Agencies Seek Aid in ‘New Reality’

Orange County health, law enforcement and fire officials and business representatives urged state legislators Friday to shore up public safety and to stimulate the economy in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The attacks exposed the need for more hospital capacity and better training and equipment for firefighters in the event of a similar assault in Orange County, the officials told Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim).

Correa is a member of a new legislative task force charged with investigating the fallout of the attacks on local agencies and businesses. The group of 22 legislators is conducting hearings in their jurisdictions and will propose legislative solutions when the state Assembly reconvenes in January.

Two dozen local officials, including fire and police chiefs, gathered at a conference room in Correa’s office in Santa Ana.

Among their proposals were more funding for police and fire departments and changes in the law that would give broader powers to local law-enforcement officers investigating possible terror threats.

Sept. 11 “forever changed Americans’ sense of normalcy,” Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters told Correa. “Everything we took for granted is completely different now.”

Walters said he would like to see California pass laws similar to those being proposed at the federal level that would allow police to profile and monitor groups suspected of being involved with terrorists, even when there is no clear evidence of criminal activity.

“The threat is so devastating that it could mean the destruction of our way of life,” Walters said after the meeting. “If we don’t speak out and get things changed, we’ll be neglecting the new reality.”

For fire departments and local hospitals, that new reality is the threat of a catastrophe such as a biochemical attack.

Local hospital officials said they are not equipped to deal with such an event, and firefighters need more training and better hazardous-material detection devices if they are to be prepared.

“We are not just the fire department,” said Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather. “We are the all-risk department.’

The need could not come at a worse time for the state as it, like the rest of the nation, faces a projected budget deficit and a slowing economy.

To underscore that point, labor and business representatives also were at Correa’s office Friday asking for relief from their woes. Linda Sanchez, treasurer of the Orange County Central Labor Council, requested assistance for thousands of local tourism workers who have lost their jobs since Sept. 11. David Meek, manager of the Anaheim Convention Center, said the facility has lost $33 million because of cancellations since the terror attacks on the East Coast.

Correa said he will support legislation to stimulate the economy, including bond measures for road construction and schools. He said he also backs a proposed $30-million package to market California tourist attractions and a sales-tax increase of a fourth of a cent to raise revenue for fire and police departments.