Head of FEMA was fired from his last job (organizing horse shows)

[Lemur]

A little digging has turned up some amazing dirt. The current head of FEMA, the astonishing Michael Brown, was fired from his previous job organizing horse shows. I'm not making this up; I only wish I were.

From the article:

The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.

And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.

The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.

The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster.

And then there's this:

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

"He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.

Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign.

The implication would seem to be that a man who is incompetent to arrange horse shows will prove himself worthy in the most important disaster-response agency in the United States. Very interesting. Will he be awarded the Medal of Freedom? Or will our President finally nerve himself to get rid of an incompetent?

Care to place any bets?

[Strike For The South]

I think im gonna cry

[Red Harvest]

OH MY GOD!!!

Who in the hell ever thought someone like this should run FEMA? Surely this can't be true, I'm really wondering if this could be accurate because it seems incomprehensible. I'm so mad I can't even begin to express my outrage. Assuming this turns out to be true, the president and his administration must answer for this stupidity. I've had it with the excuses.

[Aenlic]

It's accurate. Brown is an estate lawyer, and a Republican activist and fund raiser. His appointment was purely a political payback, after his predecessor quit to go reap the war profits of the lucrative contract business in Iraq.

This isn't the first time he's been under fire for mismanaging hurricane relief. Look back for articles in Sun-Sentinel in newspaper in Florida from back in January of this year, when Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida urged Bush to fire Brown for nearly $30 million in bogus payments to people in Miami for "damage" from hurricane Francis even though Miami was 100 miles away from Francis. FEMA finally admitted to only $12 million in overpayments, but refused to acknowledge that Miami was not a disaster area from Francis, claiming that the NOAA weather maps as proof. The NOAA then refuted the weather maps that FEMA claimed to have obtained from them.

[BDC]

Someone high up should be fired for this. It's one thing to let your friends make some money on the side, another to let them be in charge of the agency designed to protect millions of people.

[Fabolous]

These are the stories that make you love politics. Aren't they?

[Red Harvest]

Someone high up should be fired for this. It's one thing to let your friends make some money on the side, another to let them be in charge of the agency designed to protect millions of people.

Yeah...Dubya. That's who would have selected him. This isn't some unimportant little agency, especially after 9/11. There is simply no excuse for a mistake of this magnitude. No more excuses for this incompetence.

Why aren't the major news agencies reporting this yet? Why hasn't Fox broken the story...oh, I forgot, they are in "circle the wagons" mode. Watched the "Stop the Blame Game" commentary this morning on Fox. They are still trying to blame this on the city. We still have tens of thousands of people stranded in the city and still many needing aid or outright rescue, and Fox still doesn't get it. "America's Challenge" they label it. I'm tired of their cutesy crap, their ALL SPIN ZONE. I want heads!

When we get these folks evacuated, fed, rehydrated, and in shelter, heads need to start rolling, starting at the top. These agencies need to be rebuilt, without amateurs and political appointees. This job needs to be done right. This is the biggest fiasco I've ever witnessed by the Federal govt.

[Strike For The South]

someone needs to get hit

[Adrian II]

A little digging has turned up some amazing dirt. The current head of FEMA, the astonishing Michael Brown, was fired from his previous job organizing horse shows. I'm not making this up; I only wish I were.

In a sense you are making this up. Apparently Mr Brown did have experience in FEMA before he was appointed Director:

Previously, Mr. Brown served as FEMA's Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel. Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Mr. Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks. Later, the President asked him to head the Consequence Management Working Group to identify and resolve key issues regarding the federal response plan. In August 2002, President Bush appointed him to the Transition Planning Office for the new Department of Homeland Security, serving as the transition leader for the EP&R Division.

link

By the way these international horse shows are as corrupt a business as any other on this earth, so Mr Brown's resignation says very little about Mr Brown and his capabilities. For all we know, he may have been forced out of that job because he had detected corruption, since his previous job was that of special prosecutor for police disciplinary matters with the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Of course, these days he is fair game and nobody cares.

[Lemur]

Point taken, Adrian. Please note that his FEMA CV omits all reference to his horsie time, even though he spent years at it.

As for "making it up," well, that seems a little strong. He was forced to resign from his last private sector job, and then went directly into FEMA, based on the recommendation of a college roommate. I don't think any of that is in dispute.

[Adrian II]

Point taken, Adrian. Please note that his FEMA CV omits all reference to his horsie time, even though he spent years at it.

As for "making it up," well, that seems a little strong. He was forced to resign from his last private sector job, and then went directly into FEMA, based on the recommendation of a college roommate. I don't think any of that is in dispute.

Brown was indeed sacked, but it isn't clear at all that he was sacked because of his own failures -- they may have been other peoples' failures. The suggestion that he went straight to the top job at FEMA after a failed career of 11 years is a bit rich. His work at the Oklahoma Supreme Court prepared him for the sort of work he was initially given in FEMA. Nonetheless his promotion to Director may have been a huge mistake -- correction, was a huge mistake with hindsight.

Your point is taken as well, and you of course realise I am playing devil's advocate (or rather, loser's advocate) on this one. The reason is (if I may be so patronising) that I think Americans may never get to the bottom of this whole horrific episode if they concentrate on a couple of figure heads. You know, there are organisations that function flawlessly despite having total nincompoops at the helm.

