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Mayors seeking federal aid to help cities cope with crisis
10/26/2001
WASHINGTON – False anthrax alarms. The prospect of an assault on a nuclear
plant or water system. Inquiries from edgy constituents about mosquito spraying
and other mundane activities. Plummeting revenue. Soaring public safety costs. Such are the afflictions of mayors around the country after the Sept. 11
attacks. Concluding a three-day emergency summit in Washington, the U.S.
Conference of Mayors issued a statement Thursday calling on the federal
government to share intelligence and money to help cities cope with unforeseen
demands. "We are facing the combination of an already weakened national economy, job
layoffs and consumer anxieties created by the terrorist attacks, and rapidly
rising public safety and security costs," said conference president Marc Morial,
mayor of New Orleans. "This terrible combination threatens the ability of local
governments to meet some of their most basic obligations." In a survey conducted by the group, 93 mostly small and medium-sized cities
said they would spend $122.5 million for heightened security in the year after
the Sept. 11 attacks. Large cities were still pulling together estimates. Mayors of cities large and small said Thursday that in addition to the
financial concerns, they are suddenly being asked to serve as crisis counselors,
health experts, and security specialists. On shrinking budgets, no less. "I think there's a lot of uncertainty out there," said Joseph Griffo, mayor
of Rome, N.Y. "It really has a significant impact on your resources." Hazardous materials teams have been "running around the whole county" in the
last week or so, chasing down one bogus anthrax report after another, Mr. Griffo
said. "We have a very anxious population." Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory is brooding over the loss of 1,700 U.S. Airways
jobs and dwindling convention and tourism business. Mr. McCrory has yet to
calculate overtime for fire and police officers, who have responded to 32 false
anthrax alarms in recent days. Budgetary constraints aside, Mr. McCrory must
assess all threats to his city, the nation's second-largest banking center.
There are, he noted, "four nuclear reactors within eight miles of the city."
And yet Mr. McCrory must somehow be reassuring, a sort of therapist-in-chief.
"People are wanting to touch me, look me in the eye, and say, 'Are we OK?' " he
said. "I firmly don't want to have a bunker mentality." Dallas has spent $600,000 just to protect its water system from rogue
elements, said Mayor Ron Kirk. The system serves 2 million people in North
Texas, he said. Miami Mayor Joe Carollo considers his city particularly vulnerable, given its
proximity to the "terrorist state" of Cuba. His nightmare scenario for South
Florida: A terrorist hijacks a plane and flies it into the Turkey Point nuclear
power plant. "Millions would die," Mr. Carollo said. Far-fetched or realistic, the threats require cities to spend money and
gather intelligence. At Thursday's summit, which featured speeches by Attorney
General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, the Conference
of Mayors asked for a bigger chunk of the $10 billion federal anti-terrorism
budget. Only about 5 percent of it "is allocated to state and local first-response
activities," the group said in a report. "And of this limited amount, most is
provided to the states, bypassing America's cities and major population
centers." The mayors also want federal law enforcement and health agencies to be more
forthcoming with local authorities about threats.