Local (washington State) FEMA chief had little disaster experience

[PSPS]

I wonder how many other states have these incompetents in positions that require important and legitimate credentials.

Local FEMA chief had little disaster experience

By Mike Carter and Susan Kelleher
Seattle Times staff reporters

John Pennington, the official in charge of federal disaster response in the Northwest, was a four-term Republican state representative who ran a mom-and-pop coffee company in Cowlitz County when then-Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn helped him get his federal post.

Before he was appointed regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Pennington got a degree from a correspondence school that government investigators later described as a "diploma mill."

Pennington, 38, says he worked for his degree and he is qualified for the FEMA job.

(snip)

$138,000 salary

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush appointed Pennington to head the Region 10 office of FEMA, overseeing the government's disaster response in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Idaho. He makes $138,000 a year.

Just before his appointment, Pennington received a bachelor's degree in business administration from California Coast University in Santa Ana, Calif., which at the time was an unaccredited correspondence school.

More at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002484649_pennington10m.html

[merwin]

1. I live just east of Seattle... If FEMA ever tells me to go somewhere,

I'm going in the OPPOSITE direction.

There's a huge earthquake that's going to rip the shit out of Seattle at some point (we're on a really really big fault line that just hasn't gone off recently), and I really don't trust them to figure out what's going on.

[seattlemetal]

2. No Kidding!

I'm just south-east of seattle and I didnt know about this! Now I dont feel to comfortable! Perhaps now is the time for change?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Don't forget about Raindog blowing it's top.

:D

In your earthquake scenario, FEMA will set up it's office under the viaduct.

[donco6]

3. Well, when it happens at the top, it only gets worse . . .

on the way down. Once this type of position gets politicized, it's open season on all the other positions of this nature.

We should all be asking about the qualifications of our state FEMA head.

[KT2000]

4. Comforting news

when our big one hits - I expect to be deposited in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on a mud flow. I guess nature will take its course except for the Canadian aid workers.

Rescue helicopters have actually flown across the Strait to respons to aiplane alarms that go off and get no local response.

Canadians are just better people - if something happens where I live, my only hope is with Canadian rescuers.

[IMayBeWrongBut]

6. I live near the strait of Juan de Fuca.

A couple weeks after that tsunami hit Southeast Asia a few signs popped up around town warning of the tsunami risk zones. Also recently the tsunami warning sirens were triggered by an earthquake but none of them sounded because someone disconnected a phone line in the central office.

[KT2000]

9. Hi neighbor

isn't that just typical??
You must live in Clown County too.

[suffragette]

5. thanks for posting this

We need to send this to all of our region, state, county and city officials and demand they investigate.

Sure looks like another appointment of an unqualified politcal crony. From the same article:

Pennington said he did not seek the FEMA job, although he says he was interested in it. In 2000, he was the co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Cowlitz County, where Bush lost to Al Gore 49 percent to 46 percent.

Former GOP Rep. Dunn, who was Bush's 2000 campaign chairwoman in Washington, recalled that she called Pennington and asked him to fill out an application for the FEMA job. She was responsible for screening and making recommendations on all regional political appointments.

Meanwhile, the article notes that there are experienced people working in lower positions there:

To Pennington's credit, Holdeman said, the regional director has surrounded himself with a competent staff. Pennington's deputy director, Tammy Doherty, is a career emergency manager.

So, why the hell isn't the experienced, competent person in charge?

[IndyJones]

7. So what is their training? Some dumpass CPR class or something?

Who gives those people those jobs? I am amazed how people with very little experience get such high paying positions.

[DELUSIONAL]

8. We are so SCREWED!

Any information about the FEMA guy in Louisiana?

[pfitz59]

10. "Dunn" in again.......

The whole family is bad news. Her cousin Skeletor and son Reagan, the whole lot of them. Something fishy with jJennifer Dunn.

[philosophie_en_rose]

11. Dunn is being groomed for the Senate.

Frankly, I don't know how it will go. Neither Cantwell or Murray are especially beloved.

But Dunn is clearly a favorite in the Bush administration. And it's no surprise that we have our own Michael Brown.

I grew up on an island connected to the mainland by one bridge, we couldn't survive "Brownie" leadership.

[fortyfeetunder]

13. What do you expect from Jennifer Dunn?

She names a kid after Reagan?

She is one of the most radically RW representatives...

[banana republican]

12. I will be writing to the Govenor & my state rep tomorrow. n/t

[BiggJawn]

14. Mitch "Our Bitch Mitch" Daniels dismantled the Indiana SEMA...

Replaced it with the "Indiana Department of Homeland Security"...

Imitation is the most sincere form of FLATTERY, I guess.....

I know NOTHING about the hacks he installed to run it, but I suspect they are big campaign supporters...

[pinniped]

15. I got the San Andreas Fault running just a couple miles offshore.

It has been building up for a while.

[fortyfeetunder]

16. Potential DU Activist project

Check out each state FEMA head and who the head reports to.

I fear the FEMA head position is a political appointment and we have a nation full of dumb schmucks who wouldn't know what a disaster is!

[Spazito]

18. This answers a BIG question I have had, that being....

who appoints the regional FEMA director and to whom are they answerable. From this article it seems clear the regional directors are NOT appointed by the Governor nor answerable to them. This means all that crap about the regional FEMA director in Louisiana and his actions or lack of were the fault of state officials is patently false, imo.

"Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush appointed Pennington to head the Region 10 office of FEMA, overseeing the government's disaster response in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Idaho. He makes $138,000 a year."