Michael Brown: “The Office” Come to Life

Nice. By now, we’ve all heard that under-fire FEMA head Michael Brown’s most recent non-government gig was the much-ridiculed, “commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association.”

The official FEMA bio doesn’t mention his 11 years in the horsey biz. Or say anything about his having been “asked to resign” from that job, “after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.” (Boston Globe)

What it does say is, “his background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman.”

Turns out ‘ol Mikey has a bit of a Dwight Schrute complex. On NBC’s version of “The Office”, Shrute claims to be the “assistant regional manager”, and is constantly reminded he is actually the assistant to the regional manager.

Brown had a similar prepositional problem. Yesterday’s Time.com article says,

In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an “assistant to the city manager” from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. “The assistant is more like an intern,” she told TIME. “Department heads did not report to him.” Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. “Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University,” recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. “Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I’d ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt.”

See, also:

• The Daily Kos 2 September 2005

Technorati Tags: Michael Brown, FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, The Office

BONUS: on March 9, Brown testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, giving a statement which claimed, “Our Nation is prepared, as never before, to deal quickly and capably with the consequences of disasters and other domestic incidents.”

Back on August 1, the Washington Post reported on an unusual memo,

Deputy Chief at FEMA — or Maybe Not

Michael D. Brown , who runs the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, sent around a memo a couple of weeks ago saying “effective immediately,” his chief of staff, Patrick Rhode , was the acting deputy director.

This caused some head-scratching, because there is no official deputy director position at FEMA, because there is no official director. The last person to hold such a post was Brown, before FEMA got folded into DHS. (Brown is now officially DHS undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response.)

A recent strategic review called for naming a deputy director, but Congress hasn’t approved that plan and agencies don’t usually go ahead without congressional blessing. Even more curious, it’s not clear whether DHS or the White House, which approves such personnel moves, had signed off on Brown’s move. FEMA says its general counsel approved the action.

Brown is widely expected to be leaving soon, and there has been some FEMA speculation that this is his way of trying to pave the way for a successor. Rhode had been associate administrator of the Small Business Administration.