From WWL - Radio:
The acting head of the Federal Emergency Managment Agency said in New Orleans Friday that she is shaking up the staff at the local FEMA office.
Ward said she is reassigning Doug Whitmer, the local chief of staff, to a regional office, but said that is the only change so far she is announcing.
This comes in the wake of allegations of cronyism, nepotism, sexual harrassment and other alleged misconduct in the New Orleans FEMA office.
The allegations include claims that managers in the office have been intentionally slowing the post-Katrina recovery in an effort to keep their jobs longer.
Ward said the first task was for the agency to conduct an internal review of the allegations about the New Orleans office.
"We are ready to make changes, but we want to make sure everyone has due process, and that we have all the facts before we make changes," she announced after hours of meetings in the New Orleans FEMA office.
Louisiana Congressman Joseph Cao today said that reassignment may not be enough.
"There will be changes that will be made," said Cao. "I would like Mr. Jim Stark to step down."
Stark is the Assistant Administrator for FEMA's Gulf Coast Recovery Office.
Cao commented after the meetings at the New Orleans FEMA office but did not offer specifics. Cao said that with changes in upper-level management of the local FEMA office, morale should improve and recovery should move more quickly.
"Move more quickly"? It's been 3.5 years since the levees broke? Could recovery move any slower?
There are audio clips and the rest of the piece HERE.
More later.
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The whole "moving slow to keep jobs" thing had me in a rage. I heard this a day or so ago. There is a wall and a group of sharpshooters somewhere waiting for such people.
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