News Release

House Minority Caucus Rep. Jeff Harris, Minority Leader Rep. Paul LeVota, Asst. Minority Leader Rep. Connie Johnson, Minority Whip

For Immediate Release: For more information contact: Nov. 16, 2005 Rep. Ed Wildberger at (573) 751-9755 Rep. Jeff Roorda at (573) 751-2504

House Democrats announce Secure Missouri initiative Additional resources for National Guard also vital

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- House Democrats on Wednesday announced a legislative package aimed at ensuring Missouri can quickly and effectively respond in the event of a natural disaster or domestic terrorism.

State Reps. Ed Wildberger and Jeff Roorda will sponsor the Secure Missouri proposal during the 2006 legislative session. Wildberger, a 30-year veteran firefighter who was emergency management director for the city of St. Joseph for 10 years, said Missouri’s current state of readiness is woefully inadequate.

“Four years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Missouri still lacks a comprehensive statewide strategy for coordinating its response to a major disaster,” said Wildberger, D-St. Joseph. “As we saw recently in the Gulf Coast region with Hurricane Katrina, lack of foresight and readiness by government only compounds the problem when devastation strikes.”

House Democrats are also calling for improved resources for the Missouri National Guard. According to recent news reports, the National Guard lacks needed equipment to adequately respond to a natural disaster or terrorist attack. For example, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Nov. 2 that the Missouri National Guard has just 28 percent of the medium trucks it needs.

State general revenue funding for the Guard has been cut by more than half in the last four years. The Guard received $7.6 million in general revenue in fiscal year 2002 but is slated to receive just $3.5 million for FY 2006. The number of full-time Guard employees has been halved from 180 to 90 over the same period.

“The need to replenish the Guard cannot be overstated,” Wildberger said. “Guard officials have privately said that they didn’t have adequate resources four years ago and, sadly, are even worse off today.

The proposal on general emergency preparedness calls for the development of a statewide plan that sets concrete objectives, measurable goals, includes a fixed timeline for implementation and provides for adequate resources for emergency responders to carry out their missions.

- more - Democrats also propose elevating the director of the State Emergency Management Agency to a cabinet-level position. At present, the SEMA director reports to the adjutant general, who reports to the Department of Public Safety director, who reports to the governor. Roorda, a former Kimmswick police chief who served 17 years in law enforcement, said the SEMA director needs a higher position in the command structure.

“In a disaster, information gets lost on its way to the top when there are too many links in the chain of command,” said Roorda, D-Barnhart. “If the SEMA director is working directly with the governor, decisions can be made more quickly. Time is lives in an emergency.”

Arguably, the biggest threat of disaster facing Missouri is the possibility of a major earthquake along the New Madrid Fault. The state’s failure to prepare for an earthquake is particularly pronounced. The Missouri Seismic Safety Commission, which is charged with preparing the state for a devastating earthquake, hasn’t met since September 2004 due to numerous vacancies on the panel.

Gov. Matt Blunt’s Web site, which was updated just Monday with the reappointment of one member, lists former state Sen. Jerry Howard and former state Rep. Larry Thomason as the General Assembly’s two commission representatives. Howard left the legislature in 2001. Thomason resigned from the House in 1998 and died in December 2003.

Democrats called on the governor to immediately fill all vacancies on the Seismic Safety Commission so that it can update Missouri’s earthquake preparedness plan, which was last revised in 1998.

The Secure Missouri Initiative is part of House Democrats’ comprehensive 2006 legislative package dubbed Moving Missouri Forward.

###