Security chiefs find it isn't easy preparing for terrorism

BOSTON -- Around the country, many of the state homeland security directors who were quickly hired in the aftermath of Sept. 11 are finding they have little authority or resources and say they are not getting much cooperation or direction.

An Associated Press review of all 50 states' homeland security chiefs found that some have little or no staff. Many face legislatures that are balking at funding requests. And most are encountering roadblocks to sharing information with other agencies.

These domestic preparedness chiefs -- culled from the ranks of the military, law enforcement, public safety and other sectors -- are looking for direction from national Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, who has faced many of the same problems on a federal level.

"The designation as 'chief state czar for domestic preparedness' was about as effective as the piece of paper it was written on," said Juliette Kayyem, executive director of the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Missouri doing well

Ridge, who meets with his state counterparts twice a month by conference call, plans to announce a national homeland security plan this month.

While they await word, the state directors are working on ways to adapt old resources to new demands: the military to something that isn't quite war; police departments to crimes they have never fought; doctors to detect diseases that had nearly been eradicated; emergency managers to catastrophic possibilities.

Tim Daniel, a retired Army colonel who is Missouri's homeland security adviser, is one of the lucky ones: He has a salary, a few assistants and access to the governor.

But he also has a list of frustrations. Among them: He does not know what the FBI wants from state and local law enforcement. And he does not have enough money to pay for a radio network that lets police, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders talk to each.

"We're not where we need to be," Daniel said. "It's because we don't have an understanding of where we're going."

State efforts stumble

Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker has hired a new homeland security director and asked for $200 million to fight terrorism. But the money hasn't come through yet. And New York's anti-terrorism chief, retired FBI agent James Kallstrom, who led the investigation into the 1996 TWA Flight 800 crash, already has left the post.

In Massachusetts, acting Gov. Jane Swift named a new security chief at Boston's Logan Airport, where the flights that brought down the World Trade Center originated.

But she left the new Office of Commonwealth Security -- the homeland security director's agency -- unfunded in her next budget proposal.

Instead, she said she would pay for the agency's operations out of her own executive office budget. The Massachusetts security chief planned to borrow staff from other agencies.

At least 40 homeland security directors had the new responsibilities added to existing jobs. They include 11 adjutant generals or military chiefs, 11 public safety commissioners, nine emergency directors, four political aides and three lieutenant governors. New Hampshire named its fire marshal, Texas its land commissioner and Wyoming its attorney general.

Many state directors have faced skepticism from legislatures that have balked at paying for homeland security offices without a clear definition of what they are supposed to do.

"I have yet to see a coherent or comprehensive approach to this," said Colorado state Sen. Penfield Tate.

A lack of information from the federal government has also frustrated the homeland security czars.

"We have 36 federal intelligence gathering agencies, most of whom aren't talking to each other," said Dallas Jones, director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services in California.

In Tennessee, homeland security director Wendell Gilbert, a former Army general, cannot be briefed on sensitive national security information by the FBI because he is still awaiting a security clearance.

"I would give the federal government a C-minus or a D-plus in providing information," New Mexico's public safety director and homeland security liaison Tom English testified at a legislative hearing.

Ellen Gordon, Iowa's homeland security adviser, advises patience.

"It's going to take time for homeland security to grow and mature and become a viable organization," she said. "I go back several years and look at the emergency management structure and how it's grown to where it is today. It wasn't like this 20 years ago."