FEMA Chief Michael Brown Removed From Katrina Relief

WASHINGTON -- The man who's been catching much of the flak over the Hurricane Katrina relief effort is being called back to Washington.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is being sent back to Washington. He'll be replaced at the helm of the relief effort by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen.
Chertoff said he made the switch because FEMA needs to be ready to handle other storms or additional disasters that may come along. He said Brown has done everything he could to coordinate the federal response. Read the latest on Katrina recovery efforts.
Brown stood alongside Chertoff as the announcement was made, but only Chertoff would answer questions. A reporter tried to ask Brown if this was the first step toward his resignation, but Chertoff rejected that question.

Brown has been under fire because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to highlight his previous emergency management background.
Time Magazine reported that his official bio and online legal profile have discrepancies.
Brown's bio on the FEMA Web site said he oversaw emergency services in Edmond, Okla. According to the bio, Brown was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." But a spokeswoman for the city tells Time that Brown's position was "more like an intern."
According to Time, a White House press release from 2001 announcing Brown's nomination, stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." But the magazine reported that the city of Edmond’s head of public relations said that was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not an actual manager. Claudia Deakins said Brown had no authority over other employees.
"The assistant is more like an intern," Deakins said to Time. "Department heads did not report to him."
Brown's ex-boss did tell Time that the FEMA official did a good job as an administrative assistant.
"Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," former city manager Bill Dashner said.
A FEMA official said Brown did start as an intern, but became an assistant city manager and had a distinguished record.
The magazine also reported Brown's profile on the Web site FindLaw.com lists him as an "outstanding Political Science Professor" at Central State University in Edmond, Okla. The school said he was a student.
Honors Listed On Brown's Resume Shown On FindLaw.com
Who's Who in American Law
Who's Who in Emerging Leaders
Who's Who in South and Southwest
Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University
The FindLaw.com legal Web site lists information which was provided to it by lawyers or their offices.
Carl Reherman, an ex-political science professor at the university through the '70s and '80s, told Time that Brown "was not on the faculty."
Another alleged discrepancy uncovered by Time was that under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw.com, it stated that Brown was director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond, from 1983 to the present.
An official at the Oklahoma Christian Home told Time that Brown is "not a person that anyone here is familiar with."
An employee who has worked at Christian nursing home since 1981 told Time that Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here."
A FEMA official tells Time Brown said many of the magazines charges are "very inaccurate."
At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan referred all questions about Brown's resume to FEMA. He said the earlier White House statements that Brown retained the president's confidence remain true.
This week, Brown has been called an idiot, an incompetent and worse, according to The Associated Press. The Oklahoma lawyer has emerged as chief scapegoat for what went wrong in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Jefferson Parish, La., President Aaron Broussard said the bureaucracy has murdered people in the New Orleans area.
"Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot," Broussard told CBS. "Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."
Before the possible resume discrepancies were publicized, members of Congress had publicly called for his resignation or firing.
Brown once headed the International Arabian Horse Association, but had no background in disaster relief when then-FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh hired him as the agency's general counsel in 2001.
As FEMA chief, Brown has pressed for more attention to natural disaster planning and he has had to contend with cuts to FEMA's operating budget while more attention was paid to fighting terrorism.
But he didn't help his case with some of his comments.
He acknowledged last week that he didn't know there were 20,000 survivors enduring heinous conditions at the New Orleans convention center until a day after it had been widely reported in the news.
It's not uncommon for the head of FEMA to catch blame in the messy aftermath of disaster.
For his part, Brown is trying to shrug off the criticism. He said he doesn't mind people lashing out at him or FEMA, saying he's focused on trying to save lives.


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