency management directors who serve at the pleasure of the governors. Those working in this field say they understand they also are working in the political realm.

“The state’s ability to respond to a disaster can make or break a governor, a director, an adjutant general, because citizens expect the state to respond,” said Trina Sheets, executive director of the National Emergency Management Association. “And when something goes wrong, people want to know why and people are held accountable.”

Rhode Island’s situation is instructive, she said. “When something like that happens, it sends a ripple through the community,” said Sheets. “It causes people to take stock and evaluate their stance and what’s in their emergency operations plans.… The general feeling is they serve at the pleasure of the governor, and any moment they could be gone.”

amilkovi@projo.com