Prior FEMA administrator had both experience and ethics, like Florida's Craig Fugate. DJT's arrogant Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator DAVID RICHARDSON appears to lack both experience and ethics. DAVID RICHARDSON's swaggering threats to FEMA employees and his lack of knowledge of and experience with hurricanes make him a disaster-in-waiting, like MICHAEL DEWAYNE BROWN, President George W. Bush's hapless FEMA Administrator after Hurricane Katrina. DAVID RICHARDSON seems to me to be a mediocre, moronic, mean-spirited man: he typifies the green of sixth-rate mismanages hired by DJT. Is Acting FEMA Administrator DAVID RICHARDSON unserious, unprofessional, unqualified and unfit to run a federal agency in charge of hurricane and other disaster response? You tell me. What do you reckon? From The New York Times:
Acting FEMA Chief Told Staff He Didn’t Know About U.S. Hurricane Season
In a meeting with FEMA staff, David Richardson said he was unaware the United States had a hurricane season. Two staff members said it was unclear if he was serious, but the agency said he was joking.
The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told employees on Monday that he did not know the United States has a hurricane season, according to two people who heard the remarks and said it was unclear if he was serious.
The official, David Richardson, has served in the Marines and worked in the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. After he joined FEMA in May, some FEMA workers expressed concern about his lack of experience in emergency management. The remark, coming a day after the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, could deepen those concerns.
The two people who described the comment asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, said in a statement that Mr. Richardson was joking. The agency statement said FEMA would be focused on disaster response this hurricane season and said the Trump administration is in the process of reforming an agency it believes is bloated.
Even if the comment was a joke, the timing would be questionable. The hurricane season, which began on Sunday and lasts through Nov. 30, is considered the agency’s most challenging period, during which the country is the most vulnerable to large-scale devastating disasters that can overwhelm state and local disaster managers. In addition, FEMA has just gone through a major reduction in staffing.
During the same meeting, according to the two people, Mr. Richardson told agency employees that FEMA should plan to respond to this year’s hurricane season the same way the agency responded to last year’s hurricane season. But employees have expressed concern with that approach because of the agency’s reduced staff.
Since the start of the Trump administration, FEMA has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, including one-fifth of the coordinating officers who manage responses to large-scale disasters, according to a former senior official. The departures came after pressure from the Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by Elon Musk, for a massive culling of federal workers.
Mr. Richardson’s predecessor at FEMA was Cameron Hamilton, who was pushed out in early May, a day after telling members of Congress that FEMA was vital to communities “in their greatest times of need” and should not be eliminated. The comment appeared to be in conflict with President Trump, who has suggested the agency be eliminated.
On his first full day as acting administrator, Mr. Richardson told the agency’s employees that if any of them tried to obstruct his agenda, “I will run right over you.”
Christopher Flavelle is a Times reporter covering how President Trump is transforming the federal government.
Lisa Friedman is a Times reporter who writes about how governments are addressing climate change and the effects of those policies on communities.
1 comment:
Trump will put anyone in charge of anything so long as they like Trump... that's the only qualification necessary. He would put Mike Lindell in charge of NASA if push came to shove. This is a clown car administration.
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