New Hampshire Fire Chief Finds Homeland Security a Cash Cow
So the Seabrook fire chief asked the Department of Homeland Security for next to nothing, stepping aside to allow the town?s police department to get new communications equipment with the town?s share of homeland security dollars. Brown asked only for a sign to direct traffic in the event of a power plant disaster.
And when the 2004 round of homeland security funding was announced, the police communications equipment was approved. The sign, not on the federal shopping list, was denied.
Meanwhile, police and fire departments across the Seacoast were ordering and receiving everything from all-terrain vehicles, digital radios and a decontamination tent, to thermal-imaging cameras, a mass-casualty trailer and a mobile feeding truck.
"ATVs were being approved all over the state, but we couldn?t get a traffic sign to tell people how to get out of Dodge," said Brown. "Seabrook didn?t want ATVs. We didn?t think we needed them."
But in neighboring Hampton, emergency officials did cite need for all-terrain vehicles and received four of them - two for police and two for fire.
"We?re only a mile as the crow flies to the nuclear plant," said Hampton Fire Chief Hank Lipe. "We have a high-risk area with a lot of transient people, busy beach weekends, concerts, an interstate highway - they all increase the risk for manmade disasters."
Those factors also prompted Hampton to apply for, and later receive, a quarter-million homeland security dollars to put laptops in its fire trucks, and another $75,000 in "wellness and fitness" money, which will be used to give firefighters elaborate physical examinations and purchase gym equipment.
Of the latter, Lipe said he has "no idea where we?re going to put it."
Over in Newington, where New England?s largest supply of petroleum products are delivered and stored, Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Cote has seen few homeland security dollars. With a population of just 900 and the state at first distributing homeland security funds via a population-based formula, Newington received just $781 of the $5.7 million state pot during the first round of funding.
Things have improved for Newington since former Gov. Craig Benson switched the formula to risk-based distribution, but the assistant fire chief still can?t report any big-ticket homeland security grants coming his way.
That?s in contrast to the local Port Authority, currently spending more than $1 million in federal dollars on Market Street security upgrades, including federal money approved for baggage screening at a ferry no longer providing the service cited to federal grantmakers. Newington?s funding also pales next to York?s $93,800 "mobile feeding unit," equipped with a griddle, steam table and generator for meal preparation at crime scenes.
On Tuesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee recommended a bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would reduce the amount of DHS funds guaranteed to each state to .55 percent of the nation?s total, while applying the same formula to large cities.
At the same time, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., is pushing legislation for a .25 percent state minimum and .45 percent for states on international borders, but with high-risk areas being funded first.
Appearing on "60 Minutes" April 10, Cox described the distribution of homeland security money as "pork barrel."
New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg sounds in agreement.
"The money is still going out in a haphazard way," Gregg said. "The bottom line is that the dollars for first responders should go out solely through threat assessment, which would mean New Hampshire wouldn?t get as much."
Asked if he?d comment on some Seacoast examples of homeland security spending, Sen. Gregg offered a one-word reply.
"No."
Filing for dollars
When the state of New Hampshire switched its homeland security funding distribution formula from population-based to risk-driven, Seabrook rose to the top of the list for hosting a nuclear power plant.
It was after that, during the 2004 funding round, that the town received $360,000 to upgrade communications for the police dispatch center. Prior to that, Seabrook had only received $35,000 during the first two rounds, when Fire Chief Brown found nothing he needed on the list of authorized items.
The Fire Department, like most N.H. emergency departments, did receive digital radios - part of Benson?s "interoperability" program, allowing emergency departments throughout the state to communicate - but little else.
And Brown would still like that Get Out of Dodge sign.
Also on his wish list are training and a full-time "presence at Seabrook station."
"If the you-know-what hits the fan at Seabrook Station, it?s going to be too late for body bags and armored vehicles," he said.
But the York Police Department has ordered body bags with homeland security money, part of an approved and pending "mass-casualty trailer" stocked with "supplies needed for a real serious event," said York Police Chief Douglas Bracy. That includes medical supplies, like intravenous equipment, the body bags and a three-quarter-ton pickup truck to haul it all, now on order with homeland security funds.
A traffic-control trailer, currently being wired, is also on order for York, to be used for "shutting down large areas with barricades," said the chief, adding the trailer can be used regionally.
York also purchased $43,600 worth of self-contained breathing apparatus equipment for the Fire Department with $70,000 in homeland security funds to be used in conjunction with hazardous material or "biological incidents," said the chief.
Also in case of a hazardous materials disaster, the town is expecting delivery of heated decontamination tents, complete with showers for washing hazardous material from contaminated people before transporting them to hospitals, preventing contamination of emergency rooms.
Also coming soon to York from the Department of Homeland Security are mobile radios, police department vehicle locator systems and the $93,800 mobile feeding unit.
"It?s a mobile canteen, really," said Bracy of the latter.
