Adjutant Gen. Jim Butterworth, who was appointed to lead the Georgia National Guard in 2011, will take over as director of the Georgia Department of Emergency Management. Brig. Gen. Joe Jarrard has been appointed to replace Butterworth as adjutant general. The change was announced Monday as part of staff changes inside Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration before his second term. The head of Georgia’s emergency management agency has been reassigned to a deputy position, months after becoming the public face of the state’s weak response to a January storm that trapped motorists on highways in metro Atlanta for hours.
Charley English has been with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency since 1996 and became its director eight years ago. English also is a past president of the National Emergency Management Association, which is comprised of top emergency response officials from each state. Critics questioned Deal for keeping English in the role in the storm’s aftermath, but Deal said then that he wasn’t looking for a scapegoat. English also apologized for the state’s response, saying two days after the storm that he had “made a terrible mistake and put the governor in an awful position.”
Terry Rogers , currently serving as 10th district state representative commented, “I think that the Governor made a good appointment in naming Jim Butterworth as the new director of GEMA. The agency has seen some glitches within the past year, most noticeably their response to last January’s snowstorm. Jim will bring a fresh perspective to the agency and may be able to identify potential problems that someone currently within GEMA might not see. That’s extremely important as our state moves forward.”
Butterworth is a former Republican state senator who was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program at the University of Georgia. Prior to his election to the State Senate for the 50th District, he served on the Habersham Board of Commissioners. He and his wife, Amy, have 4 children and are members of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Clarkesville.
