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Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Unfixable FEMA puts the ‘disaster' into ‘disaster recovery'
We thought reform was possible. We were wrong. We were brought to Puerto Rico to fix FEMA's broken disaster recovery processes after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. Our team of seven Lean Six Sigma experts — decorated military officers and retired executives — had more than 150 years of combined experience in process improvement across 60 organizations in more than 20 countries, including war zones. FEMA was the only organization our team unanimously deemed unfixable — not because the mission was complex, but because of its toxic mix of incompetence, lack of accountability, and calcified dysfunction. FEMA's three-part mission was extremely simple: assess damage, calculate costs, release funds. Yet two years after Hurricane Maria, only 5 percent to 8 percent of cost estimates had been completed. Recovery had stalled. And instead of admitting failure, FEMA inflated $1.5 billion in project estimates to mislead Congress. At FEMA's Joint Recovery Office near San Juan — with 2,000 to 3,000 staff — the public Wi-Fi password had to be changed because so many employees were streaming Netflix. Damage assessments were routinely fabricated. 'It's easier,' one staffer told us. When we reported it, investigators asked, 'Did anyone take the money?' We said no. They lost interest. It got worse. FEMA approved leasing $46 million in pumps that could have been bought for $4 million. A whistleblower who reported this later died under suspicious circumstances — his body was cremated without an autopsy, despite requests for a forensic review. FEMA's response? Nothing. At the core was FEMA's unique DEI mandate: 80 percent of positions had to be filled locally, regardless of qualifications. Only 25 percent of residents were fluent in English, and fewer than one-third held college degrees. This created a woeful mismatch between mission needs and personnel. The federal coordinating officer had told us, 'I wish I had retired execs who just want to do the right thing.' We recruited just such a team, but we were then sidelined during our time in Puerto Rico from July 2018 to June 2019, largely due to discrimination. Merit was irrelevant. FEMA handed its critical improvement program to a young woman who epitomized quota-driven hiring. Enrolled in law school, she unabashedly prioritized classes over work, failed our Lean Six Sigma training, tried to steal test material, and colluded with the prime contractor to dilute requirements. We reported her, but she was protected. We faced relentless discrimination for being 'the straight old white guys.' Some managers mocked us in Spanish. FEMA's Equal Employment Opportunity office 'lost' our complaints five times. The lead counselor was fired the day before the investigation was set to begin. Discrimination was later confirmed by FEMA's Office of Professional Responsibility, but the findings were suppressed for six years. When we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the report, FEMA redacted it entirely — including the page numbers. We brought our findings to Congress and the Inspector General but were ignored. Freedom of Information requests were stonewalled. FEMA's Freedom of Information office withheld records — even from Congress. That's not incompetence — it's obstruction. After exhausting every avenue — facing retaliation, smear campaigns, and sabotage — we filed lawsuits. Seven are now active, three of them naming FEMA. They were filed just before the statutes of limitations expired, only because FEMA's Whistleblower Protection Unit, Equal Employment Opportunity office, and Freedom of Information teams delayed resolution for years. Legal costs now exceed $700,000 — and we haven't even set foot in court yet. The strategy is attrition: Bury the truth in paperwork and delay. It is now 2025, and Puerto Rico's recovery remains incomplete. Its power grid is fragile. Two near-total blackouts in six months confirmed what we already knew: FEMA failed — and still is failing. In a real national emergency, FEMA will not be the answer. U.S. Northern Command, the National Guard, the Defense Logistics Agency, and hardened continuity-of-government military sites like Cheyenne Mountain and Raven Rock are the real backstops — not FEMA bureaucrats. Even in routine disasters, FEMA doesn't do the heavy lifting during the response. That falls to the Army Corps of Engineers, local EMS, and the Red Cross. In recovery, FEMA behaves like a bloated, poorly run insurance company — slow to pay, hostile to oversight, and incapable of learning. We have kept fighting because this isn't about FEMA's image. It is about