Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be asked to resign (Why FEMA Screwed Up)

Boston Herald.com Business Today ^ | Saturday, September 3, 2005 | By Brett Arends

[holyscroller]

The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.

And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.

The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.

The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster.

``I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' said a furious Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday, calling the response ``an embarrassment.''

President Bush, after touring the Big Easy, said he was ``not satisfied'' with the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation.

And U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch predicted there would be hearings on Capitol Hill over the mishandled operation.

Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking public admissions, including interviews where he suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.

``We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added.

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

``He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.

Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign. [more on URL]

[cassie_dc]

I was involved in the IAHA as an active member and delegate at the time that Brown was the Drug Czar. A previous post was correct...the lawsuits were successfully defended -- all of the controversy within IAHA was over the fact that the suits were brought in the first place by high profile trainers and the industry had never faced this before. Two camps developed: the trainers and breeders who supported the "trainer" side, and the rest who supported Brown and the IAHA side. This controversy threatened to implode IAHA for some time.

The real surprise came when Brown left IAHA to join the government with no experience for that role. Another link is attached:

http://www.denverpost.com/katrina/ci_2999761

At any rate, I believe that the NO mayor and the LA governor have been the true illustration of incompetence in this tragic situation. Overall the National Guard, military, and most of the Feds have done a great job in dire curcumstances. The President surely saved lives with his clear leadership.