Your government at work

People love to carp about The Government. And usually it's that designation, capital "t", capital "g."

But when it works it's beautiful.

In the post mortem of last week's fires I am certain that there will be some culprits, and the smart money is on the California Department of Forestry, the agency in charge of the air assets for fire fighting. Unions, bureaucracy, snafus of epic proportion...it will all play out over the next few weeks.

Now move to the city, country and state. Leadership from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, County Supervisor Ron Roberts and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had direct influence on an evacuation that exceeded the scope of Katrina, the re-population of those evacuees, coordination of assets and information, refugee centers that actually worked, and a fostering of an atmosphere of giving, both time and donations, by the average San Diegan.

Apologists for Katrina say that we compare apples and oranges. Maybe so, but the San Diego response started at the city and the county level. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, in an homage to Nero, ate dinner while the city sank under the weight of the hurricane. He evacuated his family to Texas and was incommunicado for nearly three days. (Ironically, the media was able to speak with the former mayor of New Orleans while Nagin remained missing in action.)

Our first responders were on the job. The New Orleans police and fire department had 40% of their work force fail to respond, though some were caught on film looting with the best of them.

I must single out the efforts of my City Councilman, Brian Maienschein. Brian, experienced through his representation of the victims of the 2003 Cedar Fire, knew exactly what to do. One Tuesday afternoon he had posted on his website the addresses of all the Rancho Bernardo homes that were destroyed or damaged in the fire. He and his staff walked every street in the community. He was also instrumental in helping establish the first of several centers to help those who lost their homes or are facing clean-up.

A local community center was transformed into a one-stop-shop, housing representatives of FEMA, the Red Cross, all of the utility and phone companies, cable television. The parking lot was filled with catastrophe teams from insurance companies. We met with a representative from USAA, got our FEMA number, and picked up some free cleaning supplies and a rake and a shovel from the Red Cross.

So, when it works, the government is beautiful.