lives. Americans are being failed by a $33 billion bureaucracy that delivers PowerPoints instead of progress. FEMA doesn't go to where the work happens, embrace problems, or fix them. Rather, it hides failures, punishes dissent, and rewards mediocrity. In FEMA's culture, the nail that sticks up doesn't just get hammered back down — it gets audited, reassigned, or made to disappear. It embodies the very things the Lean Six Sigma management approach was intended to eliminate — overburden, waste, and unevenness. If FEMA were a company, it would be bankrupt. If a military unit, it would be relieved of command. Instead, it limps along—propped up by Cold War nostalgia and D.C. inertia. President Trump has spoken of dismantling it. He cannot do it soon enough. He should devolve emergency operations to the states via block grants. Let the military handle large-scale logistics. Bring back transparency, urgency, and accountability. It can't happen overnight, of course, but it must begin. States must be gradually and strategically weaned — both operationally and financially — from FEMA's central role in disaster recovery. This phased approach should prioritize high-aid, high-frequency states, based on disaster frequency and severity. States facing similar risks should form regional pacts to share resources and coordinate surge response. This starts with honest assessments of each state's disaster history, capacity, and capability gaps. It includes inventories of personnel, materiel, and clearly defined responsibilities. States should formalize mutual-aid agreements to offset localized shortfalls. And FEMA reservists should be retained in a modified form to provide flexible, rapid-deployment surge staffing when disasters exceed state capacity. We used to joke that if you sent FEMA managers out to get you a Big Mac and a Coke, they'd come back with a kitten, a pincushion, a harmonica — and not a single receipt. When the next real emergency hits, FEMA won't save anyone. Americans deserve better than the bureaucratic cosplay we witnessed when we tried in vain to fix. It is not ending FEMA, but continuing to fund FEMA that is radical. Barry Angeline, a retired business executive, led the FEMA Lean Six Sigma effort in Puerto Rico. Col. Dan McCabe (U.S. Army, Ret.), two-time Bronze Star recipient, served as a senior consultant for FEMA Lean Six Sigma in Puerto Rico. Both are federal whistleblowers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Unfixable FEMA puts the ‘disaster' into ‘disaster recovery'
We thought reform was possible. We were wrong. We were brought to Puerto Rico to fix FEMA's broken disaster recovery processes after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. Our team of seven Lean Six Sigma experts — decorated military officers and retired executives — had more than 150 years of combined experience in process improvement across 60 organizations in more than 20 countries, including war zones. FEMA was the only organization our team unanimously deemed unfixable — not because the mission was complex, but because of its toxic mix of incompetence, lack of accountability, and calcified dysfunction. FEMA's three-part mission was extremely simple: assess damage, calculate costs, release funds. Yet two years after Hurricane Maria, only 5 percent to 8 percent of cost estimates had been completed. Recovery had stalled. And instead of admitting failure, FEMA inflated $1.5 billion in project estimates to mislead Congress. At FEMA's Joint Recovery Office near San Juan — with 2,000 to 3,000 staff — the public Wi-Fi password had to be changed because so many employees were streaming Netflix. Damage assessments were routinely fabricated. 'It's easier,' one staffer told us. When we reported it, investigators asked, 'Did anyone take the money?' We said no. They lost interest. It got worse. FEMA approved leasing $46 million in pumps that could have been bought for $4 million. A whistleblower who reported this later died under suspicious circumstances — his body was cremated without an autopsy, despite requests for a forensic review. FEMA's response? Nothing. At the core was FEMA's unique DEI mandate: 80 percent of positions had to be filled locally, regardless of qualifications. Only 25 percent of residents were fluent in English, and fewer than one-third held college degrees. This created a woeful mismatch between mission needs and personnel. The federal coordinating officer had told us, 'I wish I had retired execs who just want to do the right thing.' We recruited just such a team, but we were then sidelined during our time in Puerto Rico from July 2018 to June 2019, largely due to discrimination. Merit was irrelevant. FEMA handed its critical improvement program to a young woman who epitomized quota-driven