[EAS] Governor Mandatory: A Bad Idea

[Richard Rudman]

I have reproduced below an excerpt from Comments the Broadcast Warning Working Group (BWWG) filed with the FCC for the Part 11 Rewrite item on the subject of Governor Mandatory. If you want to read the whole thing, please go to the EAS Forum website:

http://eas.radiolists.net/governor-mandatory-a-bad-idea/

Richard Rudman
The BWWG

Governor Mandatory: A Bad Idea
As any professional emergency manager will tell you, all emergencies are local. It makes little sense for a
governor in a state capital to issue a statewide warning about an emergency in front of their state capitol
building, much less at the other end of his or her state. The proper people to carry out the warning function
using the EAS have already been duly designated under law and in the state EAS Plans. They are
professional emergency managers.

The BWWG subscribes to the premise that emergencies are "event driven" and that imposing a mandatory
requirement that broadcasters carry a governor's message makes no sense. The proper role for governors
during emergencies in our view is assuring that state resources are available to state and local emergency
managers, and to go on the air using non-emergency broadcast resources to give support and reassurance
to victims, residents, first responders and even emergency managers. Strictly speaking, governor
mandatory CAP is NOT a warning in the strict definition of what warnings really are and should not be made
a part of Part 11 by the Commission.