Michael Brown: 'Life after government'

Michael Brown, then director of FEMA, with Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, an agency which Brown had earlier that year accused of an "unfocused empire-building'' agenda. The day was Sept. 2, 2005, in Biloxi, Miss., where President Bush told Brown: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.'' Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.

by Mark Silva

Michael Brown, the former federal official who bore the brunt of criticism for the government's handling of Hurricane Katrina, has moved on to a new career -- offering disaster relief and data-mining for government agencies and other customers.

One company he represents, InferX, has found work with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, Brown says, and is attempting to sell its services to airlines and agencies that monitor passengers for potential terrorist threats.

Another, Las Vegas-based Noninvasive Medical Technologies, which makes health-care monitors and has a contract with the Air Force for combat-casualty care. Its wireless equipment allows medics to set up triage in the field. "I could have used this in Katrina, in a heartbeat," Brown says.

And Brown is doing work for Atlanta-based Charys Holding Co., whose subsidiaries Cotton Companies and Viasys Services build and restore wireless communications -- cell phone towers, fiber-optic networks and the like. In June, Cotton restored services after flooding in Gainesville, Texas. Bad weather can mean good business for Charys, a FEMA contractor. "2007 is predicted to be a very active hurricane season," its Web site says.

Yet Brown, who resigned under pressure as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency two weeks after Katrina, has not returned to New Orleans.

"There is life after government," Brown says, with a caustic assessment of how the administration treated him -- "even after you have been run through the wringer, even after you have been thrown under the bus by the leader of the free world."

For more, see the Tribune's story today:

Katrina goat puts bad days behind

By Mark Silva
Washington Bureau

August 18, 2007

WASHINGTON --Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed New Orleans, Michael Brown, who bore the brunt of the criticism for the federal response to the storm, has moved into a career promoting disaster-response and data-mining technology for government agencies and private customers.

Brown, who served as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Katrina blasted New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, has not returned to New Orleans in nearly two years. His last stop was on Sept. 11, 2005, the day before he resigned under pressure.

The next time he sees New Orleans, Brown ruefully suggests, it may be in response to lawsuits resulting from Katrina, which left more than 1,000 dead and tens of thousands homeless.

But while Brown may be gone from government, some of the private companies he now represents say they stand ready to help the government cope with new storms barreling into the Gulf of Mexico, as well as other potential disasters.

Living in Boulder, Colo., Brown has become a traveling salesman for companies selling computer software, high-tech machinery and communications technology. One of the companies focuses on anti-terrorism efforts, trying to help airlines detect potentially dangerous patterns among the flying public. Others specialize in Brown's old field of disaster response, helping communities rebuild and providing technology so the military and first responders can manage casualties on the ground.

"I probably, at any one time, have a half-dozen clients involved in different things having to do with homeland security or government in general," Brown said in an interview. "I am called corporate adviser. Some places, I am called vice president for corporate relations. I am called all kinds of names."

Brown certainly was called all sorts of names in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. And some of his critics wonder how a former federal official who came to symbolize inept emergency response can be selling disaster relief products to the government.

"He'd probably be tarred and feathered if he came back," said Anne Milling, founder of Women of the Storm, a group that specializes in persuading members of Congress to visit the Gulf Coast. "I just question people's competence and expertise in these areas when they haven't demonstrated them prior [to now]. ... One would have to question his competence and capabilities."

David Fukutomi, a private consultant who worked for FEMA for eight years, added, "There is a certain amount of irony in that an individual who was perceived to be as big a failure as he was, fairly or unfairly, is back advising people how to succeed." Still, he said, Brown "is probably on a long list of people, if you are going to talk about culpability. Does he deserve to be the face of it? ... No."

Brown has jumped into hisN new role with gusto. A small start-up company he represents, InferX, has found work with the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, Brown says, and is attempting to sell its services to airlines and agencies that monitor passengers for potential terrorist threats. The McLean, Va.-based firm lists several government clients, including the Air Force, Navy and IRS.

'I could have used this'

Brown also represents a Las Vegas-based company, Noninvasive Medical Technologies, which makes health-care monitors and has a contract with the Air Force for combat-casualty care. Its wireless equipment allows medics to set up triage in the field. "I could have used this in Katrina, in a heartbeat," Brown said.

And Brown is doing work for Atlanta-based Charys Holding Co., whose subsidiaries Cotton Companies and Viasys Services build and restore wireless communications -- cell phone towers, fiber-optic networks and the like. In June, Cotton restored services after flooding in Gainesville, Texas.

Bad weather can mean good business for Charys, a FEMA contractor. "2007 is predicted to be a very active hurricane season," its Web site says.

Cotton performed extensive work in Louisiana after Katrina, Brown said, and is preparing to do more work in the Caribbean and elsewhere as new storms threaten the Gulf of Mexico. "The fun thing about it is, it's all things I like," Brown said of his current work.

The government's failure to respond more swiftly as thousands of refugees piled into the Louisiana Superdome marked a turning point in the public's disenchantment with the Bush administration. President Bush's commendation for Brown four days after the storm has become a sarcastic figure of modern-day speech: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Ten days later, Brown was gone, leaving behind a string of e-mails that exposed a lackadaisical response from the agency charged with the first response to natural disasters.

Yet Brown himself had long complained that the once-nimble FEMA had been melded into the massive bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland Security, and he blamed DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff for a bureaucratic turf mentality. In early 2005, Brown wrote a memo warning that DHS had "created a top-heavy organization" that promoted "unfocused empire-building."

But FEMA today is better prepared than it was on Brown's watch, according to Russ , Knocke, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

"The very serious planning that needed to be done for a disaster the magnitude of Katrina had not been done," Knocke said, adding that the nationwide plans in place today "are capabilities that simply weren't in place under Mike's tenure."

Plans to register as lobbyist

Now, like FEMA chiefs before him, Brown has found happiness in the private sector. He plans to register as a federal lobbyist soon.

His predecessor and longtime friend from Oklahoma, Joe Allbaugh, who managed Bush's first presidential campaign, brought Brown to FEMA as general counsel. Brown is an attorney and once ran for Congress, and he also had spent a decade as "stewards and judges commissioner" of the International Arabian Horse Association. Brown replaced Allbaugh as FEMA director in 2003, as Allbaugh moved on to a lucrative Washington lobbying career.

Brown "was hung out to dry," Allbaugh said. "Everybody you talk to understands that one person can't be held solely responsible for the Katrina mess. ... There is plenty of blame to go around."

Allbaugh's predecessor, James Lee Witt, whom former President Bill Clinton brought with him from Arkansas, has become a specialist in disaster consulting. The governor of Louisiana hired him after Katrina in 2005.

"There is life after government," Brown said, with a caustic assessment of how the administration treated him -- "even after you have been run through the wringer, even after you have been thrown under the bus by the leader of the free world."