New Orleans FEMA recovery office probed

25 February 2009

by Jonathan Tilove

WASHINGTON-U.S. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, said Wednesday that he and his staff are investigating widespread complaints of discrimination, sexual harassment, ethics violations, nepotism and cronyism at FEMA's Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office in New Orleans that he believes have compromised its mission to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

At a transportation subcommittee hearing, Cao told James Stark, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency's New Orleans office, that "after speaking to some of your employees, they have conveyed to me that the FEMA office has lost its focus on rebuilding, that senior staff members are just out for themselves. What has happened to cause your office to lose its focus, Mr. Stark?"

"I don't agree with that statement that our office has lost its focus, " said Stark, who is both director of the Transitional Recovery Office and assistant administrator for Gulf Coast Recovery for FEMA. "Our office is focused on partnering with the state and local government to rebuild the state."

Both Stark and David Garratt, FEMA's acting deputy administrator, sitting side by side at the meeting, told Cao that "about a week and a half ago we were notified by the director of our EEO office, Pauline Campbell, that she had received word that there was an uptick at the TRO in terms of EEO issues. We asked her at that time to investigate that."

Campbell is director of FEMA's Office of Equal Rights in Washington.

Garratt said an Equal Employment Opportunity "tiger team" was dispatched to New Orleans to do a "climate assessment" of the atmosphere at the Transitional Recovery Office and to "get some facts back about whether such conditions exist and whether we need to do a more robust and thorough intervention."

Garratt said the team had been in New Orleans for about a week and would complete its work at the end of this week and report to him.

"We take this very seriously and we're planning to tackle that, " he said.

A CBS News report said there had been nearly 80 employment-related complaints at the FEMA office at 1250 Poydras Plaza, across from City Hall, in the past year, and more than 30 complaints filed against the chief of staff, Doug Whitmer, including charges of sexual harassment.

The FEMA office directed all questions on the matter to Stark, who said he would not comment directly on any individual.

But Cao said his interviews with people who work or have worked at the Transitional Recovery Office suggest that Whitmer "is one of the biggest problems."

"I don't know whether Jim Stark is involved, but he oversees the whole office, " said Cao, who said he was incredulous that Stark would have been unaware of these problems until a week or so ago.

Cao specifically cited talks he had with two New Orleans FEMA office employees who "alluded to the fact that the atmosphere is almost crushing at times where people are working out of fear and they are no longer focused on the recovery issues, they are just focusing on: 'How can I preserve my job' by doing possibly what the senior staff members want them to do."

At a separate hearing with the Homeland Security Committee, Cao recounted his concerns about the New Orleans office to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "All of these issues interfere with the rebuilding of the district and I'd like to know whether or not you are going to implement a system to oversee some of these offices and, if these allegations are true, to hold people accountable, " Cao asked.

Napolitano replied, "I can't speak to those specific allegations, but we will obviously follow up."

Napolitano said her goal is to bring a "fresh set of eyes" to disputes involving FEMA, state and local governments, and nonprofit agencies about eligible financing, to unclog a process that has left much of the money appropriated for rebuilding still unspent.

Napolitano said she and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan would be visiting New Orleans and the Gulf Coast next week to "see with our own eyes what needs to be done."

"I would love to accompany you on your trip, " Cao said.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Democratic representative from the District of Columbia, who led the transportation hearing, said that as of the end of 2008, FEMA had obligated $7.4 billion in public assistance financing, of which the state had distributed about $4 billion. But particularly at issue is about $1.4 billion in rebuilding projects that are held up because of disputes between FEMA and the state and local entities about eligibility for the FEMA aid under the federal Stafford Act.

Commentary:
Since the onset of FEMA showing up on the Gulf Coast, especially in the New Orleans area since Katrina; their has been allegations of corruptions, such as diversion of fund’s to out right theft, to the Katrina disaster victims feeling’s that FEMA is just out for themselves and do not care about them at all.

As to the complaints mentioned in the article, this is also not surprising; because it has been said numerous times especially towards the mistreatment of residents of New Orleans due to race; for one major example, is the saying which I do apologize but it should be said for understanding, that to ‘why’ of ‘helping those people when so many of them are Black.’ Which there is no excuse and it is irreprehensible, for such ill-treatment or remarks of this manner.

As far as Katrina victim’s themselves having to suffer the disaster itself, which was so horrendous and over 18,000 people lost their lives; but the other disaster came in what became known as “recovery.”