Spokeswoman defends Goodman’s TV comment

Sito Negron

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said through a spokeswoman Friday that his intent in appearing on national television to discuss homeland security funding was to drive home the point that the city is not getting the money through the state quickly enough.

But during the Thursday appearance he told CNN host Wolf Blitzer that the state had to send $600,000 of homeland security money to the federal government, and that wasn't true, state and federal officials said.

Goodman would not personally talk to the Sun about the apparent mistake on Friday. His spokeswoman, Elaine Sanchez, said the basis for his comment was a conversation in the office of Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., where he was told that the state was given $6.7 million this fiscal year. If the money, which is pledged to the state for a finite period, is not requested within the year for which it's promised, it reverts to the federal government.

"When the mayor was in Washington, D.C., to have a meeting with Congressman Gibbons, they spoke of homeland security issues, they spoke of the importance of monies sent to the state of Nevada and the importance of those monies to be spent in order not to lose those monies," Sanchez said.

"It was a shared message, the mayors of the state of Nevada and the congressman, they shared the concern it was very important the money needed to be spent in the state of Nevada in order for us not to lose it."

When asked where the mayor got the incorrect information that the state had to send $600,000 back to the federal government, Sanchez said, "his comments are consistent to what was said in the meeting."

When asked whether the congressman or one of his staff gave the mayor the incorrect information, Sanchez repeated her earlier statement, that Goodman's comments were "consistent to what was said in the meeting."

Robert Uithoven, chief of staff for Gibbons, said that "unfortunately the message becomes one of about a figure and not the message."

He said the congressman shared the concern that money was not being filtered quickly or efficiently enough to the first responders -- the police and fire and other emergency workers who would be the front-line of dealing with an attack.

"We did convey that if these federal dollars that are allocated are not spent we lose them. That was the message of the meeting," Uithoven said.

But neither Uithoven nor Amy Spanbauer, Gibbons' spokeswoman, is saying that Gibbons told Goodman the state had already returned homeland security money, however. And other officials who deal with funding say there has been no such action.

State officials also said Thursday, the day of the mayor's televised national appearance, that the federal government has not cut off funding for any of the money it already has obligated to the state.

Nevada is scheduled to receive $26.5 million more this year, and the Nevada Homeland Security Commission will recommend to the governor and the state Division of Emergency Management how that money should be divided. In addition Clark County is also in line for a separate $10.5 million grant in 2004 as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative.