By
February 9, 2004

On January 22, the Conference of Mayors released its 2nd homeland security monitoring survey that found that 76 percent of cities have still not received any money from the largest homeland security program designed to assist first responders such as police, fire, and other local officials.

The Conference's first survey, released last September, found that 90 percent of the 168 cities surveyed had not received any funding under the largest federal homeland security program. "Today's survey shows that there are still too many cities that have not received funds," said Conference President Hempstead (NY) Mayor James A. Garner.

The nationwide report, entitled, the Second Mayors' Report to the Nation: Tracking Homeland Security Funds Sent to the 50 State Governments, found that five months after the release of the first survey, some cities had received FY 2003 funding through some of the programs, but most had not.

"Our first survey showed that many of the mayors' worst fears about the homeland security funding system were being realized," said Elizabeth (NJ) Mayor J. Christian Bollwage, Chairman of the Conference's Criminal and Social Justice Committee. "In this second survey, when mayors were asked five months later, whether the system for distributing federal homeland security funds through the states is serving us better, the answer that came back is no."

This new report, based on responses from 215 cities representing all 50 states and Puerto Rico, assesses the flow of federal homeland security money through the states to the cities.

"As I always say, homeland security money went to the states by Federal Express, but came to cities by Pony Express," Garner said. "This report is a national call for improving the system, and we look forward to sharing these findings with the Department of Homeland Security and Congress."

The report was sponsored by SentryPoints, who under the leadership of former Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, has developed software for real time management of emergency responders. SentryPoints offers a suite of technology tools that permit interoperability across all communication systems for seamless messaging capability.

The complete report is available at usmayors.org. Highlights include:

Federal First Responder/Critical Infrastructure — $1.5 Billion

• By the end of December 2003, 76 percent of the survey cities had not received this first responder/critical infrastructure funding through their states.
• Forty-five percent of cities had neither received funds nor been notified that they would.

State Domestic Preparedness — $556 Million

• Of the cities surveyed, 64 percent had not received this domestic preparedness funding through their states.
• In 49 percent of the cities, officials said they had not been given an adequate opportunity to influence their states in regard to how these funds could be used in their cities.

Urban Area Security Initiative — $600 Million

• Officials in 46 percent of the cities surveyed said they have not been involved in the state planning process for the use of the UASI funds. Among those involved in the planning process, 23 percent do not believe they had a satisfactory opportunity to influence how the funds will be used.
• Thirty'seven percent of the cities do not believe that local governments in their area will be able to use the funds they receive to address their top security priorities.

Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Hospital Preparedness — $1.4 Billion

• Officials in 41 percent of the cities do not believe their city government or health department had an adequate opportunity to participate in their state's planning process for public health and hospital preparedness activities to be funded through this program.
• In 81 percent of the survey cities, officials anticipate that the health department serving their residents will be funded through this program; officials in three-fourths of the cities expect that one or more of their hospitals will receive funding.

Airport Law Enforcement Reimbursement

• In survey cities that provide law enforcement assistance to an airport, 46 percent of the airport operators have not been reimbursed for additional law enforcement costs associated with security at airport checkpoints.
• For those airports which have been reimbursed, 35 percent of the cities report that the airport operator has not provided this reimbursement to the city government.

Port Security Grant Program — $245 Million

• Officials in half of the survey cities having a port that is receiving funding through this program say they were responsible for providing security or other services to that port.
• Of these cities, 64 percent say they are not receiving funding through the program.

City Involvement in State Planning Processes

• Officials in 22 percent of the survey cities said they had not been asked to submit a needs assessment to their state.
• In 37 percent of the cities, officials said they have not been involved in, or been contacted by the state to become involved in, the development of the state homeland security strategy. Among these cities, 26 percent do not expect to be involved.