Monday, July 24, 2006

By JARRETT RENSHAW

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

   Jersey City flunked 14 benchmarks and received poor grades in
    every other area reviewed in a recent U.S. Department of
Homeland Security report card assessing the city's ability - or
inability - to respond to catastrophic disasters, The Jersey Journal
has learned.

The new information presents an even more dismal picture of the
city's emergency management capability than was first reported last
week in The Jersey Journal.

In addition, according to a letter obtained by the Journal, the city's
former Office of Emergency Management coordinator resigned
because City Hall refused to make improvements in the wake of the
damning report. The administration had previously told the newspaper it was just a coincidence the
coordinator resigned soon after the federal report was released.

The city continues to refuse to release the report, citing orders from Homeland Security, but the
Journal has obtained summaries of it as well as letters reacting to the report sent to city officials, including Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

The Department of Homeland Security, reeling from Hurricane Katrina, last year conducted a massive review of emergency response plans in the nation's 75 biggest cities, including Jersey City. In addition to the full nationwide report released last month, each city was also given an individual report card.

Jersey City's emergency response plan was not considered "sufficient" in any of the federal review's 45 benchmarks, according to an April 17 letter written by former OEM Coordinator Steven McGill to Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

The city received the lowest grade possible from the feds in 14 of the benchmarks, and the city received a grade of "partially sufficient" in the 31 other areas, according to the letter.

The federal review took aim at Jersey City's apparent failure to have a proper plan in place for mass evacuations - especially those with special needs - and the city's apparent lack of planning to get patients out of the city's health care facilities, according to a summary of the results obtained by the Journal.

In fact, the summary shows the city does not even have a prerecorded message to play if a disaster were to happen.

"I feel due to these insufficiencies which are supported by the Peer Review Team this city is not sufficiently prepared to respond to a catastrophic event within its boundaries," wrote McGill, a captain in the Jersey City Fire Department, in his letter to Healy about the federal report.

McGill resigned from his position shortly after the report came out in March and was replaced by Sgt. Walter Kierce of the Jersey City Police Department.

When reached by phone, McGill would only confirm that he sent the letters to Healy and that the summary of the report was accurate.

A number of city officials have suggested that McGill, who came on board in May 2004, had resigned from his post as coordinator because of an upcoming marriage, but the letters indicate that McGill left because his requests for more support went unheard.

"My office has continually advised and updated members of your administration on the insufficient staffing level and the basic requirements of this office. Unfortunately, this office remains improperly staffed and isn't even assigned a Deputy Coordinator," McGill wrote.

JARRETT RENSHAW can be reached at jrenshaw@jjournal.com.

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Aware of woes, mayor 'committed' to make changes

Monday, July 24, 2006

By JARRETT RENSHAW

JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Mayor Jerramiah Healy said improvements are being made to Jersey City's emergency preparedness plan in response to problems highlighted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security review and the letter he received from Steve McGill, the city's former Office of Emergency Management coordinator.

"I have been briefed on the National Plan Review conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, and have been advised by the Office of Emergency Management staff and Capt. McGill that our plan is in need of improvement," Healy said in a written statement released Friday in response to The Jersey Journal's questions about the report.

The statement also indicated the city has worked to secure more state and federal funding to address the shortcomings identified.

"My office is committed to upgrading and improving our evacuation plans and procedures and will continue to work with other offices of emergency management within the county, state and other municipalities on the East Coast that face similar challenges in ensuring that their residents' safety is a priority," Healy's statement read.

City officials, who have refused to go into details, say they have responded to the report's findings by setting up meetings with all of the city's departments to better organize and collect information.

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Council prez easy on city, tough on federal agency

Monday, July 24, 2006

Jersey City City Council members say they still haven't seen the report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security highlighting deficiencies in the city's disaster response plans. In fact, they said they weren't even aware of it until reading about it in last week's Jersey Journal - but may get their chance to check out the findings sometime next month.

City Council President Mariano Vega Jr. said the administration has promised a closed-door look at the report in the next few weeks. In addition, Vega said he's created a subcommittee of council members Steve Fulop, Viola Richardson and Michael Sottolano to look at the issue of homeland security.

Vega said the city's poor grades in the report have more to do with the federal agency's much-criticized response to Hurricane Katrina rather than Jersey City's disaster preparedness.

"I think this is a cover-your-ass approach from the Homeland Security. I think they are trying to smear more people because of their failures," Vega said. "To me, at the end of the day, we found problems and we will address them."

Fulop, however, said the report "is not good," but he can't respond to the deficiencies highlighted until he gets a chance to see it for himself.

"I have tried to get information to form an opinion, but it's not forthcoming," he said.

JARRETT RENSHAW - Jersey Journal

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Fulop angered by report's secrecy

Monday, July 17, 2006

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's critique of Jersey City's emergency preparedness plan hasn't even been released to the City Council.

Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop, who has been pushing for more information on the city's emergency response plan since last year, is angered that the City Council - whose members would be held accountable if the plan failed - has been left out of the process.

"I personally filed an Open Records Request so I can understand what we as a city can do better, and it was not released to me by this administration," Fulop said. "I would hope that the administration has read it extensively. It's unacceptable that as a City Council we have not read it."

JARRETT RENSHAW