Brian Colón, managing partner at Singleton Schreiber in New Mexico, was recently featured in Yahoo! Finance in their article, "FEMA director steps down" on January 18th, 2024, which covered the departure of Angela Gladwell and FEMA's plans to create a new chief operating officer position to lead the long-term recovery efforts for people who suffered losses caused by the Hermit's Peak and Calf Canyon fires.
"We have been deeply disappointed in Angela Gladwell's lack of leadership and effectiveness and lack of competence," Colón said in a phone interview Thursday. "We have taken the position for a long time that Gladwell was incompetent and didn't have the right experience to lead this operation, and their failures have been the proof in the pudding" adding, "FEMA needs to replace her with someone who has legal expertise and understands Northern New Mexico. . . Our preference is that FEMA identify a retired judge in New Mexico that is respected by the people."