FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Pete Winton, Lee County Administration
                (941) 335-2777

FORT MYERS, Fla. (November 21, 2001) – Lee County Manager Don Stilwell will be traveling to Sante Fe, NM, Nov. 28 for the second meeting of the National Association of Counties (NACo) Homeland Security Task Force, of which he is a member.

Topics of discussion will be the recently drafted NACo Homeland Security Legislative Policy Agenda (www.naco.org/programs/homesecurity/homelandpolicy.pdf), cyber-terrorism threats, security of critical infrastructure, and the role of technology in Homeland Security.

The NACo task force provides a direct link between counties and federal agencies – especially the new Office of Homeland Security at the White House – working to secure the nation’s communities. It was created in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

Stilwell is one of three Floridians appointed to the 45-member task force. He serves as the representative from the National Association of County Administrators (www.naco.org/pubs/cnews/current/pages/homeland7.htm).

The newly formed task force’s first meeting Oct. 26 in Washington, D.C. was attended by Tom Ridge, director of the White House Office of Homeland Security, Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and Larry D. Thompson, Deputy U.S. Attorney General.

One of the main themes of that meeting was all levels of government need to "collaborate" and "integrate their resources" better, especially in the area of intelligence gathering and sharing. It is imperative that governments and agencies work more closely together than ever before and fight the tendency to centralize and guard turf.

NACo President Javier Gonzales, a Santa Fe, New Mexico County Commissioner, chairs the task force, which was drawn from the leadership of NACo’s steering committees and affiliated organizations such as the National Association of County and City Public Health Officials, the National Association of County Engineers and the National Council of County Association Executives.

Stilwell has been Lee County Manager since 1993. He has worked in city/county manager positions since 1972 in Oregon, California and Florida. As Lee County Manager, Stilwell oversees an organization of 25 departments and divisions, 2,000 employees, and an annual operating and capital budget of more than $500 million.

To learn more about NACo’s Homeland Security efforts, visit www.naco.org/programs/homesecurity/index.cfm.