Chairmen Request Ousted National Hurricane Center Director Be Returned to Southern Region
(Washington, DC) In deepening their look at recent controversy at the Tropical Prediction Center (TPC/NHC), chairmen of two House Science & Technology Subcommittees have requested that the center’s director be returned to a position he held prior to running the TPC.
Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC) and Energy & Environment Chairman Nick Lampson (D-TX) have sent a letter to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher requesting that if Mr. William Proenza is permanently removed as TPC director that be returned to his post as head of the Southern Region of the National Weather Service instead of being made training chief of the little-noticed Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services. The Chairmen wrote that Mr. Proenza served the Southern Region with great distinction and the position remains vacant.
In the letter, the Chairman said it appeared Proenza had been treated with little fairness when removed from his post in early July.
These two subcommittees held a joint hearing on this topic, July 19. Today’s letter also said that documents provided after that hearing revealing that NOAA officials had planned to move Mr. Proenza to the Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services before undertaking any evaluation of his work, and even if the evaluation revealed no “mismanagement” by Mr. Proenza. The main reason given was his “misrepresentation” of the impact of the loss of the QuikSCAT satellite.
“We already received testimony that the White House was very upset with Mr. Proenza raising concerns about the possible loss of the QuikSCAT satellite before a replacement had been developed,” Chairman Lampson said. “We don’t want this extremely talented public employee consigned to NOAA’s backwaters because he spoke publicly about the potential loss of a critical satellite.”
The chairmen pointed out that Mr. Proenza was not allowed to respond to the report of the assessment team sent to evaluate the Center’s operations until after Admiral Lautenbacher received an “action plan” for responding to the report.
“Mr. Proenza took this job only because of your personal entreaty,” read the Chairmen’s letter to Admiral Lautenbacher. “Many of the recommendations for change in the operations of the Center made in the assessment team’s report were consistent with the initiatives that Mr. Proenza had already launched, such as the introduction of improved graphical tropical weather outlooks and greater linkages with the hurricane research community. And Mr. Proenza’s controversial statements about effects of the possible demise of QuikSCAT have motivated NOAA to begin the first real planning for the replacement of this satellite after years of documented concerns from the TPC and other NOAA staff.”
Based on their investigation and testimony at the hearing, the two chairmen said the Subcommittees also had reason to question some statements in that report central to the recommendation that Mr. Proenza be removed as TPC Director and the thoroughness and purpose of the assessment.
“The assessment team either did not have the time or the inclination to obtain a full set of facts before drawing the conclusions that it did,” the chairmen wrote. They noted a specific incident in which the team alleged that Mr. Proenza had held media interviews in the middle of the hurricane center, disrupting its work, although Mr. Proenza stated that the interviews were arranged by public affairs staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”
The chairmen’s letter to Admiral Lautenbacher was followed by two other letters (linked below) requesting documents relating to the media interviews held during the assessment team’s visit to the TPC; the initial selection of Mr. Proenza to be head of the TPC; the selection and direction given to the TPC assessment team; and the report itself.
To read the complete letter to requesting additional documents from Admiral Lautenbacher click here.
To read the complete letter to Secretary Gutierrez about the findings of the operational assessment team click here.
For more information on the joint hearing, click here.
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