firm. he served as the first director of the office of state and local coordination for the is department of homeland security. josh co-authored the homeland security presidential directive eight on national preparedness as we followed early an age of homeland security. ..

and local level, some, now in private practice. who have served in those important roles or do so today and to give us some insights about the role of the lawyer in emergency preparedness and response. with that i would like to introduce the panel by having them introduce themselves to you and then we'll get right into it. >> good afternoon. i'm adrian sevier, counsel for emergency management agency. etf been with fema since 2000, for 15 years. i have had several positions at the agency. i fema sets up when the president declares major disaster or emergency. i filled a variety of positions

at fema, including deputy chief counsel for quite a few years and chief counsel for a year so. >> i'm dan connolly. i started my career as prosecutor in new york city and then served as counsel in mayor giuliani's administration in new york for eight years, culminating serving as his liaison to the federal government in the aftermaths of the attacks in september 2001. and since then i have, i've been in private practice, both on consulting side initially, helping on the corporate side, helping companies prepare for crisis. more recently just good old-fashioned practicing of law. >> good afternoon. my name is george grasso. i started in government as a new york city police officer at 22 years old back in 1979.

went to law school on the job, worked my way up through various uniform ranks. ultimately becoming the deputy commissioner for legal matters of the nypd in 19 the 7, which is essentially the chief legal counsel of the nypd -- 1997. i held that job for five years until 2000 two, during which unfortunately new york city had to endure the 9/11 attacks. among other things i will discuss in more detail, but on that day i was assigned by the police commissioner of the city of new york to be his personal liaison and representative with the fbi, at the fbi command center where dan and i already had been working closely on a variety of topics. we put a team together more closely worked for several months after that.

in 2002 ray kelly made me first his deputy police commissioner, number two in the nypd, a job i had for eight years and from there in 2010 mayor bloomberg made me a judge in the criminal court of the city of new york. in 2012, i was appointed by the administrative judge of the criminal court to be city arraignment for city of new york, a position i now hold. >> good afternoon. my name career is not as colorful as my colleagues. my name is marie claire brown. i am, i am, with the district of columbia department of health. i was in private practice for 12 years after which i decided to move over to the government. i've been a district of columbia attorney for the past 18 1/2 years. so i am currently the senior assistant general counsel for the department of health,

health, emergency preparedness and response administration. so in that capacity, i do a lot of what we're here to talk about today. and i'm looking forward to a great panel. >> very good. so, adrian, let's start with you. fema has developed the disaster legal, disaster operations legal reference. it's a rather large document that goes through a number of different issues that obviously fema and others have to deal with from a disaster response perspective. what was the impetus behind putting that document together and what benefits have accrued as a result of having, having constructed it? >> my office is charged with providing legal advice in crisis. that is primarily what we do. we advise emergency managers within the federal emergency management agency during, prior to and after having disasters and emergency declarations.

we work very hard to facilitate, empower and give our staff what they need to work in that environment. so, we give them laptops, ipads, smartphones that can be operated with a hot spot. we, we give them tools such as tear sheets that are quick and dirty reference material on 60, to 70 legal issues that come up in a post-disaster environment and one of those is the disaster legal reference, the dlr by it us acronym. that is 4, 500 pages of reference material that covers pretty much everything that emergency management lawyer at fema might face in a post-declaration environment and it's not, by any means an authoritative recitation of the law but on all of the topics that might come up it provides very succinct, easy to

understand explanation along with obviously the appropriate statutory and regulatory references. so it is just really a, a great tool that they have always at their disposal. on their ipads. so wherever they go, for them. >> since putting that together and making it a tool for your lawyers, how would you say it's improved your ability to provide counsel and advice to your leadership and state and local agencies that may be seeking disaster assistance? >> well, from when i started in 2000 and used to deploy to joint field offices i can remember literally sitting on the floor at some eoc somewhere without connectivity to the internet with whatever i could carry with me in terms of reference materials until someone could set up a table and computer for me. today, still may be sitting on the floor but they will have

