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Laredo Morning Times - News - 03/03/2008 - Homeland needs; Officials seeking funds
for securing city's part of border
03/03/2008
Homeland needs; Officials seeking funds for securing city's part of border
By ASHLEY RICHARDS , LAREDO MORNING TIMES

Providing public services within a municipality on the U.S.-Mexico border

requires carrying out duties beyond those a typical city would provide, especially
homeland security, which is why the City of Laredo believes it is important to keep
federal legislators and agencies abreast of the challenges and needs of the Gateway
City.A delegation of about 15 City of Laredo officials is in Washington, D.C., this week.
There, the officials plan to attend more than three dozen meetings.

Tops on the list of priority issues is homeland security - namely, funding for the
river vega master plan, additional police officers and emergency response equipment.
"Homeland security is always a red flag issue, and it will continue to be for some time,"
said City Manager Carlos Villarreal. The river vega plan is the city's alternative to a
border fence. The Laredo Police Department hopes to increase its officers per 1,000
citizens to provide more security. And the Laredo Fire Department is seeking money to
purchase equipment that would facilitate more efficient operations when responding to
disasters related to weather and the high amount of trade traffic here.

River vega

As Laredo and other border communities continue to battle the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security over a border fence, Laredo officials said they have taken a
proactive approach. While in Washington, Riazul Mia, director of the Environmental
Services Department, said the city delegation is lobbying to use funding that would have
gone toward a fence to instead fund part of the city's river vega master plan. The project
includes construction of a retaining wall on the Rio Grande near downtown. The area
beyond would be developed for park, restaurant, retail and recreation space. A weir, or
low-lying dam, is also part of the river vega plan. The weir would cause the Rio Grande
to widen and deepen. That, in conjunction with a concrete retaining wall on the U.S. side
of the river, would provide a mechanism to deter undocumented immigrants from
crossing the river, the city believes. Part of the city delegation plans to meet with U.S.
legislators and the Department of Homeland Security this week to lobby for that purpose.

Police funding

LPD currently has about 1.8 officers per 1,000 citizens, said department
spokesman Officer Joe E. Baeza. Interim Police Chief Gilberto Navarro said ideally the
department should have 2.3 per 1,000 citizens. Navarro traveled to Washington with the
city delegation to lobby for more Community Oriented Policing Services money, about
$1 million for 15 officers, allowing LPD to begin the process of hiring its goal of 60
additional officers. "Augmenting other personnel is just to keep pace with the growth of
the city," Navarro said, adding that some of costs LPD accumulates are "by virtue of
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being on the border." "There are some programs in place, but we need additional funding,
not just the local (funding)," Navarro added. "We have the international and national
affects." COPS funding works by covering 100 percent of the cost of hiring new officers
the first year. During each subsequent year the city picks up an additional 25 percent of
that cost until the fifth year, when city begins paying all costs for the officers initially
hired through COPS, Navarro said. But the spending does not stop there, Baeza said.
"You need to buy more patrol cars to get those guys out there," he said, adding that other
equipment, such as body armor vests, radios and computers, must also be purchased.
"We're planning ahead because the (equipment and personnel) will be an essential
element in safeguarding the community." Being as Laredo is the top inland port, it is also
important to remind federal officials of the services police provide the thousands of
people who travel through here but are not counted in the city's population, Baeza said.

Emergency services

Interim Fire Chief David Piton is also in the delegation, in part to speak to Texas
Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, the
Federal Emergency Management Administration and the U.S. Fire Administration about
funding for a $5 to $7 million permanent emergency operations center. "This particular
facility is going to be designed to withstand the elements," said Fire Department
spokesman Eloy Vega. "It'll be sturdier than the average building, being that it has to be
operational and standing in the worst scenarios." Not only would an emergency
operations facility service Laredo and Laredo converts the Public Works Department
building on Thomas Avenue into an emergency operations facility when necessary. "In
times of emergency, it's converted at a moment's notice," Vega said. "It does take time to
set up, and as you know, in an emergency, seconds count." The Fire Department is also
seeking about $600,000 to $750,000 for a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear
event device, Vega said. The equipment is a "deployable system of antennas that can be
placed around the city in the event of a hazardous materials spill," he said. A CBRNE
device monitors the weather and toxic materials in the atmosphere. "It takes the
information that we have from the spill, and it interprets it, and it tells the team exactly
where and when the toxic plume is going to spread to," Vega said. A hazardous materials
unit and mobile command unit are the final pieces of equipment for which the Fire
Department is lobbying federal funds while in Washington. The existing hazardous
materials unit is about 15 years old, Vega said, and with the high amount of such material
moving through Laredo each day, it is important that
the department be able to respond effectively.

The delegation

Mayor Raul Salinas

City Manager Carlos Villarreal
Deputy City Manager Cynthia Collazo
Assistant City Manager Horacio de Leon
District II Councilman Hector "Tito" Garcia
District V Councilman Johnny Rendon
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District VI Councilman Gene Belmares

Interim Police Chief Gilberto Navarro
Interim Fire Chief David Piton
Health Department Director Hector Gonzalez
Communications and Administrative Support Services Director Jessica Hein
Planning and Zoning Department Director Keith Selman
Osbaldo Guzman, Convention and Visitors Bureau
Environmental Services Department Director Riazul Mia
Legislative Liaison Veronica Cantu

©Laredo Morning Times 2008