Washington, DC
October 28, 2005

National Action Homeland Security Plan/Chertoff Meeting

Conference President Beverly O’Neill brought this week her appointed homeland security mayoral leadership, along with key city police and fire executives, to meet with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. It was our first meeting with Secretary Chertoff since he became President Bush’s top federal official for this most critical issue on February 15.

Over the past few months since the London subway bombings and the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, Mayor O’Neill has taken the position that The United State Conference of Mayors must develop a new and improved national action plan for the federal government with special emphasis on the question of fixing a flawed system that is cumbersome due to a lack of direct relationship to local governments.

During our meeting this week, as we prepared for our first meeting with Secretary Chertoff, all mayors, police and fire executives charged with the responsibility of directing the nation’s forces of first responders – agree that the original homeland security law of inserting the state governments in between the federal government and city governments is flawed, not working – and indeed dangerous to the goals we all have of protecting our people form immediate harm of natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

The Conference of Mayors took a strong position with Congress and the White House when the homeland security law was passed that in emergency situations, the 50 states are not in the position to respond effectively to save lives, because the states do not administer or have the command authority over the thousands of first responders, police, fire, and emergency personnel, charged with restoring order and saving lives during a homeland security or natural disaster event.

This week Republican and Democratic mayors and police and fire executives took a unified position that the federal government must identify a lead military agency to work with city governments in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. They also are demanding a mechanism for a direct relationship with the federal government and city government to avoid the state apparatus which is flawed and too cumbersome.

The mayors and the police and fire executives all advocated this position of using the military and avoiding the flawed state apparatus to Secretary Chertoff during our private sessions and he listened to us. The language agreed to is printed on page 4 of this edition.

In addition to using the military and avoiding the cumbersome state bureaucracies, mayors this week stressed the need for Secretary Chertoff to officially honor our mutual aid compacts established by local governments in different regions and the city-to-city relationships that have surfaced since Katrina. The reason for this request is to enlist Secretary Chertoff to help us in urging Congress and federal authorities to accept our mutual aid compacts and city-to-city as part of the system that allows reimbursement and liability protection.

The many war stories and facts presented about how the present FEMA'state government structure is not working and gave evidence to our group and was the basis for a number of strong recommendations that we hope Secretary Chertoff will accept and work with us and our first responders to do one thing – save lives and prevent confusion to our local responders.

While money and direct funding is certainly an issue, this week’s meeting focused more on the protocols of how our federal government must relate and use mayors and city governments as we move to fix FEMA, remove the states out of way, so we can move in and let the first responders at the city level do their job.

All agreed this week that the state governments do not have first responders. Gary Mayor Scott King was quite forceful in making the point that in Indiana the governor has only a State Fire Marshall with no fire protection employees. Fire fighters are first responders all hired and administered by local governments. The same is true with our police forces. All are the responsibility and under the responsibility of local governments.

As for the National Guard, it was pointed out that most are in Iraq with forces depleted to help in the event that a governor finally decides to use the National Guard to help our first responders.

Many expressed also this week the very cumbersome nature of filling out forms and paper work that is required by the State FEMA offices who are now responsible, but unable, to meet the crisis situation when the local first responders are needed. Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith says quite bluntly that the present EMAC system is way too cumbersome. After Katrina FEMA set up a temporary mash-unit hospital in a place miles away to serve a small number of Katrina victims. Mayor Smith tells a horror story of how he could not under the present flawed system get the mobile hospital moved to care for the victims. In desperation Mayor Smith’s wife and a number of Mississippi doctors moved to ground zero in Long Beach, Mississippi to care for and serve 300 patients a day. This was done without approval but it saved lives.

Let us hope that we finally realize that we need to fix FEMA and recognize that mayors need the military and not the apparatus of state governments to back up our first responders. No doubt, these recommendations adopted this week will continue to be a part of President O’Neill’s agenda as we move forward to provide our first responders in our cities the support they need to save lives and restore order in the onslaught of natural disasters and the possibility of terrorist attacks today, tomorrow or in the weeks and months ahead of us.

We have printed the recommendations in this edition of US Mayor. Please see cover story of the O’Neill/Chertoff meeting. Our recommendations are being sent to all mayors and Congress soon. Meantime, if there are questions call me or Ed Somers, our lead staff person on homeland security.

Conference President Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill’s mission to China last week was the most successful international mission I have ever been a part of. I make this statement due to what is at stake with the nations of USA and China. The mission was a breakthrough in our dialogue with Chinese appointed mayors as well as our dialogue with Foreign Ministry officials.

The openness and future relations pledged are a result of the highest respect the Chinese have for Mayor O’Neill. Her position throughout her career in dealing with the Long Beach Port and the Chinese and their huge trade with us has resulted in their respect for her and their trust for her.

Because of this, we will go forward to strengthen our relationship with the China Association of Mayors.

Never before have we had so much press and media covering a USCM international mission. Front page stories and coverage on Chinese television was unprecedented.

Mayor O’Neill has taken our relationship with the China Association of Mayors and the Central Government of China to a new plateau. We also thank our other Mayors – Michael A. Guido of Dearborn, Elizabeth B. Kautz of Burnsville, Scott King of Gary, and Judith Valles of San Bernardino – who were a part of history as we all did our best to represent our organization in China with mayors in individual cities serving many millions.

Next week, President O’Neill raises the Conference of Mayors’ flag in Denver where she and our Transportation Chair Denver Mayor John W. Hickenlooper will preside over a forum on transportation security and investment.

In our recommendations to Secretary Chertoff this past week, rail and mass transit security issues were part of our agenda. In Denver next week we will be focusing on --- evacuation of American cities, rail and mass transit security plus making sure we get a fair share of federal transportation monies sent to state houses under the new transportation bill just signed into law. These topics will all be a part of the O’Neill Forum on Transportation. We encourage all of you to attend this forum on November 3. Please contact Ron Thaniel, Assistant Executive Director, our lead transportation staff person if you need information or have questions about transportation issues and the Denver meeting.

Special thoughts and support of Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz and all our other Florida mayors who, as US Mayor goes to print, are still without electricity and short of supplies needed. Let us hope that power and needs are soon restored. And let us hope that this horrendous 2005 hurricane season, devastating to our nation, will soon be over.