Obama inherits a much-improved FEMA

When President Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, more than 300 officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency were working behind the scenes throughout the Washington metropolitan region to monitor events and direct pre-positioned federal aid to the city in case of emergency. Compare that scenario with the second Bush inauguration four years ago, when fewer than 20 officials were on hand.

FEMA's heightened role is a testament to the agency's newfound competence and capability, says David Paulison, the career firefighter Bush tapped to take over the agency after its disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in fall 2005.

Paulison and his deputy, Harvey Johnson, the retired three-star admiral who helped manage the Coast Guard's widely praised response to Katrina before joining FEMA, will officially step aside on Wednesday morning. Until the Obama administration names their successors, two career emergency managers -- Nancy Ward and Dave Garrett -- will be acting administrator and acting deputy administrator, respectively.

"Nancy is extremely competent and can run the agency with no problem," Paulison said during an exit interview at his office on Jan. 16. Ward understands better than most how bureaucratic processes can undermine emergency response. During Katrina's aftermath, officials at FEMA headquarters thwarted her efforts to expedite aid to hurricane victims. After Paulison took over, she eventually was promoted to run FEMA's Region 9, which comprises nine Western states, including California.

"Nancy and Dave not only know what we've been doing [to rebuild the agency], they've been part of it," Paulison said.

Paulison said his top priority as FEMA chief was to fill senior leadership positions with people who understood from on-the-ground experience what was needed during a crisis.

"We set the bar pretty high for the quality of people coming into FEMA. My position early on was, you are not going to come into FEMA in a leadership position unless you had the experience, expertise and credibility to deal with disasters. I think it's going to be very difficult for another administrator to go back to the old way and just bring people in because of political connections," Paulison said.

His second priority was to change the agency's culture. "We're not going to sit back and be a check-writing organization. We're not going to sit back and wait for people to call and ask for things. We're going to be right there alongside [state and local responders] so we know what they need and we can start things moving even before they ask."

Under Paulison's leadership and with expanded authority provided by the 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, FEMA's staff has grown from fewer than 1,500 people to about 4,000.

Several reviews of FEMA's role in Katrina found that many of the agency's problems stemmed from poor processes and unclear lines of authority. "Prior administrations didn't focus on the foundations of FEMA -- our people and our business practices," said Johnson. "When you don't fix them you tend to make the same mistakes over and over. That's why FEMA has a track record of making some of the same mistakes over and over again."

One of the most important things was to establish an ethos for the agency -- leaning forward and being proactive in a disaster. "We began to employ metrics. Metrics beget accountability and accountability affects performance," Johnson said. As a result, the focus has shifted from processes to outcomes, he said.

While FEMA remains the butt of jokes on late-night television, perceptions in the emergency management community are changing. In late November 2008, the International Association of Emergency Managers gave Paulison its highest award for "unselfish and dedicated leadership that has significantly contributed to a strong U.S. civil defense and emergency management program as part of U.S. national security." The award has been given only 25 times in the last 56 years.

Governors and members of Congress also have noticed the changes at FEMA. Last fall the Oklahoma delegation sent FEMA a letter praising the agency for its response to ice storms there. "We've had letters signed by the entire delegation before, but it was always asking how we screwed up," said Johnson. "I think a lot of senior elected officials recognize how far we've come at FEMA over the last couple of years."

That progress wasn't a given. "When I first took over I wasn't positive we could salvage [FEMA] based on what I saw," Paulison said. "I decided I was going to give it my best shot. Bringing in the right people, bringing Harvey in, was the best thing I did."

Paulison didn't know Johnson except by reputation. Michael Jackson, then the deputy secretary at Homeland Security, suggested Paulison talk to him. They met over a long dinner at Harry's Tap Room in Arlington, Va., and discovered they had a similar drive and values. Their professional temperaments were forged in high-adrenaline jobs that demanded steadiness, quick thinking and competence: Paulison was a career firefighter who worked his way up to lead one of the largest departments in the country in Florida's Miami-Dade County and later served as U.S. fire administrator. Johnson was a helicopter pilot who became a three-star admiral in the Coast Guard.

"We made a great team," says Paulison.