Is SF's Top Disaster Official Qualified?

Sept. 14 (KGO) -- The head of the FEMA lost his job this week after the slow response to Hurricane Katrina; he also received criticism over his credentials. Tonight, the I-Team explores whether San Francisco's top disaster official is up to the job.

There are some parallels between the man who stepped down as FEMA director this week and the woman who now heads San Francisco's Office of Emergency Services. They are both lawyers with little previous disaster experience who used strong political connections to get the job.

Michael Brown was a Republican lawyer and head of the International Arabian Horse Association, before he took over FEMA in 2001. He resigned Monday after his agency's poor response to Hurricane Katrina.

Michael Brown, Tuesday: "The best thing for me to do was to step out of the way and let those people do their job to help disaster victims."

President Bush replaced Brown with a career firefighter who has 30 years of rescue experience.

Admiral John Bitoff: "You'll notice the president has appointed a new FEMA director and he's not a candlestick maker or a cook or a lawyer. He's a professional!"

John Bitoff is a retired Navy Admiral and former head of San Francisco's Office of Emergency Services. He says Mayor Gavin Newsom should replace the woman he appointed a year ago to head OES. Annemarie Conroy had no previous experience in disaster management.

Admiral John Bitoff: "Planning for saving lives and property, isn't that important enough to have a professional in that job? The president found out in a hurry!"

Admiral Bitoff echoes complaints we've heard in recent days behind closed doors here at City Hall  at the Board of Supervisors, even at the Disaster Council.

It's a collection of more than two dozen department heads and other high-level emergency officials who plan the city's disaster response. Several of them tell the I-Team Conroy is the wrong person to head OES.

Dan Noyes: "Does that criticism hurt?"

Annemarie Conroy: "No, not at all. I've always been underestimated. I was 28 when I went onto the Board of Supervisors. I will prove to be an independent thinker."

Conroy has built a career out of political appointments. In 1992, her godfather, Mayor Frank Jordan, tapped her to fill an opening on the Board of Supervisors.

Frank Jordan: "And I think she certainly needs all the prayers she can muster now."

Two years later, Conroy lost her bid for re-election, so Jordan sent her to the police commission. Next stop, Treasure Island. Mayor Willie Brown appointed her to oversee the transfer of the base from the Navy to San Francisco. Then, last year, Mayor Newsom gave her the top spot for disaster planning  a $160,000 dollar a year job.

Annemarie Conroy: "I'm a lawyer, I'm very well educated, I'm a very bright person, I understand how to make government work."

But, Conroy stands out among OES directors up and down the state for her lack of emergency management experience. Most come from the military, the fire service or law enforcement & or they've worked their way up through the ranks. San Jose's OES director got her master's in urban planning and a PhD in public administration, before becoming Irvine's disaster chief.

Dr. Frances Edwards, San Jose OES Dir.: "The academic background that I had had helped me a great deal in Irvine when we first created the emergency management program there in the early 1980's."

Dr. Edwards and most of the other OES directors around the Bay are certified by the International Association of Emergency Managers. Lu Canton is a former head of San Francisco's OES, who's earned his certificate.

Lu Canton, Fmr. Dir. SF OES: "It says that you meet a certain minimum level of standards, and that's considered sort of the baseline of things that you as a professional should know in that job."

Annemarie Conroy: "No, I'm not a CEM."

Annemarie Conroy is not a certified emergency manager. She'd have difficulty meeting even the basic criteria, such as 3 years experience in emergency management and 100 hours of training. Now, the I-Team has confirmed that Conroy is attending the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey for a master's in disasters. She'll be learning on the job, and that angers former OES director Admiral John Bitoff.

Admiral John Bitoff: "This is not on the job training! You appoint someone to a position of that importance, they ought to have the requisite qualifications before they go there."

Annemarie Conroy: "I think I have a dynamic staff that I've brought together. If they didn't feel I was qualified, they wouldn't be attracted to the office, they wouldn't come work for an office that they didn't think had qualified leadership."

We questioned Mayor Newsom at a news conference last week about Conroy's performance so far. He defends his selection for OES director, and takes responsibility for the department.

Mayor Gavin Newsom: "I've got a lot more work to do and guess what, responsible, I am, none of these folks, I am. And guess what, you're going to find gaps, and I can identify those gaps for you."

At the moment, Annemarie Conroy is in Monterey for her studies. She'll be there for the next two weeks, and she'll be back there several times over the next year and a half. So she won't be in San Francisco if disaster strikes in the next minute or tomorrow or the next day. And, of course, your tax dollars are paying for her schooling -- $40,000 for tuition, plus travel, hotel and meals.

The I-Team will explore more on Annemarie Conroy on a special edition of ABC7 News on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., after the President's speech on Hurricane Katrina.

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