hiring. Enrolled in law school, she unabashedly prioritized classes over work, failed our Lean Six Sigma training, tried to steal test material, and colluded with the prime contractor to dilute requirements. We reported her, but she was protected. We faced relentless discrimination for being 'the straight old white guys.' Some managers mocked us in Spanish. FEMA's Equal Employment Opportunity office 'lost' our complaints five times. The lead counselor was fired the day before the investigation was set to begin. Discrimination was later confirmed by FEMA's Office of Professional Responsibility, but the findings were suppressed for six years. When we filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the report, FEMA redacted it entirely — including the page numbers. We brought our findings to Congress and the Inspector General but were ignored. Freedom of Information requests were stonewalled. FEMA's Freedom of Information office withheld records — even from Congress. That's not incompetence — it's obstruction. After exhausting every avenue — facing retaliation, smear campaigns, and sabotage — we filed lawsuits. Seven are now active, three of them naming FEMA. They were filed just before the statutes of limitations expired, only because FEMA's Whistleblower Protection Unit, Equal Employment Opportunity office, and Freedom of Information teams delayed resolution for years. Legal costs now exceed $700,000 — and we haven't even set foot in court yet. The strategy is attrition: Bury the truth in paperwork and delay. It is now 2025, and Puerto Rico's recovery remains incomplete. Its power grid is fragile. Two near-total blackouts in six months confirmed what we already knew: FEMA failed — and still is failing. In a real national emergency, FEMA will not be the answer. U.S. Northern Command, the National Guard, the Defense Logistics Agency, and hardened continuity-of-government military sites like Cheyenne Mountain and Raven Rock are the real backstops — not FEMA bureaucrats. Even in routine disasters, FEMA doesn't do the heavy lifting during the response. That falls to the Army Corps of Engineers, local EMS, and the Red Cross. In recovery, FEMA behaves like a bloated, poorly run insurance company — slow to pay, hostile to oversight, and incapable of learning. We have kept fighting because this isn't about FEMA's image. It is about lives. Americans are being failed by a $33 billion bureaucracy that delivers PowerPoints instead of progress. FEMA doesn't go to where the work happens, embrace problems, or fix them. Rather, it hides failures, punishes dissent, and rewards mediocrity. In FEMA's culture, the nail that sticks up doesn't just get hammered back down — it gets audited, reassigned, or made to disappear. It embodies the very things the Lean Six Sigma management approach was intended to eliminate — overburden, waste, and unevenness. If FEMA were a company, it would be bankrupt. If a military unit, it would be relieved of command. Instead, it limps along—propped up by Cold War nostalgia and D.C. inertia. President Trump has spoken of dismantling it. He cannot do it soon enough. He should devolve emergency operations to the states via block grants. Let the military handle large-scale logistics. Bring back transparency, urgency, and accountability. It can't happen overnight, of course, but it must begin. States must be gradually and strategically weaned — both operationally and financially — from FEMA's central role in disaster recovery. This phased approach should prioritize high-aid, high-frequency states, based on disaster frequency and severity. States facing similar risks should form regional pacts to share resources and coordinate surge response. This starts with honest assessments of each state's disaster history, capacity, and capability gaps. It includes inventories of personnel, materiel, and clearly defined responsibilities. States should formalize mutual-aid agreements to offset localized shortfalls. And FEMA reservists should be retained in a modified form to provide flexible, rapid-deployment surge staffing when disasters exceed state capacity. We used to joke that if you sent FEMA managers out to get you a Big Mac and a Coke, they'd come back with a kitten, a pincushion, a harmonica — and not a single receipt. When the next real emergency hits, FEMA won't save anyone. Americans deserve better than the bureaucratic cosplay we witnessed when we tried in vain to fix. It is not ending FEMA, but continuing to fund FEMA that is radical. Barry Angeline, a retired business executive, led the FEMA Lean Six Sigma effort in Puerto Rico. Col. Dan McCabe (U.S. Army, Ret.), two-time Bronze Star recipient, served as a senior consultant for FEMA Lean Six Sigma in Puerto Rico. Both are federal whistleblowers.
