Military

San Diego Receives More Homeland Security Funding

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 16, 2009 at 3:01 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The San Diego region got all the Homeland Security money it asked for this year - a bigger increase in funding than any other region in the nation.

The Federal Department of Homeland Security will grant San Diego more than $16 million next year to invest in responding to “an act of terrorism or other catastrophic event.” In it’s application, San Diego had to show how its strategy would improve the region’s capabilities to support national priorities.

Another federal department, the Department of Defense, already spends more money in San Diego County than any other county. Mayor Jerry Sanders admits the expansion of the Navy in San Diego makes defending this area a national priority.

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“We have certain vulnerabilities in the San Diego area,” he says. “When you have a build-up of the military in San Diego, it is a tremendous boost to our economy and to our pride, but it also brings other aspects to it. But I think what is the defining factor for us is how we’ve used that money.”

Mayor Sanders credits the region’s successful application to its focus on improving the communication system, rather than purchasing high tech toys.

Donna Faller of the city’s Department of Homeland Security says the emergency response communication system now includes the military. “In fact both our voice and data include the military," she says. "The military is getting our 3 Cs: command, communication and control system. We’re all connected so we can communicate during an emergency.”

The money is to help all 18 cities in San Diego County respond to terrorism or other catastrophic events.

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Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.