[StBernard] FEMA meeting

[Westley Annis]

Jer, you noticed that my posting abrutly ended. You're right. The battery
was about to die
on the laptop as I typed away in my FEMA trailer bed which is impossible to
get out of
without disturbing the person next to you. I ended it in order not to lose
the email!
 
Continuing on...
 
What I have realized at that meeting, which I suspected from my numerous
friends and business contacts who are consulting engineers, is that nearly
everyone, but not all, of the FEMA people working in a disaster area are
CONTRACT EMPLOYEES who have signed 
on or their employer has done so, to provide a service in the name of FEMA
for however long
and at whatever location FEMA sends them. Some are architects, some are
planners, some are engineers, some are retired economic professors, etc.
And many of them feel the same way about FEMA and its directives as we
victims do.
Furthermore, some are working their first disaster and others have had
several major disasters under their belts so some are better at the job than
others. I think FEMA doesn't let them call themselves anything but FEMA
representatives so you don't know who is a government FEMA worker and who
are hired consultants. Many of these people have been rotating around the
Gulf since September and get to see their families every two months, working
tremendous hours with incredibly unrealistic deadlines. Bottom line-there
are FEMA people that are reading from a script, they don't agree with the
script, perhaps, but they can't do anything but quote the rhetoric because
FEMA is their client.  Then there are FEMA government employees who believe
the script because that is what FEMA has trained them about and they trust
that their employer knows best. Somewhere are FEMA employees who challenge
FEMA's policies, rationale, and reasoning, but I suspect, as in any
organization, whether government or private business, their voices don't
reach the top level decision makers or are drowned out by an inner circle of
"yes" men/women saying things like, "Great job, Brownie."  
 
Either way, we, the average citizens, aren't hearing or meeting the real
braintrust of FEMA to have a meaningful discussion or debate. I have no idea
who the various FEMA representatives were (employees vs hired consultants,
nor what level of authority they have) when that I made my comments at the
meeting, but at least I clearly identified
not only my name, but my occupation, and that I was a planning and economic
development commissioner so they knew where I was coming from and with what
authority I spoke. 
 
I concluded that there is a lot more discretion than I thought with regards
to the Office of Community Development deeming who has been substantially
damaged and who has not,
which affects who is grandfathered-in, if the ABFE is adopted by the parish.
And, I sense
that our council has a lot of internal debate to do regarding the pros and
cons on the various decisions they will have to make really soon.
 
Deborah Keller