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
For one conservative, the rot at Harvard is so bad that Trump's drastic attacks are warranted
One of them is Ilya Shapiro, an accomplished conservative lawyer and Ivy grad himself, who knows all too personally why universities need deep reform. He's willing to entertain the Trump administration's approach, with some caveats. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Ilya Shapiro, a legal scholar, at his home in Falls Church, Va. in 2022. Kenny Holston/NYT Shapiro, now a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, became a conservative martyr to the cancel-culture craze in 2022. He was slated to start as a senior lecturer and executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, but after after a Advertisement Now Shapiro believes that the kind of progressive rot he experienced goes so deep that it can only be solved by drastic action. While many see antisemitism as a pretext by the Trump administration to cripple Harvard, Shapiro sees it as 'the canary in the coal mine' for a deeper set of issues, like divisive DEI programming and race-based hiring and admissions, that violate the civil rights rules attached to federal funding. 'It starts with antisemitism and goes down to ideological indoctrination, intellectual corruption, and probably some misuse of funds,' he told me. 'And I think for a long time, universities have been lax in how they've been fulfilling their legal obligations. And it's at a crisis point that I think the Trump administration is justified in trying to make a drastic change.' I've been Advertisement While Harvard has taken some positive steps to address antisemitism and to 'I would like DEI bureaucracies to be completely dismantled,' he told me, arguing that they balkanize campuses. 'Just keep the people who are enforcing federal and civil rights laws, Equal Employment Opportunity, disability accommodations, those things that are actually required by law,' he said. Still, he wonders if the administration's approach could have been more productive. '[The administration] is going about what might be well-intended policies through unusual ways.' Like sending a demand list before completing any sort of investigation of discrimination. 'I don't know if I would have gone about this with a demand letter rather than doing a thorough investigation, having your factual backup there,' he said. He also worried that some of the demands were too vague, including the demand that Harvard adopt a vaguely defined viewpoint diversity. 'Those are the aspects of the demands that have the least explicit or precise textual connection to civil rights law or education law.' On the latest escalation to cut off access to visas for foreign students, Shapiro believes the administration could be demonstrating illegal retaliation and differential treatment. 'The targeting of Harvard, not treating all Ivy League schools or big recipients of federal funds … the same way shows that there's a punitive motive or some other improper motive.' But the depth of disgust among conservatives at places like Harvard shouldn't be underestimated. It might be tempting for Harvard's supporters, and liberals generally, to write off Trump's campaign against higher education as just a populist tantrum. But it goes deeper than that. Many elite conservatives — people who know the institutions personally and understand the potential harms — have concluded that only massive government pressure can bring balance back to campus. Advertisement Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Yahoo
NYPD wants to claw back $200K in OT from cop who claims disgraced Chief Jeffrey Maddrey ‘coerced' her into sex
The NYPD is trying to claw back more than $200,000 in overtime paid to the female lieutenant who alleged the OT cash was used by disgraced ex-Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey to coerce her to perform sexual acts, The Post has learned. Lt. Quathisha Epps, a 19-year-vet who retired in December after The Post uncovered the scandal, was the department's highest paid cop last year. 'She was paid for work she did not do,' a police source said. 'She has received notice that she owes this money.' Epps called the NYPD demand that she pay back $231,890.75 retaliation for her blowing the whistle on the department's No. 2 cop. 'I will not be silenced,' she said. 'This isn't just my fight — it's the fight of every woman who dared to speak up and was punished for it. If the department — or anyone – believes they can erase what happened by attacking me, they've gravely underestimated the power of truth.' The demand was a result of an NYPD investigation into the overtime and involved Epps' direct supervisor, former Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno, who was fired last month, sources said. Saraceno was Maddrey's second in command and allegedly signed off on Epps' overtime retroactively, the sources said. Epps' lawyer, Eric Sanders, said the letter Epps received from the NYPD included no evidence that she didn't work the hours she claimed to work. 'The overtime issue is a red herring—manufactured to distract from the real legal and moral crisis inside the NYPD,' Sanders said. 'Under New York labor law, the burden is on the employer to maintain accurate records, not the employee.' The Post revealed in November that Epps pulled in $403,515 in fiscal year 2024, including $204,453.48 in overtime pay on top of her base salary of $164,477, according to city payroll records. 'This kind of a gross abuse is a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women of the NYPD who are actually out on the streets putting their lives on the line every day,' the NYPD source said. 'Finally, someone is cracking down on this incredible and illegal greed.' On Dec. 20, Epps, who was an administrator in Maddrey's office at One Police Plaza, told The Post that the chief paid her the dough to 'coerce' her to have sex with him in his office at NYPD headquarters. Sanders, a former cop, filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against Maddrey on Epps' behalf the next day. Maddrey resigned the day The Post story went online Dec. 21. A week later, he held a press conference in Manhattan where his lawyer told reporters that the relationship with Epps was consensual. He also accused Epps of going after his client because of the investigation into her overtime. Maddrey didn't take questions. While the NYPD goes after Epps, Maddrey is expected to pull down an annual pension worth around $259,000. When Epps reaches her 20th anniversary this summer, she will receive a pension of less than half the pay of a lieutenant — under $50,000, police sources said. She will also miss out on the variable supplement of about $12,000 per year. In the wake of the scandal, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch made department-wide changes, including replacing the head of the storied Internal Affairs Bureau and transferring officials at Police HQ to other precincts and divisions. Maddrey's home was raided on Jan. 2 by agents with the U.S. Department of Justice, which opened an investigation after news of the imbroglio broke. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office also said it was launching a probe but later said it dropped the case. The DOJ has refused to comment on the status of its review. One retired NYPD officer who worked with sex assault victims said the NYPD demand for repayment from an alleged victim is misguided — especially since her accused harasser, Maddrey, was allowed to retire with a full pension. 'If you listen to her, she says she asked him to stop when he had sex with her in his office,' the ex-officer said. 'She's asserting criminal misconduct.' The NYPD did not return a request for comment. Additional reporting by Larry Celona.