In addition to offering hot meals for emergency workers, the feeding unit can provide emergency lighting, be used as a "command vehicle," and will replace a five-year-old unit, used during the York police investigation of the death of Wendy Morello, found Sept. 13 in a York trash barrel. Bracy said the unit has also responded out of town to mutual-aid calls.
So has homeland security money been good to York?
"Yes, very good," said Bracy. "Homeland security money is supposed to be for terrorism, but I look at it as for major events. If a bus turns over on the highway, through this, we?re much more prepared. And it?s the same difference as if a terrorist exploded a bomb on a bus."
While he wouldn?t comment on specific Seacoast homeland security expenditures, Gregg remarked generally about the current distribution system, while taking a national view.
"My sense is that money is being used to gear up police, fire and civil defense efforts," he said. "We do have higher targets. And those are the people who should get it."
In case of emergency
About 80 percent of the region?s petroleum products, including liquefied propane, gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating fuel, kerosene and aviation fuel, pass through Newington.
Knowing this, Assistant Fire Chief Cote believes that if Department of Homeland Security funds were distributed according to risk, his town would fare better.
As it is, Newington has received less than most Seacoast communities.
Cote reported a $23,000 homeland security appropriation last year, spent "for things we really could use." That included new bunker gear and self-contained breathing units.
"It really helped us out with equipment," he said. "The stuff we got from the 2004 grant was out of necessity."
In December he learned another $64,000 in homeland security money had been approved for Newington, and a decision has been made to use it for extrication and other rescue equipment, as well as 25 trackers to attach to the breathing tanks for tracking lost or downed firefighters.
Last year, Cote applied for homeland security funds for a firefighting boat, citing a large volume of Newington boat traffic and a handful of boat fires. Like Portsmouth?s request for a fire boat, Newington?s was also denied.
The Division of Ports and Harbors also requested a boat, in its case, to patrol Portsmouth harbor. That, too, was denied.
Division of Ports and Harbors Director Geno Marconi recalls being critical of the funding distribution during the first few rounds when his department received nothing. But he describes the recent award of $1.5 million for "security upgrades" from the ?04 funding as "very satisfactory."
Plans call for lighting, fences, cameras, a boat ramp and a floating dock at the PDA?s Market Street terminal. That homeland security funding requires a state match of $200,000, and Marconi reports he was able to convince the federal government to count $320,000 in previously approved state funds for the purpose of moving his office to the Market Street terminal as that collateral.
Part of the port?s homeland security grant was in response to Marconi?s request for construction of a shelter and baggage screening technology for use at the Isles of Shoals Steamship Co., which has since discontinued ferry service cited on the funding application.
Marconi said he?s received approval to spend that money "in another area of enhancement."
With the recent loss of four firefighters, a deputy chief and a part-time secretary, all due to budget cuts, Hampton Fire Chief Lipe puts homeland security funds in perspective.
"Equipment is nice," he said. "But if you don?t have the guys to run it, what good is it?"
Still, Lipe has been fortunate when it comes to post-9/11 federal dollars.
The Hampton Police and Fire departments use the four, DHS-funded ATVs for beach rescues, getting around current construction and negotiating crowds during the town?s annual seafood festival.
And, according to former seafood festival Chairman Gerald Dignam, the town has also used homeland security money to pay for police details at that same festival, something that doesn?t sit well with the Hampton resident.
"I think it was a waste of taxpayers? money," said Dignam.
The Hampton Fire Department was also awarded $74,864 in "wellness and fitness funding" administered by the Department of Homeland Security, which Lipe said will be used to whip his firefighters into shape. Lipe said firefighters will receive physical examinations - more comprehensive than an ordinary physical exam - followed by personalized health regimes.
Gym equipment is also authorized under the program and will be purchased for Hampton in spite of the fire chief?s uncertainty of where it will be located.
Dignam also has an opinion about that.
"I have nothing against firemen. They do a great job," he said. "But if they?re going to stay in shape, that?s their responsibility."
In the aftermath of former Gov. Benson?s funding formula switch two years ago, national lawmakers continue to debate the merits of current distribution, which divides 40 percent of the $1.78 billion national pot evenly among the states.
California Rep. Cox, also chairman of the national House Homeland Security Committee, said the other 60 percent of homeland security money has been divvied among the most influential congressional districts. His bill would mandate determining terrorism risk and prioritize funding to the likeliest of targets.
In a press release issued Tuesday, Maine?s Sen. Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said her bill would ensure high-risk areas receive "appropriate funding," while smaller states, like hers, would not be forgotten.
Cox told "60 Minutes" last week that states are buying vehicles, equipment, clothing and all sorts of items under the guise of homeland security, because the current distribution system says "everything has something to do with homeland security."
York Police Chief Bracy isn?t apologizing.
"It?s there to be used for emergency purposes," said the chief. "If it was only for terrorism, I don?t think I would?ve taken it."