MAYOR CUNNINGHAM ADDRESSES NATIONAL SECURITY CONFERENCE

League Board Member and Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham recently represented New Jersey at the first of a series of conferences being organized by the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (www.ciao.gov). That Office is a unit of the Federal Department of Commerce.

The conferences are devoted to addressing lessons learned and successful practices demonstrated in the wake of the September hijacking attacks, including homeland security and critical infrastructure protection. They will focus on improving cooperation between private industry and local, state and federal governments as we address the protection of essential services in the event of a terrorist attack or significant security breach.

In a major address before the conference, Mayor Cunningham told some 400 security experts how Jersey City responded to the World Trade Center attack. Directly across the Hudson from the devastation, the City quickly established a triage site in Liberty State Park and a command center on the 11th floor of the Datek Building in downtown Jersey City. Its police and emergency personnel managed to organize a volunteer force of close to 5,000 civilians, as hundreds of people fled Lower Manhattan for Jersey City's Exchange Place.

Subsequently, the City devoted considerable manpower to the protection of the mosques and businesses of its sizable Muslim and Arab communities, and to assisting the FBI in its investigation of the hijackers. The City spent roughly $6 million, primarily in police overtime, as a direct result of the attacks.

Other high-ranking officials who attended the conference included U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

Mayor Cunningham is a charter member of the League's Hometown Security Initiative Task Force.