Anybody know whats going on at the National Hurricane Center?

[Stinky The Clown]

The chief of the center, Bill Proenza, seems to be the target of a mutiny. About half the staff of forecasters have signed a letter demanding he resign. he says he won't.

I'm not sure what the deal is here. Is this guy a nut? A RW appointee (he has 40 years weather forecasting experience in the gov't)? An example of The Peter Principle? It appears as if he's at odds with the feds over not funding some satellite. On the other hand, it seems to be the apolitical rank and file who are saying the satellite is far less critical than he's stating.

Again ....... anyone know what the back story is?

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/8360737.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Proenza

[Ian David]

1. It sounds like a High Pressure job on many fronts. n/t

[tularetom]

2. I see he's sporting the requisite flag lapel pin

So he's either a bush patronage appointee or a fox news(?) reporter.

[ShortnFiery]

3. The Perfect Storm?

Sorry, couldn't resist. :blush: :yoiks:

[hedgehog]

4. I'm wondering if we're looking at the wrong person(s).

What if Bill Proenza is the legitimate scientist and the people under him are Bushies?

[abburdlen]

5. Egos, managment styles, wrong person for the job

I frequent a meteorology forum (especially during hurricane season) and there have been on going discussions hereandhere about about the situation at NHC. From reading the threads whatever the issues are it not just a matter of politics.

what one meterologist wrote

Proenza's background. He was the leader of the SRH. Not usually anything that deals with hurricanes. With the exception of the 2004-05 onslaught, I doubt Proenza has had much experience with dealing with hurricanes. He's not a hurricane specialist. So it may be that the forecasters had doubts about him from the very beginning. After all, to say that QS (quicksat) could "reduce forecast accuracy by 16%", is clearly overblown, IMO. In addition, the difference between leader of the SRH and leader of the NHC is huge. Most people don't know about the SRH. Almost everybody knows about the NHC. How issues are handled in these two agencies, are quite different, since if you're the leader of the NHC, you should know that first of all, you represent the agency, and second of all, the media's going to be right behind you and listening. Suppose a Katrina was making landfall. Question the NHC forecasters ask: how would Proenza act, and how would the agency be represented? If it has been like what it has been lately, they could obviously want him ousted.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. That's kinda what I was looking for .... just a take on whether or not there were politics involved

People can disagree. People can even be asshole managers or asshole employees. But these days, it seems, if it is a government agency, one initially worries that it is politics or a political appointee going against honest government workers.

[Canuckistanian]

7. There doesn't seem to be much politics involved

Just a clash of personalities. Proenza seems to be competent, but a "bull in a china shop" when dealing with his employees.

Here's a statement an employee representative made:

This week Senior Hurricane Specialist James Franklin has taken the lead in speaking for the NHC employees. James is reserved and scholarly and a remarkably skilled meteorologist, with a wonderful sense of humor and exceptional writing skills. It took a lot of courage for him to step into the public spotlight. I can tell you that the step to share their side of the situation with the public was a last resort, and only taken after coming to the conclusion that it was completely necessary, and the right thing to do. Being in the media spotlight in this manner is not a comfortable thing for any of them, and not something they would have chosen if they had felt that they had any other option.

~snip

"We're a small group. We have an enormous responsibility; we are responsible for the safety of millions and millions of people that we don't know. And where there are key events we pull together as a family to do that; we did it under Max and we did it under the directors before him.

"But he has divided the staff, he has been dismissive of the staff, he doesn't respect the staff. He lies about what we say. And it was time for us to very clearly state that there are two sides to this story, and that's why we made the statement that we made....There are staff members that will not meet with him in private, because they are afraid that he will lie or misrepresent what was said."

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/MargieKieper/show.html

[CK_John]

8. For the past 2 yrs a group led by the former PA Senator Rick Santorum was

trying to turn over the whole weather bureau to private industry. (Clear Channel). So IMO this new director is in place to fold the weather service in lieu of actually running it.