DENVER Gov. John Hickenlooper has disbanded the state Office of Homeland Security after years of troubles with keeping track of grant money.
In a Wednesday executive order, Hickenlooper reassigned responsibility for managing federal grants for terrorism and natural disasters to the Department of Public Safety.
We plan to improve our systems with this restructuring strategy, said James Davis, executive director of the Department of Public Safety, in a news release. We will increase the effectiveness of our programs and the accountability of our services. The public will begin to see more information about our programs, and local officials will become equal partners in everything we do.
The program has been plagued by a lack of a spending strategy from the start. A 2005 state audit, for example, found that only $300,000 of the $24.5 million awarded to state and local agencies that year was spent on protection of infrastructure, like dams or power plants.
Responsibility for Homeland Security grants has been shuffled around various state agencies since the money began flowing from Washington after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Former Gov. Bill Ritter established the Governors Office of Homeland Security in 2008, in response to state and federal audits that showed the money was poorly managed.
Hickenloopers order overturns Ritters and assigns responsibility for Homeland Security back to the Department of Public Safety, the agency that oversaw the original grants in 2002. The Department of Local Affairs also managed the program for a while.
Three administrative jobs have been eliminated in the reorganization, said DPS spokesman Lance Clem.
A Denver Post investigation last month showed the state has no database for tracking Homeland Security grant money, an oversight that Hickenlooper told the Post was ridiculous.
The reorganization has been in the works for a long time, though, back before Hickenlooper took office, Clem said.
The Department of Public Safety plans to issue annual reports on how the grant money is spent something Colorado has never done before, Clem said.
In a typical year, the federal government sends Colorado about $35 million in Homeland Security grants, Clem said.
Reach Joe Hanel at [email protected].
