Officials seek to keep efforts secret
Clark County homeland defense at issue
By FRANK GEARY
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Fire department officials in Las Vegas and Henderson are expected today to
propose that Southern Nevada's homeland defense efforts be held behind
closed doors, out of the public eye.
Las Vegas Fire Chief David Washington and Henderson Fire Chief James
Cavalieri want to create a new regional homeland defense committee that
wouldn't be subject to laws which would require the panel to open its
meetings and records to the public.
"Our belief is that we don't want to provide any more information, or a
blueprint, to the people that would do harm to our citizens," Cavalieri
said. "We need to make sure our planning is done in an insulated
environment so we can assure our citizens and emergency responders that
they have the safest environment to work in."
Some aspects of homeland security shouldn't be discussed publicly, but not
every detail, said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American
Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
"Not everything on homeland security has to be out in the public, but there
needs to be guidelines," Lichtenstein said. "This particular proposal seems
to give them carte blanche to make anything they want secret, and that is
troubling."
Washington and Cavalieri in a Jan. 14 letter invited Southern Nevada public
safety officials to discuss the proposal at a private meeting today at the
Henderson Fire Department Training Center.
Washington said the proposal is preliminary and that he simply wants to
discuss it before presenting it to county and city officials. Also,
Washington said he didn't know if public safety officials in other cities
are considering similar steps.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman wasn't available for comment late Tuesday,
and County Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said she didn't know
anything about the fire chief's proposal, declining comment.
Washington said discussions about acquiring specialized equipment or other
defenses against terrorism, training, levels of funding and other issues
should not be deliberated in public.
"Sensitive issues come up with homeland defense, and when you get into
public meetings you don't know what is going to get out," he said.
The proposal if adopted would refer homeland defense decisions, and control
of federal money for homeland defense matters, to a new Southern Nevada
Homeland Security Committee.
Such matters presently are handled by the existing Local Emergency Planning
Committee, a panel of city, county and federal officials and
private-business representatives who meet monthly in public.
The Emergency Planning Committee falls under the jurisdiction of Clark
County, which means the county oversees management of the committee and the
federal money it receives for equipment, training and other costs.
The recommendation from Washington and Cavalieri comes at a time when
county officials are preparing to solidify the planning committee's makeup,
and permanently place its funding under the county's control.
County administrators on Tuesday removed from the County Commission's
agenda a proposal that would have codified the planning committee and
permanently appointed the county's representative as the committee chairman
and the Metropolitan Police Department's representative as the vice chairman.
Cavalieri said he didn't know until late Tuesday that the matter was on the
commission agenda, and said it had nothing to do with his proposal.
Washington, however, said the county's proposal would have required that
homeland defense matters be talked about in public, which he thinks is a
bad idea.
Washington also said his proposal was not made in response to the fact that
the county's proposal would put it firmly in control of the planning
committee and the money it receives.
"We are not in any fight with the county over who is in control of that,"
Washington said. "That is not the issue."
The existing planning committee includes representatives of the all the
fire departments in the county, the local hospitals, local ambulance
companies, the local Red Cross, the county Flood Control District, Nellis
Air Force Base, the Bureau of Land Management, the FBI, local businesses
that handle hazardous chemicals and others.
