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COVID-19: Son-in-Law Helping Out at FEMA

Hey, Mr. President, it sure is great working with Jared!

Jared Kushner, the man who brought peace to the Middle East, is now been tasked to help with our nation's response to the coronavirus crisis. Check out Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response.

Now if I'm Pete Gaynor, FEMA administrator, this can be good and bad at the same time. First part is the good -- I'll tell you a story at the end of this posting. It gives him and the agency's needs a direct conduit to the White House and the president. If there is a "toad in the road" of progress, that can be busted through quickly. 

Then there is the potential downside of having someone looking over your shoulder -- should that happen and I don't know why it would not. 

Also noted in the story is that "it appears" there is the "all of government approach" happening and then perhaps there is a separate "all of business" approach that Jared is leading. Might there be conflicts and confusion -- duh, likely ...

Since Kushner has the president's ear, maybe the wheel will turn faster on some of the logistics issues that have existed in the national response to date. It certainly can't turn slower!

OK, here is the story I promised. For those of you who know the personalities, Steve Bailey, who came up through the ranks of the Seattle Fire Department and who ended up being the Pierce County Emergency Management director is one character in the story. The other is A.D. Vickery, also a Seattle firefighter who finally retired in 2019. He was and is a legendary figure in the department. Never made fire chief, but was a senior leader in the department for decades. I think he had over 50 years in the department when he retired.

The two above individuals are serving as your average firefighters in a station together. They get a medical call and there is no ambulance/aid car available. So they take a station wagon to the call and do a transport in that vehicle. The very next day an ambulance shows up at the fire station, all equipped and is put into service.

Here's the connection to the story above. A.D. Vickery was the son of the then-Seattle Fire Chief Gordon Vickery. Sometimes it is who you know, especially if it is in the family, you can get results. FYI, Gordon Vickery was the first superintendent at the National Emergency Training Centers (NETC), which is where the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is located. The fire chief/ambulance-providing father's name is on a brass plaque there. 

 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.