Homeland security funding for 2007 pulled from region

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors expressed opposition to the US Department of Homeland Security’s removal of the San Diego Region from the list of eligible regions to receive funding under the new Urban Area Security Initiative distribution plan.

A 5-0 vote January 24 directed the county’s Chief Administrative Officer to draft a letter for board chairman Bill Horn’s signature to be sent to the US Department of Homeland Security and to San Diego County’s Congressional delegation expressing the supervisors’ opposition to the removal of the San Diego region from the list of eligible regions to receive funding in 2007. The letter will also ask that San Diego County be placed on the permanent list of eligible regions.

“It is totally illogical that San Diego is left off the list of the 35 areas facing the greatest risk of attack,” said Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

On January 3 the Department of Homeland Security announced the availability of $765 million in direct funding for high-threat urban areas as part of the 2006 Urban Area Security Initiative, which is intended to provide resources for critical and unique equipment, training, planning and exercise needs of selected high-threat urban areas. Funding from the program is allocated to communities facing the greatest risk and demonstrating the greatest need.

The Department of Homeland Security uses a risk-based formula which considers three primary factors: consequence, vulnerability and threat. Other factors considered in the formula include international borders, population and population density, the location of critical infrastructure, formal mutual aid cooperation, law enforcement investigations and enforcement activity.

“We have the busiest border crossing in the world; we’re the sixth largest city in the nation,” Jacob said. “We have the largest concentration of military bases in the country.”

San Diego County actually has three international border crossings: San Ysidro, Otay Mesa and Tecate. More than 50 million people each year cross into the United States through the San Ysidro crossing.

Other international traffic reaches San Diego County through the Pacific Ocean. The US Coast Guard has warned that Al-Queda might be involved in shipping operations. “I don’t have to remind anybody here that San Diego is a major seaport,” Jacob said.

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which provides power to more than 15 million Southern California residents, has been the target of terror threats in the past. “We have a really critical nuclear power plant,” Jacob said.

San Diego is also one of the nation’s most popular tourist destinations. In 2005 the county was the destination for more than 27 million visitors. That includes cruise ship terminals, where an estimated 650,000 passengers will disembark in San Diego during 2006. The San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Legoland and the San Diego Wild Animal Park combined for more than 10 million visitors in 2005, creating dense populations and vulnerability to terrorist attacks.

In February 2000, more than 18 months prior to the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the County of San Diego, along with UCSD Medical Center and SAIC, held a conference on terrorism and specifically bioterrorism. “We did it because everything that we saw indicated that San Diego was at risk,” said Supervisor Ron Roberts. “The risk factors were pretty clear to us.”

Those factors included the international border, the port, tourism, military bases and the nuclear power plant. “It seemed to us that we should be concerned,” Roberts said.

Horn noted that 25 percent of deployed troops are from San Diego County military installations. “It’s ridiculous to me that they would not consider San Diego at the top of this list,” he said.

The cities designated for funding include Detroit, Cleveland and Columbus (Ohio). “I frankly fail to grasp how these places are viewed as more significant threats than San Diego,” Jacob said.

“We’re not sure what list they’re using,” Roberts said. “Whatever criteria they’re using, it makes no sense whatsoever.”

The $765 million allocation is a $90 million reduction from last year, so the number of regions able to receive funding has been reduced. Although San Diego has been listed as eligible for sustainment funding in 2006, the Department of Homeland Security indicated that San Diego might be dropped from eligibility in 2007 unless a compelling need was shown.

“We need to get this turned around,” Roberts said.

“That money goes for very specialized equipment,” Roberts said. “It allows us to do things we simply don’t have the resources to do.”