[lbo-talk] BH: FEMA head forced from from last job with Horse group

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Sep 3 09:04:58 PDT 2005


[Not only does he have no qualifications for this job -- he wasn't even any good at that one. He got the job by working on Bush's campaign.]

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857

Saturday, September 3, 2005

Boston Herald

Brown pushed from last job:

Horse group: FEMA chief had to be `asked to resign'

By Brett Arends

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.

``I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' said a furious Gov. Mitt

Romney yesterday, calling the response ``an embarrassment.''

President Bush, after touring the Big Easy, said he was ``not

satisfied'' with the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina's

devastation.

And U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch predicted there would be hearings on

Capitol Hill over the mishandled operation.

Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has

made several shocking public admissions, including interviews where he

suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees

stranded at the New Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11

years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International

Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization

based in Colorado.

``We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial)

judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards.

And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA

commissioner's office. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11

years,'' she added.

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

<snip>

Michael



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