[Mb-civic] THIS IS A WILD STORY

[richard haase]

michael that is a wild story
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Butler" <michael at michaelbutler.com>
To: "Civic" <mb-civic at islandlists.com>; "HAIR List"
<mb-hair at islandlists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 9:31 PM
Subject: [Mb-civic] THIS IS A WILD STORY


>     Go to Original
>
>     FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions in False Claims to Help Bush Win
Florida
> Votes
>     By Jason Leopold
>     The Free Press
>
>     Monday 19 September 2005
>
>     Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management
> Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to
> thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances
and
> three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a
> majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according
to
> published reports.
>
>     "Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute
funds
> quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key
political
> battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were
undertaken
> with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections,² according to
a
> May 19 Washington Post story.
>
>     Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that
> Brown "and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland
> Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida
to
> President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.²
>
>     The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb
> Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as
> playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims.
>
>     "As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida
last
> fall, a federal [FEMA] consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could
reflect
> poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be
brought
> in to minimize any political liability, records show,² the Sentinel
reported
> in a March 23 story.
>
>     "Two weeks later, a Florida official summarizing the hurricane
response
> wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handing out housing
> assistance "to everyone who needs it without asking for much information
of
> any kind."
>
>     The records the Sentinel obtained were contained in hundreds of pages
of
> Gov. Jeb Bush's storm-related e-mails the paper received from the
governor's
> office under the threat of a lawsuit.
>
>     The explosive charges of mismanagement of disaster relief funds made
> against Brown and FEMA were confirmed earlier this year following a
> four-month investigation by Richard Skinner, the Department of Homeland
> Security's inspector general. Skinner looked into media reports alleging
> that residents of Miami-Dade were receiving windfall payments from FEMA to
> cover losses from Hurricane Frances they never incurred.
>
>     Hurricane Frances hit Hutchinson Island, FL, about 100 miles north of
> Dade County, on Sept. 5. Miami-Dade officials described damage there from
> heavy rain and winds of up to 45 mph as "minimal," according to the Post.
>
>     Indeed. A May 14 story in the Sun-Sentinel said: "Miami-Dade County
> residents collected Hurricane Frances aid for belongings they didn't own,
> temporary housing they never requested and cars worth far less than the
> government paid, according to a federal audit that questions millions in
> storm payouts.
>
>     Responding to those allegations, Brown held a news conference Jan. 11
> blaming the overpayments on a "computer glitch² and said the disbursements
> were far less than the $31 million that was cited in news reports and
> involved 3,500 people. Moreover, to silence his critics who said that
> Hurricane Frances barely touched down in Miami-Dade, Brown cited a report
by
> the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there
> were legitimate hurricane conditions there and as a result that a bulk of
> the payments was legitimate.
>
>     But according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA had refuted the weather maps
> Brown claimed to have obtained from them. That report prompted Congressman
> Robert Wexler to send off a scathing letter to President Bush calling for
> Brown's resignation.
>
>     Bush rebuffed Wexler. However, the DHS' inspector general launched a
> probe to determine how widespread the problems were involving overpayments
> to Miami-Dade residents. In May, the inspector general released his
report.
> What he found was damning.
>
>     "The review found waste and poor controls in every level of the
Federal
> Emergency Management Agency's assistance program and challenges the
> designation of Miami-Dade as a disaster area when the county "did not
incur
> any hurricane force winds, tornados or other adverse weather conditions
that
> would cause widespread damage."
>
>     In identifying one of the overpayments, the inspector general's report
> said FEMA paid $10 million to replace hundreds of household items even
