I am going to utilize the period from April 1, 1979 to September 1, 2011 for this listing even though there legally was no FEMA between March 1,2003 and March 31, 2007.
So here are my top ten management calls in all of FEMA history!
1. John Macy's insistence that FEMA appointees and civil servants should be generalists and not expert in some field.
2. The failure of Louis O. Guiffrida to document publically that most of his new Preparedness and Civil Defense initiatives stemmed from Carter classified directives.
3. Director Guiffrida's decision to refer to DOJ a law suit over flood plain management against NOLA, and Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes in Louisian in 1981.
4. Director Guiffrida's cooperation in establishing the Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board and helping NSC issue NSDD-47 (1982)!
5. Director Julius Becton's not caving to NRC when his Region II staff found the first Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant exercise inadequate for FEMA to give a reasonable assurance finding to LILCO and the NRC and defending that decision in the lengthiest adminstrative law proceeding in NRC history.
6. Director Julius Becton ordering and assisting in establishing and completion of the First and Last FEMA Capability Assessment (1988)!
7. Grant Peterson taking the Federal Response Plan for Response to a Catastrophic Earthquake(adopted 1987) and turning it into the FEDERAL RESPONSE Plan (adopted 1992)over the opposition of his senior career civil servants!
8. Director Wallace B. Stinckney's decision to ask President George H.W. Bush to relieve him of any role as PFO in Hurricane Andrew (1992).
9. Director James Lee Witt's decision to remove the personnel security clearances from over 40% of FEMA staff.
10. Director Joseph Allbaugh's decision to allow the George W. Bush administration to reduce FEMA staff by over 60%!
