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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