In keeping with Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s "New Day in Hawaii" theme, the governor and the Legislature should take steps to help ensure that this new day, and all the days that follow, are safer for this state’s residents and visitors. Specifically, they should rewrite the antiquated laws that created the Hawaii Civil Defense Division and elevate it to Cabinet level.
Under the present structure, State Civil Defense is a division of Hawaii’s Department of Defense, with the adjutant general serving as its director. The online biography notes that the adjutant general also "oversees the training and readiness for 5,500 soldiers and airmen of the Hawaii National Guard, … provides direct support to the Office of Veterans Services and is the homeland security adviser for the governor."
The Youth Challenge Academy is also part of Hawaii’s Department of Defense. That adds up to a lot of hats that the adjutant general must wear, and it essentially makes the director of civil defense a part-time job.
On a day-to-day basis, State Civil Defense is run by a vice-director who must, among many other duties, maintain an encyclopedic knowledge of the myriad laws, rules and regulations pertaining to state disaster proclamations, presidential disaster declarations and the mechanisms for quickly getting help to people whose lives have been affected by disaster. That means requests for important and often urgent actions must go from the vice-director to the director and then to the governor. Making Civil Defense a cabinet level department would provide its director with direct access to the governor.
The laws establishing the civil defense division were passed more than 60 years ago, when Hawaii was a territory. It was the early days of the Cold War and a primary concern had to do with fallout shelters in case of a Soviet nuclear attack, along with efforts to deal with potential natural disasters. The Soviet threat is gone now, replaced by the possibility of terrorist attacks, including the potential for North Korea to aim missiles at the islands. And preparedness for other disasters is still a major component of civil defense.
After 9/11, the role of State Civil Defense expanded. It became Hawaii’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. Under this expanded role, State Civil Defense handles grant applications involving federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; homeland security grants that help to provide training and equipment for emergency responders at the state and county levels; and frequent table-top and field exercises to demonstrate how different levels of government can work together seamlessly in a threatened or real disaster.
A Cabinet-level civil defense department should maintain the authority and responsibility for these grant programs. And its director should also serve as the governor’s homeland security adviser.
Since the National Guard plays an important role in times of disaster, the cabinet-level director of civil defense would still maintain a close working relationship with the adjutant general, but they would work together as peers.
Directing the organization that deals with all the possible disasters that may threaten Hawaii’s residents and visitors should not be a part-time job.
Ray Lovell is a former broadcaster and was a public information and public relations officer with State Civil Defense from 2003 to 2009.