internet connectivity and have the reference material and they can hit the ground running. of course time is of the essence in a response environment so they are never at a loss for the materials that they need and so the responsiveness has improved dramatically. and of course the timeliness of our advice is critical. and so these sorts of tools, technology, that we provide has made a huge difference in terms of timeliness factor. >> very good. so keeping on point here with on the prepareness side of things, mary, the district put together a legal handbook, some would argue off of fema's dlr. what was the driving force behind the district taking that step, a step they quite frankly, many other local jurisdictions have not taken? >> so, as adrian said, it's, it's a situation where time is of the essence. what we had was several deliver

the agencies that are responsible for several different aspects of response. and as we all know, there are always silos and, in this, in this particular situation, the district was going through its updating the preparedness framework and district response plan in early 2014. this became, and forgive me, i not with the department of homeland security which actually, the actually district department of homeland security and emergency management which actually prepared this document but i was one of the persons involved with its development. the department of health had already, back in the second obama inaugural, i had prepared a public health manuel for emergency preparedness. that included all potential

issues that could arise, case law that we may need, form documents, public health emergency declarations, et cetera and those documents were provided to senior officials as well as colleagues in the general counsel's office so we would have them in the event that they were needed. and that document actually is the same framework that this, that the district emergency preparedness legal handbook is based on. and. we use thumb drives and handed them out to whoever needed to have them. at the end of the day you don't know what will happen. internet will be probably first thing to go down in an emergency. we have these at our fingertips. ours are not quite as in depth of fema's. our document is about half that

size, it includes, it includes checklists for various agency counsel who may be, who may be called on to respond to various things. so it's tied to the esf structure and, for example, the department of health we have a specific role in there and then we work down from there coordinating with other agencies and their counsel. it's just, it's been a great thing. in fact what it's led to is the department of health is in the process of publishing a public health emergency preparedness legal manuel and bench book. we recognize not only do agency counsel need to have this information but the judiciary is often forgotten. so we've been working with the courts. we're doing a seminar on 9/11 of this year and for training, law and science for judges. so all of these things are an evolving process. the main thing it is a living

document and as things happen, for example, when this was drafted, when this was released there was no, you know, ebola was really not on anyone's mind. and i will stop there. >> we will definitely be talking about ebola here. so moving a little past on the preparedness side and actually diving into some real world incidents, i'm going to start with george and dan on this. start by asking, on september 11th, 2001, could each of you briefly describe where you were and what you were doing. >> well, ironically dan and i were supposed to be together in washington d.c. that day. as i mentioned earlier, dan and i had kind of evolved like a bit of a tag-team with me being chief lawyer for the nypd and dan being my chief city liaison and corporation counsel and also

with the mayor. so there had been an issue regarding a world economic forum that was being planned in 2001 and actually the federal government had wanted 1,000 new york city police officers to come to d.c. to help to police the event. and dan and i were responsible to kind of figure out how that would work. frankly we had some concerns pertaining to civil liability issues for police officers. should there be incidents that new york city police officers because it would have been a novel circumstance and that is a lot of police officer, 1000. what if officers got hurt and dan was here setting up a meeting in the attorney general's office and i was going to meet the commissioner in the morning and meet you so you could pick up your end. >> at the moment of the attack i was actually here in d.c. and then spent much of the next 12 hours finding ways to get back

to new york city. but it was a, you know, obviously, completely unprecedented situation. we, i have to remark on listening to my fellow panelists and the programs they're putting in place and to prepare people and prepare the lawyers. the more work that's done, this will be a major issue on this panel today, but morning work that is done on a blue sky day in preparing for what's to come, no matter, even if you haven't directly anticipated the disaster, it will be brought to bear. we spent a lot of time under the giuliani administration with all first-responders and the office of emergency management preparing for disasters. obviously we didn't conceive of and think of preparing for this disaster but, all of the techniques, all of the concepts,

