Mayors seek direct homeland security funds

WASHINGTON, March 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors Friday pushed the case for giving direct grants to the nation's major cities for homeland security rather than funneling the funds through state capitals.

"Sending that money to the statehouse is a recipe for delay," Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley said in a Web cast. Noting funds already have been sent to state capitals, he said cities have seen few, if any, of those dollars.

"If it hasn't arrived here in the last year-and-a-half, I haven't a whole lot of hope for (new funds) to arrive any sooner," O'Malley said.

O'Malley and conference Executive Director Tom Cochran issued a "direct appeal for money for first responders" to Congress to help pay for training and new equipment.

"What we need is less red tape and more action," Cochran said.

O'Malley said cities need help in paying police and firefighters overtime in case of emergency.

"Of the $12 million we have spent so far (in Baltimore for stepped up security), $3 million has gone to overtime," O'Malley said.

Cochran said cities have been digging a deeper and deeper financial hole since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

"People look to their mayor when you have a school shooting ... or anything like that," Cochran said.

O'Malley said America is not organized along political boundaries or by state, but rather outward from population centers.

"Congress just doesn't understand this," he said.

In pushing the case to provide homeland security funds directly to cities, O'Malley stressed major population centers are working with smaller communities to secure water supplies, coordinate emergency communication systems and in other matters.

O'Malley said emergency planning now must consider there will be more than one incident at a time.

"I the past, we prepared for one incident, believing we would be dealing with an accident, a chemical spill or whatever," he said. "What we have to prudently plan for now is there will be more than one incident at a time ... stretching our emergency response capabilities."