A disaster recovery expert who worked in New York after Sept. 11 is now in charge of helping New Orleans rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

Alex Brandon / Associated Press

Ed Blakely talks after he was named the Executive Director for Recovery by Mayor Nagin.

More than 15 months after the storm, Mayor Ray Nagin announced Monday that Edward J. Blakely will serve as head of the city's new recovery office and help marshal a process that critics have derided as too slow.

Blakely, a former top policy adviser to two Oakland mayors who also helped coordinate recovery planning in California after two natural disasters, said his job is to coordinate all the different branches of "bureaucracy" involved in the recovery effort.

"There are a lot of plans, and those plans have to be brought together under a single umbrella," he said.

Blakely, a professor of urban planning at the University of Sydney for the past two years, was a dean at the New School University in New York at the time of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He also helped coordinate disaster recovery planning in California after the 1989 Bay Area earthquake and the 1991 Oakland wildfire.

"We think he's the best in the world to help us to get through this recovery," Nagin said during a news conference called to announce Blakely's appointment.

Nagin, asked why it took so long to hire a recovery czar, said he was waiting for "momentum and clarity" before hiring someone for the job. "We now have that," he added.

Nagin had said in a recent interview a recovery director previously didn't make sense because "I couldn't really communicate to the person their authority, how the money was flowing, how (the recovery) would be set up. All that clarity is in place (now)."

Blakely's salary has not been set by the City Council, but he is expected to earn about $150,000 annually. Blakely, 69, said he is taking a leave of absence from his other work.

Nagin also has hired Becca O'Brien, a former policy director for the federal government's Gulf Coast recovery operation, as his executive counsel.

In September, Nagin marked the first 100 days of his second term by announcing the city would create a recovery office. Last month, he told the city council he had a high-profile person in mind to lead it.

Blakely, who has been to New Orleans several times since Katrina hit in August 2005, said the city's recovery has been bogged down by the number of bureaucracies and people involved and by the lack of a modern, citywide master plan.

"It's important to bring about recovery quickly, efficiently and well-coordinated," he said. "And that's my role here: to coordinate all the pieces of the public bureaucracy, to ensure that the public and private plans turn into implementation."

Blakely said one of his goals is to ensure that all residents who want to return and rebuild are able to come back to New Orleans.

"Every piece of the city can be rebuilt," he said. "The question is, 'How do we rebuild it to ensure that the people in that part of the city are (as) safe and secure as people in the rest of the city are?"'

The city has made strides, Nagin said. "I just need somebody to take me to the next level."

Blakely, a California native who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor of Oakland in 1998, said he plans to set up a coordinating council to ensure New Orleans government leaders are working together. He also wants his office to provide regular updates on its work.

He said he's been assured he will have the authority to name his staff, which is expected to include four other people. Nagin proposed spending about $497,300 for the office next year.

Some of those who have worked with Blakely say he is a consensus builder and a visionary with a thick skin.

"He's a pillar of integrity," said Robert Yaro, the president of the Regional Plan Association, a New York-based urban policy and planning group. "He has this amazing, Zen-like calm in this sea of emotion."

John Renne, a professor in the department of planning and urban studies at the University of New Orleans, called Blakely a "powerhouse in urban planning," but noted he is stepping into a difficult role.

"Really, you need a special person that would be able to perform in this type of job, because if the person fails to deliver it's greater than the individual," Renne said. "It's really about, is the city going to recover?"

Blakely said he feels pressure because the world is watching what happens. In Australia, Blakely's local newspaper routinely carries stories on New Orleans, many of which aren't flattering to the United States, he said. How the United States takes care of its own people affects how it's viewed by other countries, he said.

"In New Orleans, we have to look like we know what we're doing," Blakely said.

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Associated Press reporter Michael Kunzelman contributed to this story.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)