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
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