What is the key to an effective response, intra- or interstate?

Who's closest, who's capable and who is able to respond. You end up becoming the first response agencies on a mutual aid basis instead of what we saw in [Hurricane] Katrina, where Illinois drove over 1,000 miles. Why should that be and why did that happen? That's what this effort is about. Closest available, closest capable and able, that's what it's all about.

I think the grassroots effort is what will make it happen. The higher-ups need to support our efforts and our initiatives. The higher-ups need not worry about taking control of it because it's going to end up in a much higher bureaucracy where … the motivation from those that want to get it done will be stifled. We don't need to be in competition with the macro issues at a federal level. We need to deal with the issue that is a local issue, with a system created by locals, implemented by locals and maintained by locals. We just need to make sure it integrates well with other systems so we don't have voids when requests are made for assistance. I think the IAFC with their issues for intra- and inter- and our efforts are the platforms to make sure we do it right.

You've repeatedly said that Illinois does not want to be the MABAS police. Where will the authority come from, and how will you keep that from happening?

Probably six years ago there was a concern within the Illinois MABAS organization of enforced compliance. Enforcing compliance implies there is a punitive action if you don't comply. What are you going to do? Tell people they can't have mutual aid? … MABAS, instead of going for punitive actions that would have resulted in lawsuits and cost us a lot of money that we don't have and damaged relationships, looked at systems and methods already in existence that would give us the same end without all the bad side effects.

One is a mediation process with fact finding, where the president can send in three or five chiefs from the outside who aren't biased to investigate complaints about one member against another member and attempt to go through the political process to enforce compliance without going through the courts, without making threats and [implying] lawyers need to get involved.

Second is the philosophy on how we do business. Since I became president, we are a centrally coordinated and facilitated agency, but the compliance and enforcement responsibility is decentralized at the division level. MABAS is made up of divisions; departments are part of divisions. We have 62 divisions and over 1,000 departments in the state of Illinois….

The MABAS executive board's responsibility is to facilitate cooperation, facilitate the removal of barriers that prohibit that cooperation and to get the biggest bang for our buck by sharing resources where it makes sense to share instead of worrying about proprietary ownerships. The rules, the standards, the military minimums that we adopt by procedure or policies are voted on by all members of the executive board meeting, where there are 62 votes on the floor. Each division has a vote.