EDIT
I guess part of the definition of a good organisation would have to be that it is capable of functioning despite the interference of its (possibly incompetent) leadership.

[Lemur]

Despite being a simple American (and yes, like all of us I'm easily distracted by shiny things), I've never believed that the unpardonable conduct of the initial recovery was any single person's -- much less department's -- fault. However, I have this feeling that the city of NOLA and the state of LA will come in for an appropriate level of scrutiny, while the Feds will more or less walk away whistling. So I'm probably guilty of over-attacking the Feds.

But just you watch -- over the next few weeks you're going to see everything possible dumped as low on the totem pole as possible, despite the fact that this was a massive, multi-state disaster.

Don't forget, the Backroom of the Org has its own scorched-earth atmosphere, full of charm and cinders. If you want to single-handedly bring perspective and balance to the room, then you're on a mission from God, as the Blues Brothers would say.

My personal take on the tagedy would be best summed up by Andrew Sullivan's latest column.

[Adrian II]

Despite being a simple American (..)

Alright, enough - you and me never played dem games in the past, cowboy, and I'm not gonna start playing 'em now.

But even as an outsider I can't help feeling involved and using what limited brains I have to make some sense of it all and communicate that to others. I do realise that is a far cry from providing help on the ground amid sounds of crying, gunfire and crashing helicopters.

[Red Harvest]

In a sense you are making this up. Apparently Mr Brown did have experience in FEMA before he was appointed Director:

He was a political appointee THEN as well. So no, he wasn't making it up.

The problems with FEMA as I understand them are:
1. Waaaayyyy too many political appointees. Career folks have no chance in such an atmosphere. Incompetent pandering to political whims will be rewarded over merit. Sticking your neck out to do a good job will get you fired.
2. The agency ironically lacks the sense of urgency that is needed. My wife has complained about FEMA in her dealings with them in the past, and she is doing so again now, because they take too damned long to make obvious decisions. That is a leadership problem. Hopefully tomorrow they will have the answers/procedures/paperwork they promised to provide by afternoon of last Friday.
3. Historically, some smaller govt types have wanted to minimize its role. It was submerged in Homeland security partly for this reason. If you search through old articles (pre-9/11) you will find some major efforts to undermine the agency. It was being called a "free political candy" device for Clinton in 1997 for example.
4. It's role is a political football. One president wants to increase it, one wants to minimize it, another wants to alter it. Personally, I think it should be used mainly to handle the long term stuff, paying the bills, organizing the paper work, coordinating development of regional plans. The rapid response needs to be handled by some other group (such as the Pentagon, etc.) who has the logistical and organizational assets to manage it.

[Adrian II]

He was a political appointee THEN as well. So no, he wasn't making it up.

Yes, he was: Brown has done more than direct those horse shows and it is not clear why he was fired from that job anyway. He should be fired now, even a silly Dutchman can see that.

So, you would want to give FEMA full cabinet status again, but delegate most of the practicalities to the Army, National Health, etcetera?

[Red Harvest]

So, you would want to give FEMA full cabinet status again, but delegate most of the practicalities to the Army, National Health, etcetera?

I'm not certain of how best to organize it. There are two basic missions: short term rapid response and longer term management, paying the bills, helping the displaced, as well as longer term planning. This *might* be done under one agency, but if so it will still need two different structures, because they are very different critters, the fast one requiring much streamlining and very clear authority.

Rather than trying to say "this is how it should be" I would like to see an independent commission evaluate this with some clear guidance about what sort of answers we are seeking: in a nutshell what will give us the best response, what needs to change to make that possible? I don't have the full answers, but I can easily see elements of the problem and make logical guesses about what the answers will be. Folks with more expertise should be able to do a better job of assessing the limitations and what is needed.

[Adrian II]

I'm not certain of how best to organize it.

I will not even try to do so, because I know far too little about the American situation. But my country may have to face similar human or natural onslaughts, for instance due to terrorism, so I am interested in the general principles.

The immediate interventions needed during an emergency are mostly 'hands-on' as well as specialist in nature. According to most experts these interventions should preferably go into effect within 24 hours (and 72 at the maximum) after the original incident. This would point to the need for a limited staff that is responsible for the overall effort and that stands back and delegates the actual jobs in hand, if need be directly and forcefully, with the shortest possible delay.

That would require that you give this agency Authority with a capital 'a'. This is necessary because the Army will not suffer being relegated to second rank gladly (no difference there between the U.S. and Wooden Shoesia); medical personnel may not be easy to order around either, particularly if they are volunteers; and local authorities will want to have their say. In the end, no authority can be sustained if it does not command the respect of the ones who work with it. There is no safety in numbers when your name is Michael Brown... you need expertise to command authority.

So your renewed FEMA would need to incorporate, in a number of fields, the best experts that money can buy. It wouldn't have to be large, but it would have to be heavily loaded with expertise and it would have to fall directly under the command of the President, yet have to account to the people (Congress) on a yearly basis and at any other time is the need arises.

Hmmm. How am I doing so far?