View Full Version : A little too late — Brown had planned to resign before Katrina



PUGalicious
10-26-2005, 05:50 AM
(Originally posted at The Subjective Scribe (http://scribeokc.blogspot.com/))


From The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/25/AR2005102501575_pf.html):



Michael D. Brown was days away from announcing plans to resign as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29, according to e-mails released by separate House and Senate investigations into the government's flawed response to the disaster.

The e-mails also suggest that the administration knew Brown was on the verge of departing when he was recalled as head of the sluggish rescue and relief efforts for the New Orleans area.

Brown resigned on Sept. 12, but the Department of Homeland Security then contracted with him at his full $148,000-a-year salary to serve as a consultant on a review of the response to Hurricane Katrina. The consulting arrangement, initially set to end Oct. 10, has been extended by four weeks, department spokesman Russ Knocke said.

[Sen. Susan] Collins was "surprised to learn" that Brown's consulting deal has been extended, she said, because Michael P. Jackson, deputy secretary of homeland security, told her it would last 30 days.

Knocke said Brown "is transitioning out of a job he held for three years, transferring relevant documents and data and his experiences at the agency."


Unfortunately for the victims of Katrina, Brown waited too long to quit. And now, we've paid him another $24,000-plus to stick around to share his "experiences" at the agency? All we need to know is that he was incompetent and there's nothing we can learn from him other than what kind of person NOT to appoint next time.