Plan is already in action in Las Vegas

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 5:19 a.m.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley has gained national attention in the war against terrorism by creating a municipal security council that identifies possible targets, monitors unusual health problems and promotes communication among agencies.

It's an idea that O'Malley said can also work in Southern Nevada, even though local municipalities do not have the strong mayor form of government that exists in Baltimore and other East Coast cities.

O'Malley said in a recent telephone interview that local mayors or city managers should meet regularly with police, fire, health and public works officials to discuss preparedness, just as he does at least every other day with his Cabinet of agency commissioners.

"There are simple basic things that every major city should do right now," O'Malley said. "We got a lot done in the first month by focusing on emergency response, security and intelligence. We looked at our personal protective equipment in terms of how much we have and how much more we need."

Las Vegas Valley government, water and health officials said they are doing many of the same things, even though the way they go about preparedness is not as centralized. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, for instance, said he receives daily input from city emergency manager Timothy McAndrew and gets separate briefings from other officials involving security.

"I don't see why I should waste any time with meetings," Goodman said. "Our emergency manual is completely up to date to address any emergency."

In North Las Vegas and Henderson, city managers are briefed by their public safety departments and pass information on to the respective mayors.

"We have multijurisdictional people working on this full time," North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon said. "But with our form of government, meeting every other day to discuss security would result in a slowdown in work. I get briefed once or twice a week by the city manager, and I think we're very well prepared."

In short order, O'Malley has become the U.S. Conference of Mayors' lead spokesman on municipal preparedness against terrorism and has testified on the subject before Congress. He has used that platform to complain about what he believes to be the biggest weakness in preparedness: the unwillingness of the FBI to share information on possible terrorists with local law enforcement agencies. He referred to it as a "dangerous disconnect."

"The FBI has received about 600,000 tips through their 1-800 number, and they have 7,000 agents," O'Malley said. "How many tips do you think they can run down, 100,000? There are 650,000 local law enforcement officers. Local law enforcement can and should be an effective resource. We would like to help run down the other 500,000 tips."

According to Metro Police Lt. Martin Lehtinen, however, local law enforcement in the Las Vegas Valley enjoys a healthy relationship with Grant Ashley, special agent in charge of the FBI in Las Vegas.

"I've been speaking to our intelligence commander, and the FBI is passing on information to us as soon as they're getting it," Lehtinen said.

O'Malley adopted a proactive role a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when he wanted to alert residents about possible terrorism in his city. He quickly discovered that communication among his public safety and health agencies was not as crisp as he would have liked. He called an old friend, former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado, who had co-chaired a national commission on domestic security.

"No one in the federal government was helpful," O'Malley said. "Gary Hart told me not to wait on Washington."

O'Malley was able to quickly prepare an anti-terrorism strategy because, in his city, he acts as a chief executive with veto power over the City Council, control over the municipal budget and the authority to hire and fire agency directors. In contrast, Southern Nevada mayors serve as figureheads with council voting privileges, though with few of the powers entrusted to chief executives. Much of that power rests with city managers.

Security council

Baltimore's mayor formed a security council that consists of the city's police, fire, health and public works commissioners, as well as other senior staffers. For the first month, the council met daily for about an hour. They later decided to meet every other day.

They tapped local experts at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University's Center for Biodefense Studies and identified possible terrorism targets in their city, including synagogues, mosques, research laboratories, utilities and law enforcement facilities. Each target was tasked with preparing a security plan that includes regular liaison with the police department.

Las Vegas Valley officials said they have been making threat assessments for years that include specific targets. In Henderson, those targets include water supplies and waste-water treatment facilities, as well as other utilities, city manager Phil Speight said.

"We have law enforcement and emergency management people keeping track of security issues," Speight said. "If there are no changes in emergency plans or no security threats that have reached a credible level, there's no reason for them to let me know what is going on."

Metro has long-established relations with security directors of casinos and government buildings that are also considered potential targets of terrorism, Lehtinen said.

Among O'Malley's post-Sept. 11 edicts was a requirement that all municipal buildings be equipped with metal detectors.

"I personally don't feel the need for any metal detectors," Goodman said. "I feel it sends the wrong message. There has to be a delicate balance between feeling you have an emergency operation in place and a feeling of panic. We have to keep living as normally as we can under the circumstances."

Baltimore increased its testing of drinking water supplies, and plans to convert highly combustible gaseous chlorine tanks to the less volatile liquid chloride that would not cause as much environmental harm if attacked.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority completed its conversion to liquid chloride last year, a precaution taken not against possible terrorism but to guard against accidents, spokesman J.C. Davis said.

One way the water authority can tell within minutes if drinking supplies have been contaminated is if its computers detect a sudden drop in chlorine residuals. Chlorine levels drop when the chemical begins to consume contaminants.

"We run 15 to 20 tests a day and analyze about 25,000 water samples a year," Davis said. "A lot of our facilities have in-line testing systems."

Warning system

Baltimore also developed a six-pronged early detection warning system against the release of deadly bacteria and viruses. The system relies on daily compilation of the following statistics: symptoms of ambulance patients; visits to hospital emergency rooms by symptom; city health department visits by symptom; animal deaths; elementary school attendance; and over-the-counter purchases of anti-flu and anti-diarrhea medicines.

"In a large-scale attack, we would see large numbers of unforeseen symptoms," Baltimore Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson said. "If 1,500 people were affected, we would see that before a lot of other cities would. We are also stressing to physicians the importance of asking patients about their social history, such as where they work.

"We're so much further along than we were five weeks ago. I probably spend more time with the police commissioner than any other health commissioner in the country."

Clark County Health District already monitors for spikes in certain symptoms locally, but Rose Lee Bell, epidemiologist manager, said she does not believe it is necessary to track that information daily.

"If you're doing it on a daily basis, where are you getting all the people to do it?" Bell said. "I'm not sure we have the people to do it on a daily basis. We're not doing emergency medical service runs, and we're not counting animal carcasses. But I think that if we had a large number of animal carcasses, that would be something the animal control people would notice."

The county tracks on a weekly basis cases involving gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines that can cause vomiting or diarrhea. The health district, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tracks flu-like symptoms at schools and medical clinics. Also tracked locally are deaths caused by pneumonia.

There is also local tracking of drug purchases, though only one pharmacy chain has agreed to participate, Bell said. The health district, meanwhile, is training 2,200 local medical professionals to be on the lookout for certain biological threats, such as the anthrax bacteria and smallpox virus.

"We stack up well in our monitoring," Bell said. "At this point I don't think it's necessary that we do all the things Baltimore does."

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