Emergency Corps Irked by Lack of Public Funds

On the morning of Sept. 11, while most Americans were glued to television screens, Pat Mumbauer was racing to her local sheriff’s station.

By 9 a.m., the chairwoman of the Short Term Emergency Plan, a civilian corps that trains Crescenta Valley residents to prepare for disasters, was staffing the Emergency Operations Center at the Crescenta Valley station. And by lunchtime, members of her group and other sheriff’s volunteers were evacuating La Canada High School.

The events of that day--and the hidden threats they brought to light--placed local groups such as Mumbauer’s STEP at the “front lines.” Now they must teach residents to prepare for anything, including a terrorist attack.

But unlike similar emergency preparedness groups funded or run by law enforcement, such as those in West Hollywood and Burbank, the Crescenta Valley’s nonprofit STEP must raise money itself to pay for training and equipment. Members hope state or federal officials will recognize the needs of such groups and pass laws that could free up some cash.

“As it stands now, we’re low man on the totem pole when it comes to funding,” said Mumbauer, 45, a La Crescenta resident.

She came up with the idea for STEP while serving as vice president of the La Crescenta town council in 1999. That’s when she learned that the Crescenta Valley had no uniform emergency plan. Instead, schools and law enforcement agencies had individual plans, which most residents knew nothing about.

Members Trained in Emergency Techniques

By January 2000, Mumbauer had approached the Crescenta Valley sheriff’s station to create a group of 25 volunteers who train La Crescenta, La Canada Flintridge and Montrose residents to prepare for a major disaster so that, once it occurs, they can survive until local law, fire and emergency personnel respond. Members complete a Federal Emergency Management Agency course in community emergency response training and gain skills in triage, first aid, basic fire suppression, CPR, and light search and rescue.

Although STEP works with the Sheriff’s Department, which provides free office space, the group receives no funding from the agency and operates with no base budget of any kind. So when new members want uniforms, medical supplies, safety helmets or other gear, they must pay for those items themselves or come up with some creative moneymaking ideas.

There was the fund-raising dinner at Dominic’s Family Restaurant. The group collected proceeds from the game booths at the sheriff’s Haunted Jail on Halloween. Mumbauer even charged a fee for teaching a class on how to make her famous toffee.

STEP members say they will do whatever it takes to raise the $10,000 to $20,000 their budget requires annually, because government officials have yet to offer any help. In March the county Board of Supervisors rejected the group’s request for $10,000 in funding.

Group Turns to State in Bid for Funding

Commenting on the board’s decision, Jennifer Plaisted, senior deputy to Supervisor Mike Antonovich, said: “This was a request for a large amount of money from a new, non-established group. . . . We have to balance the spending of taxpayer money throughout the district.” Antonovich represents the area.

Mumbauer’s response to the funding denial was not to pull the plug on her 2-year-old group, but to turn to Assemblywoman Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge). Mumbauer hopes the Legislature will recognize the importance of groups like hers in disasters, when law, fire and emergency personnel are busy or unavailable. In a major emergency, she says, freeways into the Crescenta Valley could be shut down, leaving the Fire Department and sheriff’s deputies to accommodate more than 50,000 residents on their own.

That’s when STEP volunteers could move in and lighten the burden, said Oscar Gutierrez, a fire captain from San Dimas who recently helped train STEP volunteers.

“In major disasters, where we’re majorly taxed, there will be pockets of people we can’t get to,” he said.

Mumbauer said, “The kinds of disasters we respond to are the ones where the official responders are overwhelmed.”

Late last month she submitted a proposal to Liu’s office, asking to change current laws so disaster organizations can obtain funding directly from the state’s Office of Emergency Services. Right now, groups such as STEP must wade through a 4-inch-thick Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance to apply for individual grants that might, in combination, fulfill their funding needs.

Suzanne Reid, Liu’s chief of staff, said the assemblywoman’s office is in the process of reviewing STEP’s request and deciding whether it will be included in the legislative package Liu will offer early next year.

“Obviously, given the events of the last few months, this deserves attention and priority,” Reid said.

At the federal level, Mumbauer is pinning her funding hopes on a bill co-sponsored by her congressman, Rep Adam Schiff (D-Burbank). The Bioterrorism Protection Act, which is up for review in several committees, would designate $7 billion for reducing biological threats, securing national borders, and protecting the country’s food and water supply. If the measure passes, $1 billion of that funding would go specifically to local emergency response efforts.

Schiff said the current conflict has put small communities on the front lines. They should receive the funds they need to adequately prepare for emergencies, he added. “There is a strong desire for people in the community to play a role in this national effort,” he said. “I think empowering local groups to take control over their own safety is an important thing.”

More Recognition Would Boost Group

If passed, the act would give groups such as STEP more credibility when seeking funds, said Robert Haynes, a volunteer in the group. “It’s going to make it easier to say, ‘Look, we are legit,’ ” he said.

Where the money comes from doesn’t matter to Mumbauer. She just hopes it comes. This year she has devoted $2,000 of her money and more than 1,000 hours of her time.

She knows STEP serves a purpose, now more than ever. She just hopes others see it that way.

“It backs us into a corner without government legislation,” she said.