Volunteer Homeland Reserve Unit

• Last year was a very productive year for the VHRU. Our membership has increased and we are more involved with local police agencies in Southern Nevada.

The Board of Directors and the Core Leaders want to thank all the members for their support during the past year.

• In late December a meeting was held in Carson City with the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Emergency Management Division to discuss our 2008 budget. The meeting went very well and funding was approved. Additional funding was granted to purchase our new hand held radios and repeaters that we will need to communicate in Mesquite, Pahrump and Laughlin. This project is under way and we hope to have a progress report at our February meeting.

• Two years ago, the Core Leaders agreed to start a Holiday program to donate money to families in need. This year we assisted families in Pahrump, Mesquite, Laughlin, Vegas and added Henderson.  Overall it was a great feeling to help families during the holiday season. The money comes from your dues and some donations made during the year.

• The VHRU website has been update with a new page, “Honorary Lifetime Member”. Some images have been uploaded and the balance will be completed by the next meeting.

1. Sheriff Gillespie and Assistant Sheriff Ray Flynn.
2. Chief Perkins and Deputy Chief White, Henderson PD.
3. Lt. Smitley and Sgt. Shalhoob, Metro Laughlin

Invitations have been sent to Chief Frank Siracusa and Deputy Chief Kamala Carmazzi, Department of Public Safety, Emergency Management Division to attend one of our meetings in the future. They will be presented with a certificate and added to the roles of our Honorary Members.

• Our Squad Leader Frank McCabe has been attending class to be certified as a CPR trainer. Once he has completed the course we will begin CPR training to all who wish to attend. Elite Security made the donation to cover the cost of the training and Frank’s time. Thank you Frank for taking the time to attend this course.

• The City of Henderson has recently purchased an “All Call System” with grant funding. We are in the process of setting up a All Call System” for the VHRU. Chief Perkins of the Henderson PD has approved the VHRU to be included in this system. The system will have your home and cell numbers and e-mail address. Authorized members can call into the system or through access into the City of Henderson’s network, dictate a message and it will call everyone on the list and keep calling until it receives and answer. In addition, it will have the capabilities in the near future to send an e-mail at the same time. Once the data has been uploaded, we will do a test message to all.

•  The first meeting of the Laughlin River Run was held.  Metro PD is looking for 25 VHRU volunteers to assist. Hotels and meals will be included once again. Metro unmarked vehicles will be used by our people during the Run, which is scheduled from 4/23/08 to 4/27/08. Members who volunteer and wish to drive a Metro vehicle during the Run must attend Metro’s driver training program at the Las Vegas Speedway. Dates of training to be announced once we know the number of volunteers. 

• We are planning a mock exercise at the Boulder City airport. We are in the process of discussing our exercise plan with the airport authorities. We will invite the Boulder City PD to participate, if they wish. After the exercise, we will have a BBQ at the Hemenway Park (Same location as last year). More details on this project at the next meeting.

• Las Vegas Metro’s Fingerprint Bureau project is back on the table for discussion. I spoke yesterday to the Director and the assignment for those interested will be at the front entrance widow assisting civilians. The tour will be, Monday to Friday 0800 x 1600.  At this point we are not sure if we will do the same tours as the Fusion Center volunteers. At the Fusion Center members work two four hour shifts per day. We will need at a minimum 10 volunteers with some back up volunteers who could be available to fill in when needed. We will put the list together and wait for a date for training from Metro. We expect this to occur in the next few weeks.

• Lt Graham from the Metro Downtown Area Command contacted the VHRU requested assistance with their new downtown surveillance camera project. Volunteers would man a desk and watch CCTV cameras located near Freemont Street and report anything suspicious. Additional duties would involve some light clerical work at the same office, keeping up reports on suspicious activity etc. More on this request in the next few months.

• We will begin producing the new VHRU ID Cards next month. The ID cards will be made for those members who have been waiting for some time. Our present ID card expires on 12/31/08. If possible, we may have those new cards done in time to be reissued before the end of the year.