everybody's role was roughly understood in advance. having been able to fall back on a playbook much along the lines of what doh here in d.c. and what fema has done, enormously valuable. i also think when we look at the situation we often times think about, when i say situation, responding to disasters or attacks, we think of the major cities which are much more robust and more mature in their response capabilities but we need to be thinking about those areas in the united states that have less robust first responder capability but are equally vulnerable or as vulnerable. in any event, for us, to me, was getting back to new york, to then commissioner grasso, now judge grasso. getting briefed by the mayor. it was somewhat, my going to be

my role in the event of a disaster to be his liaison with the federal government. that plugged in nicely and by about 24 hours after the attack george and i were positioned with the federal agencies, you know, very cleverly. the decision was made to separate the governments, the city and state, had their temporary headquarters on a pier, a cruise ship pier. >> first at academy. >> first at the academy and then cruise ship pier. then the federal government and all agencies set up in hidden garage. it was a secret. george and i recall, one moment of humor, we had been told as liaisons we would be told the location of this garage but that it was a secret. we couldn't tell our families. it was very important the federal government, all of its agencies be protected in the

event of a secondary attack. took quite seriously, heading there, thinking, is anyone following me. when i get there it is a garage on the westside highway. >> parking garage. >> parking garage. they have sandbags and mounted gun. you might give it away, folks. >> fortunately on new york that day was not only location with sandbags and mounted guns. staying on the theme where we were that day, just on terms of practicality and overarching takeaway concept or general counsel or who find themselves in lawyers or in any way find themselves with something like that, i can sum up in one word and over overarching quality for that day and going forward, flexibility. write down what i say, write

down flexibility. dan talked about plans. one thing about new york city and nypd. we love to have plans. it is great, frameworks. i came up through the ranks as a police officer so i fully understood that you know what? a lot of what we did, certainly what i was doing on that day in the first 24 hours there was really no playbook for. what happened is that, you know, it was just a cascading series of events. you know, i gave the precursor about, you know, how i started the day. i remember very clearly, i was driving in on long island expressway, all focused, it was kind of a big deal to me to go to the attorney general's office to start scoping out this plan we had never been done before. so obviously i'm thinking of that. i'm getting call entering the midtown tunnel. from someone who i did tremendous work that day joe

dunne. when i tried to pick up his call we lost contact. to make a long story short, by the time i tried to reconnect with joe thinking we were talking about what we would be doing in washington, i get through to his secretary and she was getting ready to put me in to joe, she started screaming about a plane hitting the trade center, and happening up. just as that happens, i'm coming on to the fdr drive, just in time to see the first building that had been hit the north tower. its was just this monstrous fire. it was tremendously scary. to fast forward, that was very close to the building. i went into the building ironically with chief who was a friend of mine, who was instrumental taking action to stop what would have been a major terrorist attack in new york by just entering an apartment in brooklyn where some terrorists were planning to bomb subways which is another story.

we're looking at each other is that what we're dealing with or is it an accident? just as i got into the building, i went into the commissioner's office, to see and that's where i saw the second plane come in and hit. we all knew we were in attack mode. so fast forwarding, you know i'm thinking about my brain is racing. now all of sudden the whole thing with washington which was just a big deal shortly was completely forgotten. thinking about, you know, what are we going to do? what should my role be? what role did i see for myself as deputy commissioner legal matters? really not working with any kind of a disaster playbook but, pulling into mind, what did i typically do for the job? what was i particularly good at? it dawned on me we would have top commanders, operational commanders right on the scene at

base of world trade center trying to figure out how they were going to direct things operationally. i remember obviously from previous training one of our great problems had been, although we had never done anything on that scale before, everybody in the world tries to respond to the scene, you create this gridlock atmosphere and nobody can do anything about anything. so i thought to myself, let me get to the scene. let me attach, i figured chief of manhattan south is big tall six foot six guy, couldn't miss him, alan hail. let me find chief hale, if nothing else i can run interference with all the city and state people, federal people, try to create some space for the operational people to do their job. i was on my way there, i made a point of passing the location called 75 barclay, which is literally a stone's throw from the towers.

that is where mayor giuliani was setting up with the police commissioner. and then i, that's when i ran into dunne. i told dunne what i wanted to do. and dunne said, you know, we were looking at the flames of the both towers, literally what we could see at the time, looked like from a tickertape parade, was actually metal and bodies. that is the scene we were looking at from the top towers. it was just, it was really something ripped out of a science fiction thing and joe said to me that he would rather that i go back to headquarters because we were setting up a situation room in police headquarters. as bad as that was at time. we did not see the towers coming down. it was five minutes before the first tower came down. but we didn't see that happening. so, we were looking at unprecedented disaster and an attack but like in terms of the event, like a long-term fire and

dunne wanted me to go assist setting up the situation room at 1 pp, 1 police plaza, police headquarters. so that probably saved my life because it turned me around for about a block in the other direction. and then the roar, i thought, when the south tower came down, i actually thought a third plane hit. it was still, i was right there. >> let's stop right there for one second. i want to come back to that in one moment. >> right. >> i want to bring adrian into this conversation, because, unlike 9/11, which was a no notice event for us, literally, planes coming out of nowhere, superstorm sandy, which obviously had a tremendous and devastating impact on much the northeast was notice of it. you knew it was coming. we could all see it on the weather channel. what were you doing in the time leading up to that disaster as

either the deputy counsel at the time, trying to assist your leadership in getting ready for what everyone knew was going to be a catastrophic event? >> before i get to that point, just very briefly on the no notice event, the vast majority of states, localities don't have attorneys dedicated to emergency management and so often times the attorneys called upon are from the department of health or police or fire or other emergency responder legal counsel offices and one of the things that is really important for all of them to remember and to be mindful of is, you have to first make sure that the legal office itself can function post-event. what if your legal office is destroyed by fire or flood or hurricane, can you actually perform your function? so i want to put a plug in there for all legal offices, especially in the public sector to be aware and to plan and to

consider connewt of operations. where is your server? where is your backup date? where or how do you get in touch with your attorneys if you're not able to get to the office. in the post-event environment to have access data and information and fundamentally your people. in an event where we have notice, fema has, my office has the luxury of a couple of hundred attorneys that are spread across the country that deploy and activate wherever we need to. so we have attorneys that are assigned, the sole role of deploying to field offices, we have things called incident management assistance teams that train together. they all have attorneys. we have attorneys in 10 different regions across the country. so as fema begins to activate in preparation for an approaching

hurricane, for example, lawyers are activated right along with all of those elements and there can be many attorneys and probably for an approaching hurricane we would typically have 40 to 50 attorneys dedicated to just that function. we have that luxury because that's what we do for a living. so we have a lot of attorneys devoted to that. most state and local governments don't have that many attorneys. so it is really important, especially folks along the coastal areas that have the ability to have notice of an event in advance, really pay attention to the various preparedness and readiness activities you can undertake to at least be able to take over those duties when need be. >> very good. so marie, obviously sandy did not have direct impact on the district although i know being here at the time it was something we were looking out for but there was another more

recent incident that affected really the globe coming out of africa primarily and was affecting us all if not through the television, if not directly and that was the ebola crisis. tell us a little bit as that began to unfold and got a lot of media attention, perhaps a disproportionate amount, what was your leadership looking for from you in terms of how the district was going to respond to that, if in fact you had a case break out inside of the district? >> so, as far as ebola is concerned, the director of the department of health who was then dr. garcia was responsible for all things ebola in the district. i am the sole counsel for emergency preparedness but at least we have one.

