Homeland Insecurity

On February 17th of 2006, I pointed out that things were not right at the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.

In the Beginning the Earth was Void without Form...

The State Homeland Security Department was in budget hearings this week and one of the analysts said that he couldn't find the authorization for the agency in statute.

His counterpart in the executive branch admitted that there was no statutory authorization.  The State Department of Homeland Security--a state agency that receives millions of dollars in federal funds--had been created by executive order.

When asked for a copy of the order, the executive analysts sheepishly admitted that...it was a VERBAL Executive order. 

Is that cool or what?  Think of all the sunset hearings that can be avoided.  Not only can the Governor create a state agency ex nihilo, but also, she can do it by merely speaking.

Does she at least have to wave her arms and say Abracadabra?

Following that incident, the legislature called for an audit of the State Homeland Security Department and things went from bad to worse.

Here's the Republic's coverage of the Auditor General's report.

State auditors say Arizona homeland security officials haven't done enough to ensure that more than $175 million in grants issued since the Sept. 11 attacks were properly awarded and spent.

The Office of the Auditor General has determined that, in many cases, the state's Office of Homeland Security and Division of Emergency Management didn't record why projects were funded or if the money was spent for approved purposes.

In the wake of that report, State Homeland Security Director Frank Navarette chose to step aside.

Navarette and the department were criticized in a state audit this fall for lax oversight of $175 million in grants awarded to the agency since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. While Navarette has decided to step aside, he will continue to advise Gov. Janet Napolitano on homeland security issues.

Unfortunately, the federal government decreased the amount of Homeland Security funds destined for Phoenix and Tucson. 

On Christmas day, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian had this profile of the Phoenix Situation.

(Mayor Gordon's) metropolis in the desert is now the nation’s fifth most populous urban area, the sprawling home to four million people and still growing by 100-thousand new residents a year. Yet in 2006, the Phoenix’s share of federal homeland security funds shrank by 60-percent from $10 million to $4 million, or to one dollar per person.

"I think a lot of people still think that we're a small western town, where, you know, maybe we're still in wagons."

No Phil, they don't think we're still in wagons. 

They think we are a small western town, where, you know, maybe the governor can create a major state agency using a verbal executive order and then that agency can fail to properly track the $175 million provided by the federal government. 

That's what they think...and they're right. 

Comments

[Ray G]

Um, uh, . . . uh. . . what's to say to that? We might as well move to Mississippi.

This will be another good litmus test for the Republic's reporting however.

[Ann]

Where is the great cry of government corruption and mismanagement? Why is it that this Governor can get away with such blatant negligence and overt abuses of power?

A Christmas visitor from out of state (Idaho) was telling us how filtered their news is in their town. Nothing bad is ever talked about and the stories are spun to not send any negative connotations to the reader. Case in point, a 37 year old female died in a very precarious situation in a less than "pure" relationship.... the paper reported the death as "natural causes". I guess it depends on your definition of "nature". The Clintonian view of semantics would certainly see that as a clear description of the untimely death of this woman.

Is that what Arizona has become when it involves this administration?