Better Civil Defense Communication Set as Topic Of Informational Briefing Monday at Capitol

Two legislative committees will meet Monday afternoon to hear how “state civil defense (can) improve communication with general public when a man-made or natural disaster occurs.”

CHORE has a few ideas along those lines and hopes to present testimony during the scheduled three-hour briefing, which begins at 1 p.m. in conference room 423 at the Capitol.

Specifically mentioned as prospective attendees are members of the Comprehensive Communications Review Committee, along with just about every known agency and entity that could possibly be involved in weather-related and other disasters – county mayors, the National Weather Service, radio hams, hotel reps, FEMA, the FCC, TV and radio stations, the PUC, the DOE and others….and the public.

It will be interesting to see just where the public fits into the proceedings. As CHORE has said repeatedly, the public hasn’t been invited into the discussion until now. With no average citizens among its 70 members, the Governor-appointed Review Committee isn’t truly “comprehensive,” as we noted one day after its creation.

Making Room for Citizens

Here are a couple paragraphs from our testimony:

“If State Civil Defense truly wants to improve communication with the public – and I believe it does – it will hold public meetings and solicit comments, questions and concerns from citizens about what went right and wrong on Earthquake Sunday. What average citizens think presumably should matter to Civil Defense officials."

“If Civil Defense agencies were not in the business of serving average citizens, those agencies would not even exist. Citizens are the ultimate consumers of emergency information and could have described their communications habits, likes and dislikes – information that would have added value to the committee’s deliberations. The public should have been at the table.”

Here’s hoping our legislators agree and will urge State Civil Defense to conduct meetings with citizens across the state and be a player in restoring “public trust and confidence in government through greater transparency and accountability.”