John J. Kelly Jr. took over Thursday as the nation's top weatherman, a new job and yet in many ways one with which he's familiar.
Kelly becomes director of the National Weather Service as El Nino-spawned storms blast California, Florida struggles to recover from deadly tornadoes and parts of New England are still recuperating from a devastating ice storm.One report quoted Kelly as saying "now everybody has someone to blame for the weather - and it was me." But, he added, "It was a position I was used to."
A 31-year Air Force veteran, Kelly headed the Air Weather Service for six years and knows that forecasters often get blamed for weather, even though they are just the messengers.
"I used to tell everyone we were really not in production, we were in sales and marketing and you should go see the chaplains if you were unhappy with what was occurring. Our job was to tell you what was going to occur," he said in an interview.
Kelly steps into the management post at a time of turmoil for the agency, but its not new territory for him and he'll be well paid for the effort.
In addition to his $125,900 salary from the Weather Service, Kelly will be allowed to keep receiving his military retirement of about $66,000. Rules that normally ban such double payment were waived by the Office of Personnel Management after the Commerce Department appealed on grounds that it was a difficult post to fill.
The man Kelly replaces, Elbert W. Friday, was transferred last summer in a dispute with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over a $41 million budget shortfall. The Weather Service is part of NOAA and both are within the Commerce Department.
Commerce Secretary William Daley then ordered an outside review of management at the Weath-er Service, and Kelly was called in to do it.
Now, the retired general gets to finish implementing changes he recommended for the agency's accounting and management.
"One of the first things I want to do is, I want to talk to the employees," Kelly said. "In my initial days at Weather Service I need to listen."