we had the benefit of having already gotten a lot of our authorities and those requirements all together. so whatever the circumstance was, we would be able to push out a public health emergency declaration but i will step back and say in the district of columbia, the department of health can not declare a public health emergency unless the mayor declares a public emergency first. and, in fact, the director of the department of public health can not declare an emergency. the mayor must do it. but in getting ready for ebola there were a lot of things that were happening at the same time. while the focus was primarily what was going on in the new york new jersey area there was a similar situation with dulles airport being one of the major international airports as

well. there were a series of documents that needed to be created quickly. things nobody really thought about. quarantine and isolation laws, regulation, orders, and all of those things but nothing specific to this case. and, so what we had to do was work closely with our regional partners in carving out something that would work for everybody, with the district of columbia. people coming to dulles are filling out a form if they were likely to be candidate for follow-up. if they met some of the criteria at dulles airport and going to a hotel in springfield, they might be coming to the ritz-carlton in washington, d.c. so we really don't have control what is happening. you have to take people's information on face value. that was a situation that raised

hairs. , what we did in the district, dr. garcia made a determination he was not going to force quarantine. we created two agreements. one being a voluntary -- we had the voluntary reporting -- the mandatory reporting on a daily basis which was disease surveillance and epidemiology folks here. we did have for persons that had been exposed, we had a voluntary isolation in lieu of forced quarantine agreement that would be signed. and those people also had to report on a daily basis. before we got anything together, i will say for the new yorkers here, i got on the phone and spoke with roz buchholz and couple other people in

new york city, to make sure we were somewhat on the same page and had some consistency. so we were ready to move forward on same battle rythym. we had, while everyone was focusing on kaci hickox. and attorneys do what attorneys do. we received notice this client was not going to quarantine herself. he was challenging the forced quarantine. it was fortunately resolved and we never had issues with news media. there were a series of documents we had to quickly come up with all of the authorities because we knew we would get challenges. and that the main thing was insuring that the legal folks

were in development and resolution of these patients. >> dan, george, pick it up on 9/11. planes have gone in, you're scrambling. talk to us ultimately what assignment you were given by the mayor and police commissioner, once things started to at least not settle down but at least some idea what you were going to do to respond? >> i will pick up, i will pick up where i left off. i will start with my overriding theme of flexibility and initiative. initially nobody was giving me assignments. i was giving myself assignments. i was going through the towers and i saw dunne. dunne told me to go back to the

building, get to the 8th floor and start getting the situation in the command center going. planning he would be back in about an hour. he thought he would spend a little time with the mayor and get back. the way the day worked out and kind of stayed, police commissioner kerik stayed attached to the mayor. jo dunne ended up back in 1 pp, kind of running operations from the building which was absolutely crucial. then there is that explosion, i think it is a third plane. i'm sure everybody here has seen those clouds. when you walkwatch it on television it looks like the clouds were a little slow but i saw the clouds hit into the canyons and it was monsterous. i was with a couple people. we got lit with the clouds. when that happened i thought you were dead. i throw that in context we're talking about all kind of disasters here from zero to 10. you have to deal with that.

i thought i was dead but i wasn't. fortunately we got through that cloud. me and one of my men got into a little delicatessen store and we were strategizing what do you do? i stayed focus, last thing dunne told me, go to the building. i was a few blocks from police headquarters. i told the detective who was with me. let's get to headquarters and we left that now at that time, in my mind set thinking about everybody behind me and mayor and police commissioner and chief deputy commissioner and chief of department at 75 bartlet. i don't know if anybody made it. that is the kind of mind-set we were, people were having on that day. rumors were running rampant who didn't make it. there were rumors about me. there were rumors about everybody. so i got back into headquarters.

