FEMA avoiding news reporters

FEMA refuses to talk in public
Agency avoiding news reporters
RYAN LaFONTAINE, rlafontaine@sunherald.com
FROM THE SUNHERALD JULY 13, 2006

FEMA officials here are refusing to attend public meetings and discuss government business as long as news reporters are present.

Minutes before a regular meeting of the Hancock Board of Supervisors began Wednesday morning, officials from FEMA's public assistance office reportedly offered to meet with the county in private, but would not speak in public.

"They told me that they'd be happy to meet in executive session, but they can't come to public meetings as long as the press is here," said Hancock President Rocky Pullman. "I told (FEMA) to get the hell out of here then."

Representatives from the federal public assistance office were no-shows at a meeting earlier this month. Some FEMA officials spoke at this week's meeting, but no one from the public assistance branch showed up.

According to an e-mailed response from Jason Nelson, a congressional liaison from FEMA, to an inquiry from U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor's office, federal officials did not meet with Hancock supervisors on Wednesday because they believed they were walking into a media ambush.

"They interpreted the situation with the local media present and believed it to be a FEMA bashing event," Nelson wrote to Taylor's office in Washington. FEMA officials "told the county they could not meet with them because of the media."

FEMA spokesman Eugene Brezany said the agency has a policy that requires only certain people give statements to the press. If a reporter happens to be in the audience at a public meeting, then that could mean unauthorized FEMA officials end up making headlines.

"We try to make sure our program people avoid situations where they are going to be quoted by newspapers," Brezany said. "If a reporter is there, then that puts our people in a position where they would be going on the record and they're not allowed to do that."

Brezany could not say whether the same policy held true for FEMA officials in Louisiana or other disaster areas, but in Mississippi, he said, "we will not be making ourselves available in public unless we are making an effort to be public."

Hancock supervisors denied FEMA's request for an executive session, or private meeting, although the county is no stranger to closed-door meetings, often held far away from John Q. Public and the press.

Last year alone, Hancock held more than 70 secret discussions, including one with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and one with Gov. Haley Barbour, according to county records.

State law allows elected officials the option of executive session, but only in certain situations and only if they choose to. Elected officials are not required to, nor can they be forced to, discuss the public's business in private.

Critics say officials use the private meetings to avoid controversy and debate by making decisions behind closed doors, then rubber-stamping them in public.

Officials from FEMA and the county have crammed into a private room and bolted the door for several executive sessions since the storm, but Pullman said whatever the federal agency has to say should be said in public.

"I'm a federal taxpayer, too," Pullman said. "They are getting paid by the public dollar and if they don't want to come to a public meeting then they shouldn't be discussing the public's business."

The situation seems to have reached an impasse: The county is refusing to meet with FEMA under the agency's private-or-nothing request, and FEMA is refusing to talk at public meetings.

Brezany said there are dozens of less popular meetings that FEMA officials can attend.

"If there is media scrutiny on a particular event, then we are going to be reluctant to allow our people to speak at those meetings," Brezany said.

According to the e-mail Nelson sent to Taylor's office, the county should inform FEMA when reporters are planning to attend public meetings so that the agency can be "properly prepared."

"They are getting paid by the public dollar and if they don't want to come to a public meeting then they shouldn't be discussing the public's business."