[Mb-civic] Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience
'Brain Drain' At Agency Cited

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; Page A01

Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to 
their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now 
lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned 
dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff 
Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- 
arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White 
House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior 
operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor 
of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a 
political operative.

Meanwhile, veterans such as U.S. hurricane specialist Eric Tolbert and 
World Trade Center disaster managers Laurence W. Zensinger and Bruce P. 
Baughman -- who led FEMA's offices of response, recovery and 
preparedness, respectively -- have left since 2003, taking jobs as 
consultants or state emergency managers, according to current and former 
officials.

Because of the turnover, three of the five FEMA chiefs for 
natural-disaster-related operations and nine of 10 regional directors 
are working in an acting capacity, agency officials said.

Patronage appointments to the crisis-response agency are nothing new to 
Washington administrations. But inexperience in FEMA's top ranks is 
emerging as a key concern of local, state and federal leaders as 
investigators begin to sift through what the government has admitted was 
a bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802165.html?referrer=email
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