Governor Linda Lingle created the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee 58 days ago to assess how communications to the public can be improved during emergencies. She acted following the two significant earthquakes on October 15th that shook up the entire state and revealed flaws in emergency communications protocols.
Her October 17th message said the panel would submit findings and recommendations to her within 60 days. That would be two days from now, but Chair Lenny Klompus told CHORE today the report’s release will slip into next week:
“We’re in a draft mode right now, putting all the information from the meetings into a document that would be a blueprint and an action-oriented plan” to improve communications, he said. The committee has met at least twice and held separate sessions for media decision-makers and on-the-ground reporters.
Since the focus of these meetings seems to have been on improving media performance during emergencies, we pressed the point that State Civil Defense seemingly has many issues to resolve about its own performance. The public meeting alluded to by Vice Director Ed Teixeira in his November correspondence would be a start.
Klompus said he was scheduled to meet today with State Adjutant General Robert Lee and would discuss the point. (12/15 Update: General Lee did call today and discussed several of the issues covered in CHORE's blog for nearly 30 minutes. See 12/16 post for a summary of the conversation.)
Accessibility + Accountability = Credibility
It’s been exactly 60 days since the earthquakes and subsequent communications failures, and State Civil Defense still has not demonstrated much inclination to report directly to the public what it learned and what it’s doing to improve communications to ensure public safety.
This may be too general, but it seems likely personnel who administer civil defense offices are not as sensitive to the importance of accessibility and accountability as their civilian counterparts are.
It would be inconceivable for a private company to be as unresponsive to public inquiry after a major public safety incident as State Civil Defense has been.
A confidence-building session early in the New Year is in order, and perhaps communications professional Lenny Klompus can make it happen.
Minor Aftershocks:
Honolulu Weekly has taken note of this blog and our other one, Tsunami Lessons, in its December 13-19 edition. It's too bad the Weekly used a picture of some squinty older guy in the space reserved for this blog's author.....
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