Mike Brown, the subject of blistering criticism after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and overwhelmed the government’s response, quit Monday as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The White House moved quickly to replace him, installing a top agency official with three decades of firefighting experience as acting director.
Some of Brown’s critics agreed with his decision, saying it would put the focus on efforts to manage the aftermath of the disaster, including helping the thousands of people left homeless.
Bush named R. David Paulison to replace Brown. [...]
Paulison has led the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, since December 2001, according to a biography posted on FEMA’s Web site. He led FEMA’s emergency preparedness force from 2003-2004. He also is a certified paramedic.
He is a career firefighter from Miami who was among the emergency workers responding to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades in 1996.
Paulison also was chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, leading 1,900 personnel and a $200 million operating budget. He was in charge of Dade County’s emergency management office.
Let’s hope this puts an end to patronage appointments. It’s bad enough that FEMA has been sucked into the DHS quagmire as it is.
