Remember my open letter to Andrew Cuomoabout former Katrina Kaiser (as opposed to Kay Kyser) Ed Blakely? I kept wondering why there was no confirmation from Noo Yawk and when the Sandy Commission was announced, the pompous Dr. Blakely’s name was missing.Here’s how the Gambit covered it:
Brad Penuel, the co-chair of the New York Hurricane Sandy commission to which Dr. Ed Blakely claimed he had been appointed last week, told Gambit by phone today he wasn’t familiar with Blakely — and in a subsequent email, added, “Just received confirmation that Ed Blakely will not be serving on the Commission.”
Blakely — the Hurricane Katrina “recovery czar” who had been
appointed under former Mayor Ray Nagin — made big waves last week when
his new employer, the University of Sydney in Australia, issued a press release saying Blakely had been appointed to the Respond Commission. Blakely gave an interview on the subject to an Australian radio station, confirming the appointment.The Respond Commission is one of three announced by the state of New
York to analyze the response to Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath.
Penuel, its co-chair, is also director of the Center for Catastrophe
Preparedness and Response at New York University,An official press release released an hour ago from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
office announced the commission’s makeup and made no mention of
Blakely, although it noted “Additional appointments may be made to the
commissions.”Penuel, though, made it clear that Blakely would not be one of them.
I’m not sure if the flack from NOLA caused a retreat or Blakely just lied about it. My money is on the latter. Kaiser Ed has never been part of the reality based community and he’s too old to start now.