Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Manager leaving the eye of storms

The Emergency Management director who led Pasco through 2004's hurricanes will move to Engineering Services.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
Published March 10, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - Michele Baker, the woman whose sunny disposition carried Pasco through its stormiest days, is leaving her post as the county's Emergency Management director.

For 12 years, the unflappable Baker has spearheaded the county's response to hurricanes, floods and other disasters. She decides when to evacuate people. She makes the televised pleas for residents to head to shelters. She handles the phone calls from people whose homes have been destroyed, and she sifts through the mountains of paperwork to apply for every kind of state and federal disaster aid.

Baker said Wednesday that she is trading all of that for a promotion. On March 28 she will become Pasco County's program administrator for Engineering Services, which means she will help with everything from stormwater improvements to Penny for Pasco projects to environmental land acquisition.

"One of the things I like about my current position is I get to help people," Baker said. "I get to help people in an emergency. In (the new) job I can help people daily."

Her departure comes less than a year after Pasco County faced the unprecedented trifecta of hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne - and just two months before the start of the next hurricane season.

She's not leaving Pasco County, but she is leaving a post where she is considered one of the leading experts in the state.

"She's always been held in high regard," said Larry Gispert, manager of Hillsborough County's Office of Emergency Management. "She's an ultimate professional. She knew her business and was willing to help people who needed the help."

Baker was on the front lines of Hurricane Andrew recovery in Miami-Dade County before coming to Pasco County in 1993. In the following years, she worked with officials across the state to better plan for "special needs" residents who require medical supervision at shelters.

"We are where we are today, in terms of being able to take care of our special needs population, because of Michele Baker," said Laura Beagles, former Hernando County Emergency Management director, who now works for Dade City.

Baker's promotion means Pasco County is looking for a new person to lead the way when disasters strike. Jim Johnston, the operations coordinator for Emergency Management, will likely run the office in the interim, Baker said.

"I'll be here to help select" the new person, Baker said. "The goal is to replace me with someone who can take the program to even better places."

Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is hall@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:15:14]