New Orleans - read this one before reading Scope entries
The New Orleans team has been beset by problems from the time they started in December. I don't blame the team members.
The politics of New Orleans are so complicated that it is hard to know where to start. Whatever you do, whoever you meet with, you are offending someone. The Mayor has his commission, City council has their process, the planning department has another group. (and FEMA is determined not to get involved in anything controversial or political). Then, the city is having an election and noone wants to decide anything until after the vote. Finally, everyone is still in shock and not ready to decide anything.
Add to this about 20 FEMA employees (most of whom have never been to the city before) and tell them they are supposed to write a recovery plan. The city is not bought in, everyone has other priorities, and noone has time to meet with the FEMA people.
Then try to appreciate the size. It is a city that once had half a million people. There are hundreds of nonprofits, thousands of companies, it is immense. Outreach is a nationwide effort.
Finally, understand that the FEMA employees got no support. The game plan changed constinantly. The entire team was laid off one day and hired back the next day. Directions from above constantly change.
And the 20 people are supposed to write a comprehensive recovery plan - it is not realistic!
But still, when I saw the housing team's projects a few days ago, I was shocked. Five months worth of work (and one week before the deadline) and they had nothing. The recovery projects they identified were crap. It gives you some idea of how ineffective this process has been.
The next couple entries are the project scopes (they are supposed to describe the most important projects for New Orleans to recover). I pasted them word for word from what I was given.
The politics of New Orleans are so complicated that it is hard to know where to start. Whatever you do, whoever you meet with, you are offending someone. The Mayor has his commission, City council has their process, the planning department has another group. (and FEMA is determined not to get involved in anything controversial or political). Then, the city is having an election and noone wants to decide anything until after the vote. Finally, everyone is still in shock and not ready to decide anything.
Add to this about 20 FEMA employees (most of whom have never been to the city before) and tell them they are supposed to write a recovery plan. The city is not bought in, everyone has other priorities, and noone has time to meet with the FEMA people.
Then try to appreciate the size. It is a city that once had half a million people. There are hundreds of nonprofits, thousands of companies, it is immense. Outreach is a nationwide effort.
Finally, understand that the FEMA employees got no support. The game plan changed constinantly. The entire team was laid off one day and hired back the next day. Directions from above constantly change.
And the 20 people are supposed to write a comprehensive recovery plan - it is not realistic!
But still, when I saw the housing team's projects a few days ago, I was shocked. Five months worth of work (and one week before the deadline) and they had nothing. The recovery projects they identified were crap. It gives you some idea of how ineffective this process has been.
The next couple entries are the project scopes (they are supposed to describe the most important projects for New Orleans to recover). I pasted them word for word from what I was given.
posted by JNA | 9:45 PM
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