Emergency staffing lamented

CARSON CITY -- Some members of the Homeland Security Commission expressed regret and dismay Wednesday that an effort to increase staffing in the security agency to ensure it operates effectively was unsuccessful in the 2007 legislative session.

The Division of Emergency Management submitted a request for eight new positions during the creation of the 2007-09 budget. But none of the new positions made it into the funding plan submitted by Gov. Jim Gibbons and approved by the Legislature.

"I would suggest the public may not be happy with the status quo when we deal with homeland security, especially when we hear the threat is real and the threat is there," said Commissioner Robert Fisher.

Commission Vice Chairman Jerry Keller, a former Clark County sheriff, agreed with Fisher.

"This is exactly the bureaucratic morass that the citizens find so disruptive about government," he said.

Efforts to increase staff has failed for the past three years, despite the fact that everyone agrees the positions are needed, Keller said.

"I am very disappointed. It seems like we are barking in the wind."

Commissioner Bob Hadfield said the failure to fund the positions reflects a lack of will, not ability.

Every time federal grant money flows to a state agency, state support is taken out and the budget never increases, he said.

State support is needed for the agency to operate properly, Hadfield said.

Kamala Carmazzi, deputy chief of the Division of Emergency Management, said the eight positions were requested based on an accreditation review that demonstrated their need. The commission sent a letter to the governor seeking support of the positions, but they were not ultimately included in the budget sent to the Legislature.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, a nonvoting member of the commission, said the Legislature might want to consider giving the governor more flexibility to add staff to the agency as needed, given that it must respond quickly if an event occurs.

"This is a unique and critical area of state government," he said. "It might be one way to help us out in staffing up when we need it."

Melissa Subbotin, press secretary to Gibbons, said the governor supports needed staff increases for the agency, but inherited most of the budget from his predecessor, former Gov. Kenny Guinn. There was little time to evaluate the need for the new positions in the many different agency budgets, she said.

Gibbons will support additional positions that can be justified for the agency, but that cannot happen until the next legislative session that begins in February 2009, Subbotin said.

"First we need to evaluate the roles the current staff serves," she said. "Once there is agreement on what additional resources are needed, we will take proactive steps to address those needs."

It would be a disservice to taxpayers to add positions without first ensuring they are justified, Subbotin said.

The agency is ready and capable of responding to an emergency, she said.

The Office of Homeland Security had seven positions prior to the 2007 budget recommendations.

Gibbons recommended six positions for the agency, and the Legislature funded five. But three additional positions will be added if the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee provides the money for the state fusion hub in the capital, bringing the total to eight.

The staffing discussion came as the commission approved spending $18.1 million in federal grants on a variety of programs, including the state fusion hub sought by Gibbons and the fusion centers to be operated in Clark and Washoe counties.

Of the total grant funding, $7 million will go to three fusion centers.

The state hub, a smaller operation than those in the two urban counties, will receive about $605,000 of that total.

Fusion centers are intelligence gathering systems that are intended to ensure information sharing among various law enforcement agencies at all levels of government.

Gibbons will now approach the Interim Finance Committee to seek an additional $651,000 over two years in state funding for the three positions for the state hub.