• At our February meeting information was passed out to all that attended on our new Radio Communication system.  We have been accepted and authorized to use the Clark County Mutual Aid Network. There is no cost to us to be on this network, which will be state wide in the very near future.  The Core Leaders plan on testing their radios twice a month. A protocol on how to communicate on the Clark County frequencies will be drafted for our use. These protocols will be distributed to all the Core Leaders and will be given to those members who will eventually have a radio assigned. We must remember that others are monitoring our frequency and we have to be brief in our conversations.

This week, we purchased 62 hand held radios, 4 mobile units and 4 base stations with our special Grant award from the State of Nevada. The radios will be delivered by the beginning of next week. The new radios will be programmed by Clark County and will be ready for use on their network.

• Finally we have the ID card system up and running. Tonight we will be issuing the new ID card to those members who have no ID card since joining the VHRU.  Thank you for your patience and the balance of the new ID cards will be distributed at the end of this year when our existing ID cards expire. Each year after, once a member pays his/her dues, a new card will be issued. 

• Lieutenant Tom Smitley, Metro PD Laughlin Sub Station will be retiring on 3/13/08. We will miss him and his dedication and his confidence in allowing the VHRU to assist during the last three years of the River Run. It is not clear who will be replacing Tom. We wish Tom all the best in his retirement.

Update on the River Run:  We now have 17 members from Vegas going down to assist and 14 from Laughlin and Arizona. Hotel rooms and meals will be supplied by Metro. Metro’s Driver Training class will host 10 of our members at the Las Vegas Speedway. Once they complete this one day course, they will be authorized to drive Metro unmarked vehicles during the Run.

• St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner. The VHRU will be submitting our request to obtain a permit to march in the Parade in the City of Henderson. Once we have the permit, an e-mail will b sent with the details on where we will meet etc.

• Las Vegas Metro has again approached our organization for volunteer help. The Downtown Area Command has a pilot project using a CCTV camera near Freemont Street to observe and notify Patrol Officers if criminal activity is observed.

A meeting was held with the Captain of the Command and the Lieutenant that is assigned to this project.  They also want us to have the capabilities of accessing Scope (running criminal checks). The Captain will be speaking with the Sheriff to get his blessing on using our existing background check to allow our members to participate.  We have (9) members who wished to help and we can use more once this is up and running.

• The Fusion Center is entering its 30th week of volunteer coverage by the VHRU. We have donated close to 1200 hrs on this project. The tours are 4 hrs, either 0800 x 1200 or 1200 x 1600, Monday to Friday. We can use more volunteers if anyone is interested. Please let your Team or Squad leader know if you wish to assist.

• So far this year we have collected dues from over 200 members. Thank you to all those who have paid their dues early. There are still a few members who have not paid and we are in the process of trying to collect their dues.

• We are always looking for more members to join the VHRU. If you have any colleagues that are from law enforcement, we ask you to solicit them to join us. The more members we have, the better and stronger the organization becomes. We stand at 247 active members today. Over the past few years we lost close to 60 members, who have either left, passed away or moved out of state.

• At our March General Membership Meeting we had the honor of having as our guest speaker, Honorable Judge Donald Mosley, Department Fourteen, Eight Judicial District Court. Judge Mosley’s biography was distributed at the General Meeting.

Judge Mosley will give us an over view of the court system in Clark County.

• Pahrump Team Leader, Ken Godwin will be stepping down as Team Leader due to a family medical emergency. Ken will remain a member and will be moving back to Oklahoma. Squad Leader Frank Maurizio will take over the Pahrump group as their new Team Leader.  Paul Wagner has agreed to take the Squad Leader position and JJ Lynch will replace Ross Sloan as the second Pahrump Squad Leader. Ross will be stepping down but will remain active in the organization. Our thanks to Ken Godwin and Ross Sloan for their years of service as the Leaders in Pahrump.

