Washington lobbyist has city’s needs in mind

A Surf City lobbyist heads back up to Capitol Hill with a list of the

city’s needs for the upcoming year.

A representative from the Ferguson Group, Huntington Beach’s

Washington D.C. lobbyist, met with city officials at a meeting of the

Intergovernmental Relations Committee recently to discuss the city’s

funding needs for 2002.

City staff had prepared a prioritized list of 47 projects for the year

that includes, housing projects, retrofitting fire stations to meet

seismic standards, providing parenting workshops, flood protection,

repair of storm drains and street improvements.

Protection of the city’s water systems against terrorist acts is a top

priority of committee chair Shirley Dettloff.

“We’re at risk if an incident ever occurred here, our water systems

could be destroyed,” she said.

The city plans to work with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and its

Washington D.C. lobbyist in the coming months to garner federal funding,

Dettloff said.

Last year the city received $1.8 million in federal grants for

projects such as flood control, repairs of sewer lift stations, urban

runoff, park maintenance and rehabilitation of libraries, said Pat

Dapkus, the city employee who complied the prioritized list.

But this year could be a little tighter for funding in the wake of the

events of Sept. 11, she said.

“Obviously it will be a little harder of a glass ball to look into,”

Dapkus said. “There’s always many needs and a lot of it is us telling

[lobbyists] where our needs are.”