Mr. Cleanup

Brad Gair wasn't surprised when the crowd hissed at him. It was a Sunday afternoon in May 2002, and about 500 people had gathered in New York's Chinatown to voice dissatisfaction with Sept. 11 relief efforts. They spoke about poor air quality in their neighborhood and the difficulty of getting help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They were angry, and felt no one in government was listening. As the man in charge of delivering $8.8 billion in aid and coordinating the entire federal recovery effort in New York, FEMA's Gair had expected to become a target for pent-up frustration. Facing angry crowds is part of his job as a federal coordination officer.

"If somebody feels they're being pushed around by the government, he'll go talk to them and find out what's wrong," says Walter Melnick, Gair's chief of staff for the World Trade Center disaster. "He doesn't shy away from that."

Gair has a knack for connecting with people. After a tornado destroyed Stockton, Mo., in May 2003, he helped build consensus for a long-term plan to draw tourism by capitalizing on a nearby lake. "He gets things done without pushing people," says Ralph Steele, the town's mayor. "We felt like it was our idea."

In Chinatown, red tape was making it difficult to get aid. Gair was frank: "I'm not going to make any promises," he told the crowd, though he did vow to speak with meeting organizers a week later. "We went back and did some pretty creative things," he says. For example, because many Chinatown residents don't have traditional leases or mortgages required for FEMA's Mortgage and Rental Assistance program, the agency accepted sworn statements from residents' neighbors.

Those who work with Gair say his creativity and determination helped save New York. Melnick was so inspired by Gair's dedication that he decided to stay with FEMA after the World Trade Center effort wrapped up. "He gave me a new outlook," says Melnick, who had retired after 30-plus years in the New York City Police Department. But Gair made his biggest contributions where he's most comfortable-far from the public eye. When too many MRA applications were denied by out-of-state caseworkers, he set up a New York-based task force to review the rejections. The program turned around.

Gair's work on a 2003 federal funding measure helped the city get money fast. "Brad's thing was that if New York City goes under financially, the terrorists win," says Dan Mahoney, an aide to Gair. "He didn't like that at all. Not on his watch."