Anti-Terrorism Funding for Orange County Is Reduced

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that cities in the Los Angeles Basin would get $92.5 million for anti-terrorism efforts this year but that parts of Orange County would see its funding cut.

The Anaheim/Santa Ana area received $11.9 million, $8 million less than last year.

“Obviously, it’s less than what we received in the past, but we realize that the pool of federal funds available is not as large,” said John Nicoletti, a spokesman for the city of Anaheim. “The city was fortunate it was able to receive $12 million considering a lot of cities were not able to receive anything.”

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the $80.6-million share that the Los Angeles/Long Beach area will receive -- allocated even as anti-terrorism funding declined nationally -- represents a 14% increase over last year. He said the allotment demonstrated that federal officials were now trying to aid urban areas at least partly based on risk, not just population.

“This is a great day for Los Angeles and Long Beach,” Villaraigosa said. The cities’ ports respectively rank as the largest and second-largest in the United States.

In addition to getting support for the grant from the area’s congressional delegation, the mayor said the money was won partly because of “the federal government’s recognition that our dense urban population and our high-profile critical infrastructure is the single greatest terrorist target west of the Mississippi.”

Across the nation, Homeland Security awarded $1.7 billion Wednesday to fight terrorism and disasters. Of that, $757.3 million went to cities as part of the Urban Areas Security Initiative.

New York City still received the largest urban grant -- $124.4 million, although that amount is less than the $220 million it received last year. Washington, D.C. also saw its allocation drop from $82 million to $46 million.

“Our goal is to greatly enhance the collective preparedness of the nation while making certain that finite resources are directed to areas most at risk and to solutions that are innovative and regionally driven,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

In California, $80.6 million in urban funds went to Los Angeles, Long Beach and 26 adjacent cities extending to Ventura County. Orange County was not the only area to see its security funding cut. San Diego received $7.9 million, about half its prior year total. And the San Francisco Bay area received $28.2 million, $6 million less than last year.

Overall, Villaraigosa said funding nationally to urban centers declined 17%, making the increase to the Los Angeles area even more remarkable.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said 85% of the biggest potential targets of terrorists in California are in the Los Angeles area.

“Finally we have funding that is appropriate to the level of the threat,” Bratton said.

The Los Angeles/Long Beach area will use the money to develop a countywide initiative for regional planning and training and to conduct exercises on anti-terrorism issues, as well as a public education campaign on emergency preparations, according to Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Maurice Suh.

Funds will also go to help pay for staffing a new Joint Regional anti-terrorist center for intelligence-gathering and analysis.

Some of the money will also go to improving regional dispatch for fire agencies, development of a license plate recognition system and creation of a regional command center to coordinate the monitoring of various video surveillance systems operating in the county, Suh said.

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca said he had a list with dozens of projects to be funded.