URBAN GRANTS Anti-terrorism fund names at-risk cities

The areas must submit proposals to justify how the grant money will be spent.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department announced Tuesday that 35 urban areas are eligible for $765 million in special anti-terrorism grants because of their high risk of attack and added new rules for allocating the money to force regional cooperation and eliminate wasteful spending.
The regions include Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., Miami, Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Each has 60 days to come up with a proposal for what it would do with the money and justify how the expenditures would improve security.
The "investment justifications" are designed to avoid questionable decisions, such as the purchase of four Segway motorized scooters for a total of $24,815 by the San Jose, Calif., police and Santa Clara County, Calif., bomb squads.
"The fact of the matter is the public has the right to expect that even when the city's in a high-risk category, the money that it gets under this program has to be spent wisely and effectively," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said at a news conference.
Urban evaluations
The department gauged the risks via a computer evaluation that assessed population, vital infrastructure and frequency of terrorism investigations.
Under the Urban Areas Security Initiative program, begun in 2003, major cities that are close to one another -- such as Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, and San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, Calif. -- received separate grants. But Chertoff said the widespread impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita helped persuade his department to ignore municipal boundaries in making this year's grants.
"When terrorists plan an attack, the attack is not carefully delineated within the lines of political jurisdictions," he said. "Protecting the country is not about who gets to give the money out or what particular jurisdiction gets to have control over the funds that are being distributed by the federal treasury."
Although the grants are designed to deal with terrorism, Chertoff said his department would consider requests that were helpful in natural disasters as well, such as evacuation plans and interoperable emergency communications.