> though only a bed was reported to be damaged, the inspector general's
report
> said.
>
>     "Millions of individuals and households became eligible to apply for
> [money], straining FEMA's limited inspection resources to verify damages
and
> making the program more susceptible to potential fraud, waste and abuse,"
> the report states.
>
>     Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Homeland Security and
> Governmental Affairs committee, said during a committee hearing in May
that
> Brown "approved massive payouts to replace thousands of televisions, air
> conditioners, beds and other furniture, as well as a number of cars,
without
> receipts, or proof of ownership or damage, and based solely on verbal
> statements by the residents, sometimes made in fleeting encounters at
> fast-food restaurants.²
>
>     "It was a pay first, ask questions later approach," Collins said. "The
> inspector general's report identifies a number of significant control
> weaknesses that create a potential for widespread fraud, erroneous
payments
> and wasteful practices."
>
>     But the most interesting charge against Brown is that he helped speed
up
> payments in Florida and purposely bypassed FEMA's lengthy reviews process
> for distributing funds in order to help Bush secure votes in the state
> during last year's presidential election.
>
>     Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of
> America, who was a top federal flood insurance official in the 1970s and
> 1980s and a Texas insurance commissioner in the 1990s, told the Post "that
> in the vast majority of hurricanes, other than those in Florida in 2004,
> complaints are rife that FEMA has vastly underpaid hurricane victims. The
> Frances overpayments are questionable given the timing of the election and
> Florida's importance as a battleground state.²
>
>     FEMA consultant Glenn Garcelon actions certainly lends credibility to
> questions raised by Hunter.
>
>     On Sept. 2, 2004, Garcelon, wrote a three-page memo titled "Hurricane
> Frances - Thoughts and Suggestions."
>
>     "The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President
Bush
> had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry,² the
> Sentinel reported in its March 23 story. "Winning Florida was key to the
> president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it is
> portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the team
> effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local officials,
the
> insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies such as the Red
> Cross.²
>
>     Gov. Bush received the memo Sept. 30, 2004 shortly before a swell of
> payments made its way to residents in Miami-Dade who did not sustain
damage
> as a result of Hurricane Frances.
>
>     A couple of weeks before Gov. Bush received the memo from Garcelon,
> Orlando J. Cabrera, executive director of the Florida Housing Finance
Corp.
> and a member of the governor's Hurricane Housing Work Group, said in a
> different memo to Gov. Bush that FEMA was allocating short-term rental
> assistance to "everyone who needs it, without asking for much information
of
> any kind," the Sentinel reported.
>
>     In addition, "standard housing assistance," of up to $25,600, Cabrera
> wrote, is "liberally provided without significant scrutiny of the request
> made during the initial months; scrutiny increases remarkably and the
> package is far more stringent after an unspecified time."
>
>     The DHS audit report found that, under Brown, FEMA erroneously
> distributed to Miami-Dade residents:
>
>     * $8.2 million in rental assistance to 4,308 applicants in the county
> who "did not indicate a need for shelter" when they registered for help.
In
> 60 cases reviewed by auditors, inspectors deemed homes unsafe without
> explanation, and applicants never moved out.
>
>     * $720,403 to 228 people for belongings based on their word alone.
>
>     * $192,592 for generators, air purifiers, wet/dry vacuum cleaners,
> chainsaws and other items without proof that they were needed to deal with
> the hurricane. Three applicants got generators for their homes, plus
rental
> assistance from FEMA to live somewhere else.
>
>     * $15,743 for three funerals without sufficient documentation that the
> deaths were due to the hurricane.
>
>     * $46,464 to 64 residents for temporary housing even though they had
> homeowners insurance. FEMA funds cannot be used when costs are covered by
> insurance.
>
>     * $17,424 in rental assistance to 24 people who reported that their
> homes were not damaged.
>
>     * $97,500 for 15 automobiles with a "blue book" value of $56,140. In
> general, the report states that FEMA approved claims for damaged vehicles
> without properly verifying that the losses were caused by the storm.
>
>     Jason Leopold is the author of the explosive memoir, News Junkie, to
be
> released in the spring of 2006 by Process/Feral House Books. Visit
Leopold's
> website at www.jasonleopold.com for updates.
>
>
>
>
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