James Lee Witt

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James Lee Witt

James Lee Witt (born 6 January 1944) was Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

James Lee Witt was born in Paris, Arkansas and was raised in Dardanelle, Yell County, Arkansas. Witt started his own construction business in 1968. At age 34 he was elected County Judge of Yell County. Witt was reelected to the post 6 times and was recognized by the National Association of Counties for his work. Witt was a charter Board Chairman of Child Development, Incorporated which works to advance Head Start programs.

In 1988 Witt was appointed by then-Governor Bill Clinton to be the head of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services where he reorganized the state's emergency management process.

When Bill Clinton was elected President he appointed Witt to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1993. During his tenure Clinton elevated FEMA to cabinet status, and Witt overturned FEMA's previously poor reputation. A 1992 interim report by the US Congress (prior to Hurricane Andrew led to further criticism of FEMA) had said that "FEMA is widely viewed as a political dumping ground, a turkey farm, if you will, where large numbers of positions exist that can be conveniently and quietly filled by political appointment..."^[1] By 1996 an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial said that "FEMA has developed a sterling reputation for delivering disaster-relief services, a far cry from its abysmal standing before James Lee Witt took its helm in 1993. How did Witt turn FEMA around so quickly? Well, he is the first director of the agency to have emergency-management experience. He stopped the staffing of the agency by political patronage. He removed layers of bureaucracy. Most important, he instilled in the agency a spirit of preparedness, of service to the customer, of willingness to listen to ideas of local and state officials to make the system work better."^[2]

Witt's term of office saw approximately 348 Presidential declared disaster areas in more than 6,500 counties and in all 50 states and territories. Witt supervised the response to the most costly flood disaster in the nation's history at that time, the most costly earthquake, and a dozen serious hurricanes.

Witt is currently on the Management Team of the Global Options Group, LLC, as President of James Lee Witt Associates, LLC which provides consulting on emergency and disaster preparedness to local and state governments. Witt also served as CEO of the International Code Council which sets international standards for building construction, 2003 - 2006.

On September 3, 2005, he was hired by Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco to oversee reconstruction efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In December 2005 the University of Texas System hired his firm to prepare, process, and recover claims for damages from FEMA related to natural disasters.

Witt was mentioned as a potential candidate for Governor of Arkansas in 1997, but took himself out of consideration and stayed at FEMA until he was replaced by Joe Allbaugh, the first appointee of Bush, predecessor to Mike Brown, and then currently R. David Paulison, the illustrious former Fire Chief and Emergency Manager for many years in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

[edit] Notes

^ Bill Gertz, Washington Times, September 4, 1992, "Mikulski faults FEMA officials, calls for probe"
^ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 12, 1996, "Short Takes; Quick Witt helps"