Fema Agents’ Raid Is Public Relations Disaster Attempt To Seize Records For Grand Jury Called Heavy-Handed

“Bizarre” is the way a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman responded to news of last week’s raid on a Clearwater County disaster office.

Morrie Goodman, FEMA’s communications director, had not heard of the raid until Friday. Nor had he seen a Thursday letter from Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth objecting to the raid and its aftermath.

The letter was directed to James Lee Witt, director of the agency best known for its humanitarian mission of helping disaster victims. Chenoweth reviewed the July 19 confiscation of records, which was carried out by agents wearing bulletproof vests and accompanied by state police.

“I can assure you that kind of thing is very bizarre,” Goodman said from his Washington, D.C., office. “I’ve been here for five years, and it’s never happened in my tenure.”

People in Orofino have been wondering whether they were the victims of an unusually harsh investigation.

“We’ve tried to find out if others are treated this way,” said County Commissioner Earl Pickett. “I’m sure both sides overreacted on that initial day. They acted in a manner that was totally unacceptable … And for a backwoods county like we are, it was really surprising to us and very alarming.”

A grand jury investigation is under way, apparently into the county’s handling of money it received from FEMA after 1996 floods.

It’s extremely rare that anyone is charged or convicted with illegally using disaster-relief funds, according to Goodman.

But FEMA’s office of inspector general is dispatched to every disaster scene, he said, to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“James Lee Witt has absolutely zero tolerance with respect to fraud involving federal money,” Goodman said.

It’s rare that anyone is prosecuted for illegal handling of disaster dollars, he said.

Copies of Chenoweth’s letter sent to the media detailed not only her concern about the heavy-handed nature of the raid, but also the problems caused by the loss of 40 boxes of county records.

Included were documents needed to collect money from FEMA, which Clearwater County needs to pay off a $1.1 million bank loan used to rebuild its roads.

“The loan is due in September, and without the records, the county is at risk of default,” Chenoweth wrote.

FEMA has promised to return some records within the next three weeks, Pickett said.

The county emptied its road and bridge fund to pay for flood repairs. The disaster - compounded by a dramatic drop in its share of national forest logging receipts - means residents will be asked Aug. 5 to approve a property tax override.

Chenoweth, R-Idaho, accused the FEMA agents of acting like “bull in a china shop” during their early morning visit to the Flood Control Command Center. She told Witt that FEMA agents also raided a number of businesses and homes.

Pickett called that an overdramatization.

“They didn’t raid anybody else,” he said. “They served some subpoenas in a questionable manner.”

Some county employees, but not the commissioners, have been subpoenaed to appear in August before a Boise grand jury.

, DataTimes