• Chief Joe Forte of the North Las Vegas PD spoke briefly a with Ted Farace who expressed an interest in having the VHRU become more involved with his department. Chief Forte was just appointed the new Chief of the North Las Vegas PD. Chief Forte wants to set up a meeting in the near future to discuss our involvement with his department. This is good news, Chief Forte has always been very positive on the VHRU and our mission. He also wants Ted Farace, the president of the VHRU to address the North Las Vegas City Council and talk about our organization to have them better understand how we can help the citizens of North Las Vegas. The real issue is to convince the council to give us the same protection (liability and workers comp) we have with the State, Metro and Henderson PD.

• A thank you to Boulder City member, Ed Horvath who has reserved the picnic area at Hemeway Park for Wednesday, May 14th. We are planning an exercise at the Boulder City Airport, followed by a BBQ. Charlie Licata will be organization a picnic committee to purchase the food etc. that we will need for the 14th.

Christian Magrabi, Boulder City Squad Leader and Boulder City member, Joan Sibrava met with officials at the  Boulder City Airport who expressed an interest in participating. The next step will be to meet with Police Chief Finn to discuss his department’s involvement.

• A mock exercise was held in Laughlin in March with the Las Vegas Metro PD. The exercise was called, “Active Shooter”. The exercise required only a few volunteers and our organization was not participating as a group, only the Laughlin Team. Thanks to Squad Leader Bob Boerner and Bob Petrusek for their leadership roles during this exercise.

• Squad Leader Frank McCabe has completed his classes with the Heart Association and is ready to start certifying our members in CPR. Frank Bruton has reviewed the agreement with the Heart Association and it was submitted. The Heart Association requires we submit a copy of the insurance from the IAC where we will hold training. This has been done and we will begin training in the near future.

• On Friday, March 21st, a representative for the State of Nevada Emergency Management Division visited Ted Farace to review our books and records. Everything was in order and no issues surfaced.

Our new MOU with the State of Nevada was presented to Mr. Farace for his signature and also the paper work for our 2007/08 grant funding. Submission of our bills from October 1, to March 30th (two quarters) will be submitted for reimbursement. At this time the amount outstanding is close to $11,000.

• Update on the St Patrick’s parade. We had 13 members in attendance. Not very good for an organization with close to 250 members. We need to do more next year to get a better attendance. We will try to get our permit for next year’s parade as soon as possible.  We hope we can turn out close to 50 next year.

• The River Run volunteers numbering 32 are ready to participate on April 23rd (16 from Laughlin Team and 16 from Vegas, including Pahrump and Mesquite members).

Our hotel rooms are booked and we will be picking up at least 12 plain Metro vehicles to use while in Laughlin. Ten of our members will be attending the Metro Driver training class on Monday, March 31st. This is a requirement in order to drive their police vehicles.

• Last week a meeting was held with Lt. Menger of Metro’s Emergency Management Unit. He was very receptive to our offer to help. He wanted some documentation from the VHRU, such as a copy of our MOU with Metro, anyone who has been certified in ICS, a list of where our volunteers are assigned within Metro. A meeting was set up with his coordinator, the person responsible for organizing the Metro Homeland Security mock exercises.

• It was suggested by President Ted Farace to establishment of a “Linda Farace Memorial Scholarship Fund”. This fund will assist children, grandchildren, including step children of members in good standing with their education. Linda passed away back in November and was the person behind the scenes doing all the administrative work for the VHRU. Linda is responsible for coining our name, the Volunteer Homeland Reserve Unit. The funds for this program will be donated by Ted Farace in her honor. The members of the Core Leadership support this idea and Frank Bruton has talked with the IRS. We have sent them documentation to get their approval to have this as part of our 501(c) (3) status. If approved, information will be mailed out to everyone outlining the guidelines and the requirements to submit for a cash awards annually. A new webpage will be added to the VHRU site in the near future.

• Please welcome Sergeant Cindy Rodriguez, Las Vegas Metro PD, Down Town Area Command who has the responsibility of the “COP” program, which includes the Surveillance Unit. Sergeant Rodriguez will give us an overview of the programs she is working on and how we may assist.

