LEADERSHIP THAT WORKS: Safeguarding and Securing Maryland

Goals and Values for a Safer Homeland

To protect our state against terrorism and natural disaster, Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown believe Maryland needs to focus strongly on first responders – our law enforcement officers, firefighters and EMS personnel – by providing them with the equipment and training to remain safe and protect citizens during terrorist attacks. Maryland needs to share information at all levels – federal, state and local – to prevent disaster before it can claim more lives. We need to look to the future, with comprehensive plans, statewide drills, and interoperable communications technology, in order to protect our people and communities. O’Malley and Brown will work to improve public safety in every part of Maryland, while aggressively working to protect our ports, airports, schools, and power plants from terrorism. The security of our families demands leadership that works for a safer, better-prepared Maryland.

Paths to Progress

As Maryland’s next Governor, Martin O’Malley will:

• Challenge the Federal Government to Improve Homeland Security Funding. Martin O’Malley will stand up for Maryland and challenge the Bush Administration to provide our state with the funding and equipment we need. Despite the existence of a clear threat, the Department of Homeland Security slashed funding to Maryland across the board in 2005, reducing major programs by as much as 38 percent.
  
• Direct Homeland Security Funding Based on Threats and Vulnerabilities. Martin O’Malley will prioritize funding within Maryland on the basis of threats and vulnerabilities. Funding should be based on threat and response capability, following the model of the Baltimore region to enhance the state’s collective capabilities.
  
• Route Funding Directly to Local First Responders – Not Bureaucracy. Martin O’Malley will end the bottleneck of funds from state bureaucracy and will route funding directly to local first responders. Currently, local jurisdictions are at the state’s mercy with regard to accessing federal funding intended for their use.
  
• Prioritize the Needs of Localities and Make The Grant Process More Transparent. Martin O’Malley will make the distribution of homeland security grants from the federal government more transparent and be responsive to local jurisdictions’ requests for disbursements.
  
• Secure Maryland’s Ports, Bridges, Tunnels and Rail. Martin O’Malley will secure regional assets such as ports, bridges, tunnels, and rail and hold the federal government accountable for its failure to do so. Only five percent of international cargo is inspected upon entering the United States.
  
• Quickly Deploy State Resources During Major Crises. Martin O’Malley will pre-position assets where they will do the most good in an emergency, ensuring that they are deployed quickly during major events. State public safety resources belong to all of Maryland and must be directed to communities in need.

A Record of Progress

• Martin O’Malley in partnership with firefighters, police and EMS helped make the Baltimore metro region one of the few areas in the country where first responders can fully operate and communicate across jurisdictional lines in the event of a large scale disaster or attack.
  
• Martin O’Malley was selected by his peers to serve as chair of the US Conference of Mayor’s Homeland Security Task Force and has been recognized as a national leader on homeland security. Under O’Malley’s leadership, Baltimore is rated one of the “well preparedâ€? cities in a national survey conducted by CNN.
  
• While first responders in many other major cities lack vital protective equipment and training, Martin O’Malley has made certain that Baltimore has provided chemical and biological protection to all firefighters, paramedics and police officers.
  
• Martin O’Malley helped forge the regional agreement to create backup 911 call centers and power capabilities; to share communications, decontamination, and law enforcement equipment; and to help first responders from seven different communities communicate with one another in the event of an emergency.

Maryland Can Do Better

• Over the last four years, Bob Ehrlich has valued political planning over sound planning. He has unwisely focused on a formula-based distribution of homeland security funds that are politically expedient, rather than distributing security funding to reflect real security risks.
  
• Mimicking the Bush Administration, Bob Ehrlich valued political patronage over qualifications. The Ehrlich Administration hired a campaign friend and former ice dancer for a senior position in the Port of Baltimore even though the person had no relevant experience.
  
• Bob Ehrlich has refused to stand up to his friends in the Bush Administration and fight for security funding for Maryland families. Instead, Ehrlich quietly accepted Bush’s massive cuts to Maryland’s security funding, including a 38% cut for some homeland security programs. Ehrlich even caved in and supported the sale of operations at the Port of Baltimore to a foreign government.
  
• Bob Ehrlich failed to use the resources available to him to protect Maryland families. Despite the desperate need to protect those who protect our communities, Ehrlich retained up to one-fifth of Maryland’s federal funds rather than speeding them to our first responders.
  
• Rather than cooperating with different levels of Government in times of heightened alert, Bob Ehrlich has isolated Maryland’s local jurisdictions and based his homeland funding decisions on flawed assessments from the federal government. Ehrlich has shut local communities out of the grant formulas system, keeping them in the dark about amounts, rules and procedures.

Bob Ehrlich and Homeland Security – No Goals. Failed Leadership.
A Stronger Maryland Can Do Better.

Martin O'Malley and Anthony Brown –
Leadership That Works