Barb McDowell, who was hired by Coastal Community Action Program to help with flood relief efforts, was terminated by CCAP yesterday and believes her criticism of operations within the organization, along with her inability to emotionally detach from victims, got her fired.
McDowell first got involved in flood relief as part of citizen-led volunteer efforts. She was hired by CCAP with funds from the Grays Harbor Community Foundation after the storm in early January left Aberdeen and Hoquiam residents displaced and was tasked with answering phone calls from flood victims and referring them to organizations that could cater to their specific needs.
The decision to hire McDowell was made after CCAP was deemed the hub for anything flood-related.
McDowell said she believed CCAP, a local non-profit social service agency that typically deals with programs to help low income families, was taking on more than it could handle. She is upset that the County’s Department of Emergency Management, which is equipped to deal with disaster relief in the event of an emergency, didn’t play a bigger role in the flood effort.
She voiced these opinions while at CCAP and believed that played a part in her being fired.
“This needs to be at the Emergency Operations Center or Department of Emergency Management level because it’s not fair for this to be housed at CCAP,” she said. “I was very action-oriented and very direct,” while interacting with CCAP officials and that was “deemed unprofessional,” she said.
McDowell also said she believes she was let go because she stretched her job responsibilities when CCAP officials didn’t see fit. She said she worked on getting individual families resources they needed when city and county agencies could not, forcing her to work on a case-by-case basis.
McDowell admitted that her getting too involved with individual families was not what was asked of her.
“I broke the protocol and did not follow my directives 100 percent,” she said.
Craig Dublanko, CCAP’s CEO, said the decision was made as a way to streamline flood relief operations, saying McDowell struggled to keep up with the tremendous amount of phone calls the organization was getting from residents who needed help.
Dublanko said McDowell was a “well-meaning person with a workload that wasn’t manageable.”
Jackie Jamieson, who played a large part in organizing the “Harbor Strong” cleanup that took place on Jan. 10, will replace McDowell. Jamieson will be trained on Wednesday and start immediately.
“She (Jackie) knows how things need to be set up for success,” said Dublanko.
However, Dublanko also made clear that many residents were given the resources they needed while McDowell was with CCAP and he didn’t want people to lose sight of that.
“A lot of people got helped,” he said.
An incident management team comprised of firefighters, police officers and emergency management experts has been housed at CCAP since last week and has helped with coordinating the effort. Dublanko says with the team at CCAP, operations have gone far smoother and added if those resources were present earlier, McDowell might still have a job.
“Had the volume been that high with these systems (incident management team), the outcome might have been different,” he said. “We appreciate all the work that Barb did and look forward to what Jackie will do.”
McDowell said she will continue to help flood victims on her own time and hopes that those affected can get the help they need in order to fully recover.
Dublanko made it clear that CCAP is still the place to call if anyone needs flood assistance. He added that he is confident the incident management team is pointing relief efforts in the right direction.
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