As you heard the Downtown Area Command Surveillance Program has been underway for two weeks. We have some volunteers but are looking for more to help fill the tours. This assignment runs Monday to Friday (4 hour shifts) starting at 0600 x 1000, 1000x 1400 and 1400 x 1800. Please see me for more details and if you can help out by giving 4 hours of your time during the week

• A suggestion was made by Boulder City Core Leader, Christian Magrabi to have a monthly list of VHRU members that are available in case we are activated. Each Squad will identify which members are available by month. In the event we are called, we will have a starting point of how many members are able to respond. We will have a chart at the next meeting where your squad will be identified. We ask you to add your name on the list by month. We realize that many of us leave for the summer and it would be good to know exactly how many members we can count on during that period.

• A meeting was held with Lt, Menger, Las Vegas Metro, Emergency Management Unit to discuss how the VHRU could assist his unit. Also attending this meeting was, Sharon Mikalonis, Executive Development Specialist, Homeland Security Management. Both seemed very interested in utilizing the VHRU. One immediate request way made to assist with the upcoming Police Memorial Run. This run involves all active Police Officers from across the county who race from Las Vegas to Tonopah and then on the Reno. Metro needs the VHRU to operate their marked police cruisers to assist these runners by offering transportation back to their vehicles at the point they started. Metro is responsible up to Tonopah, other police agencies take over up to Reno.

The Run starts on May 1st to May 3rd. There isn’t enough time to get volunteers certified by Metro. We would need as many of the members who have been certified by Metro to assist. 

They also indicated they are in the planning stage of putting together exercises for the next three years and will include the VHRU in some part of these future plans.

• Today Ted Farace met with Assistant Sheriff Ray Flynn to give him and update on the progress of the VHRU and seek his cooperation with a number of issues. One issue we discussed is utilizing Metro’s computers to do run both, Scope and Triple I searches. This capability we greatly enhance our position assisting with the Down-town Surveillance program running names and license plates. It was approved by Sheriff Flynn.

• Laughlin River Run Update:

The River Run was a great success for both Metro and the VHRU. We were able to put in service conducting surveillance, 12 plain Metro vehicles with teams of two in each vehicle.

A number of outstanding events took place. One team from Laughlin, John Giannapulos and Bernie Green witnessed a theft and followed the subjects. They contacted our Command Post and Metro was called and responded to make the arrests.  On the first night, Metro distributed a flyer, which indicated an individual on Federal Parole was wanted by Metro for questioning.  Dave Michel and Dick Cancellier from Vegas spotted the individual on the last night of the Run.  Metro was called and took this individual into their custody. Great work by our two teams and the other teams that help stem the theft of motorcycles, a well done. Only one (1) Motorcycle was reported stolen. This has been the lowest year on thefts since the Run started over 10 years ago.

• Squad Leader Christian Magrabi and Ted Farace met recently with Police Chief Finn and Fire Chief Nicholson from Boulder City. Chief Nicholson is a newly appointed Fire Chief and has not had the time to formulate an exercise. Both agreed to send representatives to observe our mock exercise. The intent of our exercise is testing the organizational skills and communication capabilities with our new radios. The scenario is a plane crash on the Boulder Creek Golf Course, just short of the runway at the Boulder City Airport. Members will be assigned new radios and sent out in the field to a specific assignment. We are planning this exercise to kick off around 10 am, so please be ready to respond when you get the call. The more members we have the better. A written summary of the exercise will be sent to the State, which helps us maintain our grant funding and could increase what we receive next year.

Immediately following the exercise we will meet at the Hemeway Park for a BBQ. Maps etc. of the area and the scenario will be handed to those responding on May 14th at the staging area, which will be the  Boulder Creek Gold Course

• A discussion was held with the Laughlin Squad Leaders about forming a Mojave County Arizona Team. It was agreed that Ben Bacchi from Bullhead City would become the new Squad Leader. We have a number of members from Arizona that come across into Laughlin to help and it makes sense to form this new team.

Ted Farace