FEMA is really a disaster....22% of field workers had criminal records.

[madfloridian]

I hope someday the utter disaster that is today's FEMA will come out. There are still many problems from the hurricanes, they just don't get publicity. Our city may have to put out millions of dollars for hurricane clean-up they thought would be covered by them. We were hit by 3 eyes, yet the Miami area was not much hit at all...and they got so much money.

New Disaster? Yes, it's FEMA

SNIP..."The Federal Emergency Management Agency, responsible for doling out disaster aid, likes to point to its inspectors as the "first line of accountability" when paying out tax dollars to disaster victims.

Taxpayers: Watch your wallets.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) managed to obtain the names of 133 inspectors who work in the field after disasters. More than one in five (22 percent) had criminal records. Seventeen had criminal records at the time they were hired. Another four lost their jobs for arrests after they were hired.

What does FEMA say? Nothing. FEMA officials refused to answer questions from the newspaper about background checks or what might disqualify a person from being hired as an inspector...."

SNIP..."FEMA inspectors gain easy access to people's property and homes. They determine who receives relief payments.

One of them, the Sun-Sentinel reported, was 45-year-old Mark S. Verheyden. He was charged in 1994 with soliciting a $500 kickback from a federal disaster-aid applicant near Houston. He pleaded guilty to bribery and served 26 months in federal prison in Marianna.

One of the trainers for inspectors was Bill J. Neal, 60, of North Carolina. The Sun-Sentinel reported that Neal served six years in prison in three states for various crimes, including attempted embezzlement of public money, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and cocaine possession. His criminal history started in 1979. The elected treasurer of Highland Park, Mich., Neal was arrested for stealing city funds and served nine months in prison."

And those are just a couple. This is alarming.

[bryant69]

1. I do know that a lot of counties down here in FLorida

Are still waiting for their FEMA money. Sometimes I suspect the plan is to wait till noone feels sorry for us anymore and then say we aren't getting the reimbursments. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and all that.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[underpants]

2. Accounting controls can fly out the window in the middle of a disaster

That doesn't excuse them happening but it sounds to me like these people went were the easy money is.

[madfloridian]

3. Doesn't FEMA operate under Homeland Security now?

That should make them be doubly careful.

[bobthedrummer]

4. These positions should be formally vetted with real people that know

the applicants-where's the verification in this? And the liars should be prosecuted.
:+ :silly: :+

[Eloriel]

5. I'm not at all surprised

This is a very, very bad organization. Just remember who recently headed it, too: Joe Allbaugh.

[susu369]

6. As someone who lost their home to Hurricane Ivan

don't even get me started about the frustration of dealing with FEMA.

The contractor from FEMA who came out to assess my property was pleasant enough but it did strike me odd that he was a middle-aged man with hair to his waist (tied in a pony tail). Don't take me wrong, I'm extremely tolerant and do not judge a person by their hair length; however, I was taken back by his unprofessional appearance.

[SoCalDem]

7. With the "justice system" in flux like we have now, there are going to be

MORE and more young (mostly) men with records.. Think about it. The type of work that FEMA sometimes requires..(strong young men)..means that a LOT of the younger men might have records.. WE do have the most incarcerated people in the free world..

[OneBlueSky]

8. FEMA's the outfit that's supposed to take control of things when . . .

a natinal emergency is declared . . . they're kinda like BushCo's private domestic army . . .

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. FEMA is most certainly not BushCo's private domestic army

Sheesh! They're BushCo's private domestic godawful bureaucratic cesspool. They couldn't even organize a paintball game, let alone an army.

[ucmike]

10. i telephone interviewed for one of those jobs.

they were being filled by a large construction management firm (parsons brinkerhoff or bechtel, i don't remember exactly). many of them aren't gov't employees. when i was talking to them they were paying per inspection (about $40) but you had to handle all of your expenses and travel arrangements and be available to go when disaster struck. you would be paid for as many inspections as you could do, no controls as long as you submitted your paperwork properly. they didn't require much more than a construction background and i'm sure that enthusiasm would suffice if you didn't have actual experience.

basically, you have a group of people who are available at a moments notice to travel around the country and bill for whatever they can. i'm sure it attracts a good deal of scam artists and opportunists.

i would also say that there are probably a good deal of professionals who do it because they want to help and be involved, and because the money is good if you maintain your ethics.

i decided not to do it at the time because i didn't want to be in the middle of massive tragedies. after my experience at 9/11 i wasn't sure i wanted to be immersed in human misery for money.