Page 13: of Marine News Magazine (August 2005)

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August, 2005 • MarineNews 13

NEWS

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a $5 million grant to improve port security at 11 of California's ports during a visit to the San Diego Coast

Guard Joint Operations Center. "In California, we have many threat tar- gets, including large urban areas, mass transit, railways, and international icons like the Golden Gate Bridge," said Gov.

Schwarzenegger. "And that is why we are doing everything it takes to achieve one objective: making our state's homeland security capability every bit as effective as we need to prevent a terrorist attack."

California's ports bring in 43 percent of the nation's cargo containers.

The $5 million in state grants will be used for communications equipment, physical security improvements such as cameras, lighting and fencing, underwater surveillance, personal protective equip- ment for port first responders and training for port security personnel. The money will be divided by California's 11 ports as follows: • Hueneme $450,000 Humboldt Bay $150,000 Long Beach $750,000 Los Angeles $750,000 Oakland $750,000 Redwood City $150,000 Richmond $450,000 San Diego $750,000 San Francisco $450,000 Sacramento $150,000 Stockton $150,000

In addition to the grant money, the state's Office of Homeland Security (OHS) has taken a number of steps to ensure the safety of the people of Califor- nia. OHS has funded, through the Califor- nia Maritime Academy, a $400,000 train- ing program to use port workers to assist in port security efforts. OHS has also established the State Terrorism Threat

Assessment Center and four Regional

Terrorism Threat Assessment Centers to facilitate information sharing and analysis between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The Coast Guard and the harbor police are part of this effort.

Gov. Schwarzenegger made the $5 mil- lion grant announcement at the ceremoni- al grand opening of San Diego's Coast

Guard Joint Operations Center (JOC), one of two centers in the nation to have this type of federal and local cooperation that maximizes port security, communication and collaboration. The JOC, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Defense, the California National Guard, the Port of

San Diego and the San Diego Harbor

Police, operates around the clock and merges local and federal monitoring and surveillance systems for vessels, swim- mers and divers. The center also serves as a dispatch center and command center for all port security activities.

In addition, on July 27, Governor

Schwarzenegger sent letters to members of Congress regarding Homeland Security funding.

In a letter sent to the Chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House

Committee's on Appropriations, and cosigned by New York Governor George

Pataki, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and

Texas Governor Rick Perry, Governor

Schwarzenegger expressed his concern regarding the distribution of Homeland

Security funding to the states and reiterat- ed his support for funds being distributed based on specific threats and vulnerabili- ties.

Schwarzenegger Announces $5M Port Grant

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Governor Schwarzenegger joins Admiral Kevin J. Eldridge, USCG, Commander, Eleventh Coast Guard Dis- trict and Matt Bettenhausen, Director, Office of Homeland Security, State of California, onboard a UTB- 41 Coast Guard boat to observe coast guard port security drills.

At a press conference, California Governor Arnold

Schwarzenegger said, "We are doing everything it takes to achieve one objective: make our state's homeland security capability every bit as effec- tive as we need to prevent a terrorist attack."

New funds will go to Adding cameras, lighting, and fencing Training port security personnel to assess and identify security risks Purchasing communications equipment

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