New York Post
03-05-2025
- New York Post
NYPD wants massive overtime pay back after Jeffrey Maddrey sex scandal
The NYPD is trying to claw back more than $200,000 in overtime paid to the female lieutenant who alleged the OT cash was used by disgraced ex-Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey to coerce her to perform sexual acts, The Post has learned. Lt. Quathisha Epps, a 19-year-vet who retired in December after The Post uncovered the scandal, was the department's highest paid cop last year. 'She was paid for work she did not do,' a police source said. 'She has received notice that she owes this money.' Advertisement 4 Former NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, who was the NYPD's No. 1 uniformed cop, abruptly resigned after The Post reported that he allegedly used overtime to 'coerce' an underling to perform sexual favors. Brigitte Stelzer Epps called the NYPD demand that she pay back $231,890.75 retaliation for her blowing the whistle on the department's No. 2 cop. 'I will not be silenced,' she said. 'This isn't just my fight — it's the fight of every woman who dared to speak up and was punished for it. If the department — or anyone – believes they can erase what happened by attacking me, they've gravely underestimated the power of truth.' Advertisement The demand was a result of an NYPD investigation into the overtime and involved Epps' direct supervisor, former Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno, who was fired last month, sources said. Saraceno was Maddrey's second in command and allegedly signed off on Epps' overtime retroactively, the sources said. Epps' lawyer, Eric Sanders, said the letter Epps received from the NYPD included no evidence that she didn't work the hours she claimed to work. 4 NYPD top earner, ex-Lieutenant Quathisha Epps, filed a federal EEOC complaint against Maddrey. NYPD 'The overtime issue is a red herring—manufactured to distract from the real legal and moral crisis inside the NYPD,' Sanders said. 'Under New York labor law, the burden is on the employer to maintain accurate records, not the employee.' Advertisement The Post revealed in November that Epps pulled in $403,515 in fiscal year 2024, including $204,453.48 in overtime pay on top of her base salary of $164,477, according to city payroll records. 4 Epps told The Post she had sex with Maddrey in his office multiple times and asked him to stop during their first encounter. LP Media On Dec. 20, Epps, who was an administrator in Maddrey's office at One Police Plaza, told The Post that the chief paid her the dough to 'coerce' her to have sex with him in his office at NYPD headquarters. Sanders, a former cop, filed a federal Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against Maddrey on Epps' behalf the next day. Advertisement Maddrey resigned the day The Post story went online Dec. 21. A week later, he held a press conference in Manhattan where his lawyer told reporters that the relationship with Epps was consensual. He also accused Epps of going after his client because of the investigtion into her overtime. Maddrey didn't take questions. While the NYPD goes after Epps, Maddrey is expected to pull down an annual pension worth around $259,000. When Epps reaches her 20th anniversary this summer, she will receive a pension of less than half the pay of a lieutenant — under $50,000, police sources said. She will also miss out on the variable supplement of about $12,000 per year. 4 Deputy Chief Paul Saraceno was fired by the NYPD over allegations that he approved bogus overtime slips. In the wake of the scandal, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch made department-wide changes, including replacing the head of the storied Internal Affairs Bureau and transferring officials at Police HQ to other precincts and divisions. Maddrey's home was raided on Jan. 2 by agents with the U.S. Department of Justice, which opened an investigation after news of the imbroglio broke. The Manhattan District Attorneys Office also said it was launching a probe but later said it dropped the case. The DOJ has refused to comment on the status of its review. One retired NYPD officer who worked with sex assault victims said the NYPD demand for repayment from an alleged victim is misguided — especially since her accused harrasser, Maddrey, was allowed to retire with a full pension. 'If you listen to her, she says she asked him to stop when he had sex with her in his office,' the ex-officer said. 'She's asserting criminal misconduct.' Advertisement The NYPD did not return a request for comment. Additional reporting by Larry Celona.
