By Donna Porstner
Staff Writer
September 10, 2006
STAMFORD -- Five years after the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, the city's share of homeland security funding is plummeting.
Stamford's share of the federal funds distributed by the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security dropped 88 percent from 2004 to 2006. It went from $764,247 in 2004, to $413,458 in 2005, to $93,418 this year.
Mayor Dannel Malloy blames the Bush administration for giving too much focus -- and too many resources -- onto the war in Iraq.
"I think our commitments overseas are draining our abilities to respond at home," Malloy said. "The downside is pressure on local taxpayers to foot the bill. It's not like we can cut back."
He said the city must be prepared for a terrorist attack because of its proximity to New York, concentration of major financial institutions, harbor and the Stamford train station -- the busiest in the state.
Fire Capt. Paul Newman, who oversees the city's homeland security spending, said the 2006 grant will allow the city to maintain the equipment and supplies it has amassed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., but won't allow the city to make any new major purchases.
Training, he said, likely will be limited to that mandated by the state and federal governments because the state reimbursement covers only 30 percent to 50 percent of the costs. Stamford has about $200,000 earmarked for training from its 2004 grant that it hasn't spent because it would have cost taxpayers at least another $200,000, Newman said. The city plans to spend the money on equipment instead.
Wayne Sandford, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said Stamford's drop in funding coincides with a steep drop in federal funding. Federal homeland security aid to the state has dropped from $32 million in 2004, to $21.5 million in 2005, to $13.5 million this year.
The state is expected to distribute $2.8 million in direct grants to cities and towns this year, down from $20.6 million in 2004.
Instead of direct funding to municipalities, the state put more money this year -- nearly $7 million -- toward regional and local projects, such as one planned for next month in Norwalk that will simulate an explosion on a train.
The city has been preparing for another attack since Sept. 11, 2001, using its share of homeland security grants to purchase hydraulic jacks, search cameras and concrete chain saws that could be used if a building collapsed. Grant funds also have been spent on training police and firefighters on how to respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks, buying metering devices that identify mysterious gases and powders, and conducting practice drills to test the city's response to fictitious terrorist attacks.
The Stamford Police Department's bomb squad has received $800,000 worth of equipment in the past five years, including a new truck, portable X-ray machine, three new protective bomb suits and a $150,000 robot that deactivates explosive devices. The department is waiting for two new sport utility vehicles that cost the state about $30,000 each, said Sgt. Philip Mazzucco, who runs the squad.
"Right now, I would consider us one of the better equipped, if not the best equipped in the state, but there is always room for improvement," Mazzucco said. "This new technology changes monthly, weekly."
The city health department has ordered a mobile medical unit that could be used to distribute Cipro in an anthrax incident or vaccinate residents in an influenza or smallpox outbreak, using $100,000 in grant funds and $109,000 donated by Stamford Hospital. In between emergencies, the health department plans to use the vehicle, scheduled for delivery in November, to give flu shots and to screen low-income residents without medical insurance for HIV, diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
The city is purchasing a second mobile command vehicle with grant money for police, fire and emergency medical personnel that could be used as the center of operations at major fires and other catastrophic events.
Before 2004, the city received equipment and protective gear for homeland security but no direct funding. In those first three years after the attacks, the city received $408,000 worth of equipment -- mostly suits, boots and gloves to protect police and firefighters responding to attacks with chemical and biological weapons, said Bill Callion, the city's director of public safety.
In 2003, for example, Stamford Fire & Rescue received a $120,000 decontamination trailer with heated showers that allows up to 100 people per hour who have come in contact with dangerous chemicals to wash before going to a hospital.
In 2004 -- the first year the state began giving federal funds directly to municipalities -- Bridgeport and Hartford were the only cities to receive more funds than Stamford. But in each of the past two years, Stamford received less than Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury.
Stamford officials are frustrated the state does not take into account the likelihood of an attack when distributing the funds. The amount each city and town receives is largely based on its population and the number of police officers.
"It's very political. There is no risk analysis done in how they distribute the funds," said Newman, the fire captain. "What they do right now is population-based."
City officials completed a federal questionnaire that was supposed to gauge the city's vulnerability for an attack, but to their knowledge, the information has not been used to determine funding at the state or federal level. Federal officials base the grants they give, in part, on the threats states face, but Connecticut does not consider risk when passing on those funds to cities and towns.
Connecticut will receive $13.5 million in federal homeland security funding this year -- about the same amount of money as Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Because the federal formula for distributing homeland security funds is partly based on population, the state is applying next year as five regions rather than 169 cities and towns, in hopes of receiving more funds. Since Connecticut and Massachusetts do not have county governments, Sandford, of the state homeland security department, said small cities and towns are at a disadvantage competing for funding against counties with much larger populations.
Next year, the state will distribute the funds regionally for the first time, and 14 towns in lower Fairfield County will have to decide how the funds are spent.
How Stamford will fare under the regional distribution remains to be seen.
"We're in a region with one of the state's other large cities (Bridgeport), so how that plays out I don't know," Newman said.
In theory, Newman said, it makes sense rather than giving small towns $10,000 each that can buy only one piece of equipment.
While direct grants to Connecticut cities and towns are steadily declining, Sandford said the state is taking a more active role in maintaining the equipment amassed in the past five years. For example, the state plans to use a portion of its 2006 funds to contract out all the maintenance of hundreds of metering devices across the state.
In addition to the federal funds that pass through the state homeland security department, the city has received more than $2 million from other state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the state Department of Public Health, to prepare for natural and man-made disasters.
One of the largest grants was $525,000 from the Justice Department to hire seven homeland security officers. The grant pays a portion of the salaries and benefits for seven city police officers who identify security risks -- such as government buildings, reservoirs and major employers -- and work closely with security at those locations. Police Chief Brent Larrabee said the officers, who have been on the job about a year, typically spend 50 percent of their time on homeland security and 50 percent on regular patrols, though they are dedicated to homeland security during periods of heightened risk.
The state Department of Transportation also has received about $1.3 million from the federal government to secure Metro-North Railroad trains passing through the city.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, who patrol the Stamford station and Metro-North trains, also have added police officers, bomb-sniffing dogs and new security cameras along the New Haven Line after the terrorist attacks, at its own expense.
-- Staff Writer Mark Ginocchio contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.