[StBernard] Our Views: Ex-FEMA chief has ample brass - Baton Rouge Advocate

[Westley Annis]

Our Views: Ex-FEMA chief has ample brass

By OPINION PAGE STAFF

Published: Apr 12, 2006 

   
The mind boggles at the prospect of devastated St. Bernard Parish paying the
former FEMA bungler in chief for advice about dealing with bureaucracy.

The Advocate reported Saturday that Michael Brown, the former head of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been negotiating to represent St.
Bernard Parish in the hurricane recovery process.

Talk about adding insult to injury. Brown has brass. The Yiddish word
chutzpah comes immediately to mind.
Brown was the Bush administration poster boy for post-Katrina failure and
ineffectiveness.

On Sept. 2, five days after the storm struck, a clueless President Bush
praised Brown for "doing a heck of a job."

That videotaped comment proved embarrassing to Bush. It epitomized a
distracted, out-of-touch president who simply hadn't been paying attention
in the face of massive human tragedy.

By Sept. 9, a week after Brown got the presidential "attaboy" from Bush, the
FEMA chief was recalled to Washington. By Sept. 12, Brown had taken the
not-at-all subtle hint and resigned.

A lot of former Washington officials, including retired generals, ex-Cabinet
members and one-time bureaucrats, reinvent themselves as consultants to cash
in on contacts and experience they accumulated in public service.

Brown, like at least a couple of his predecessors at FEMA, has gotten into
the consulting game. He's for hire to help businesses and communities cope
with the federal bureaucracy. Brown says he hopes to use his experience at
FEMA to give St. Bernard Parish some publicity about its plight.

"It's a perspective that very few people have," Brown said.

The Associated Press has reported St. Bernard Parish President Henry
"Junior" Rodriguez as saying Brown will be helpful in competing with large
communities for federal funds and will hasten parish recovery efforts.

"He's going to be the answer to the problems we've been having," Rodriguez
said.

We wonder how many of Rodriguez's constituents share that confidence.

State Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Chalmette, has a different view. He has called
on St. Bernard Parish officials to reconsider negotiating with Brown.

The senator noted Brown's abrupt departure from FEMA shortly after Katrina,
and he suggested Brown dredges up a lot of bad memories for his
constituents.

"Brown is just a sad reminder to my community of our needless loss of life
and property, and we shouldn't have to struggle with that reminder so soon
in the midst of our rebuilding," Boasso said.

A recently released videotape has buffed Brown's battered image a bit. The
tape showed Brown warning Bush that the approaching Katrina could pose
serious danger to New Orleans and that levees might be topped.

The fact remains that FEMA didn't acquit itself well on Brown's watch during
and after Katrina. Based on Brown's past performance, we have serious
reservations about his future potential.

We also are repelled at the idea of Brown turning a profit at the expense of
the still-suffering people of St. Bernard Parish, many of whom might rightly
believe Brown already has failed them once.