when you find yourself with something like this you're working with limited and evolving information. we weren't running around doing texting. texting came in vogue in the police department after this incident. it was one of the few things that held up that day but none of us were doing it. so it wait a minute much help. i got thinking, police headquarters could be a substantial target. not knowing where hierarchy was. i made my way up to the command center on the 8th floor. it was helpful to me, where you find yourselves in an agency. i kind of grew up in that agency, i kind of i did. i knew how it worked. i knew who the people were. nor you know in general

counsel's role, to know inside out of agencies, not just policies and laws but who the people are, how things are done, it is crucial, whole variety of respects. so my first task i assigned myself because i was top ranking person because it is civilian authority in the police department and i was deputy commissioner, i grabbed the chief but i didn't want to panic everybody, i put a couple cops whatever lines were. my number one goal where is the mayor, where is the police commissioner, where is the chief of the department. what is your line of authority. figure out what our logistics were. fortunately dunne came into this, where i covered with. i felt frankly a little burden had been lifted. and then, esposito, who was

chief of department came in. then what i did, first thing i did, i facilitated conversation with dunne and esposito about whether or not we should stay in police headquarters. we had to think that through, i figured out buildings had fallen, we still didn't know, there were all the planes flying around. it would make sense police headquarters could be a target. i took it upon myself to facilitate that conversation. we had that conversation and decided to stay in police headquarters which obviously turned out to be a good decision. so as time went on from there. these were assignments i was mixing in to adapt to the situation. we contacting the federal government who had not moved into the garage. they had moved out of 26

broadway which was their main operation then and now, like concerns we were having at 1 pp, they moved out of 26 fed and moved to location on church street. but we had no communication with them. that is when i got an assignment from joe dunne, on behalf of commissioner, police commissioner and department they need a high-level person. we got to get somebody over there. we have to start communicating in real time. get over there. now a funny story, you know josh asked me to tell, josh and i also work and dan worked together as well. he works for the mayor at the time. we were intersecting in various ways. when i was leaving the building to go to 290 broadway, to go to the church location, church street, they actually had brought down a metal gate that we had never used at -- we had the gate for the police garage. i go down to get my car thinking

i could use a car and, all the cars were trapped in the basement. nobody could figure out how to get the gate back up. so i was incredulous about it. how can we -- somebody says, well, commissioner, you know, we have a welder, you know, in no uncertain language get the welder to chop it off. no way of the whole hierarchy of police department stuck in the basement of that building. so anyway, you know, these are the crazy things happen, you know. >> that is why your flexibility point. >> flexibility point. the whole variety of scores. so i got over to the fbi, had introduced myself to the head of the new york office. and mary jo white, who, i knew mary jo. i hadn't worked with barry moore, u.s. attorney for southern district were there. a whole team of people were beginning to assemble. but the job of the day was, then

i will let dan add as we get into what the garage operation looks like the next day. 9 job of the day was communication. first tangible thing i did with that assignment, to show how bad the communication was, throughout the entire day to that point barry moore, mary jo white, head of the new york office and u.s. district southern district had not met directly with the mayor. fortunately since i was able to get the car out of that garage, i had a car. i brought them physically to the police academy on 20th street where mayor giuliani had set up. it was perfect timing. we had the player there, governor pataki was there. josh was there at that point. and just to give everybody a sense of the scope,

unprecedented scope what we were all dealing with at that time, the crime scene and everybody in csi world, get the crime scene, the crime scene at that time in the frozen zone was everything south of 14th street. everything south of isth street to the -- 14th street to the tip of manhattan. the big decision to be made, whether or not we would keep the frozen zone from 14th street or cut it to canal street which the mayor and governor -- that was a bold decision. we'll reduce the crime scene to canal street. then we had to make decisions about bridges and tunnels. you know, nobody knew what could happen under those circumstances. we were working with extremely limited information. so as you see, as i keep going back to that word, flexibility, you know, whether it was originally thinking i was going to go to the actual scene, whether or not i was going to

set up the command center. whether or not i was going to make decisions as to what the hierarchy of government was going to be that was relevant to police operations, whether or not we were going to stay in the building or leave the building, these were all things. a lot of it was self-assignments just using knowledge and experience working through a situation. >> along the lines of best laid plans, you know, apropos of preparedness that fema preaches now, i have the emergency orders, the mayor has the authority in new york like he does in d.c. to do the emergency orders. i thought very cleverly i would have binder of all emergency orders printed out in case we didn't have power and cd-rom, cd-roms, 1990s technology. i had two sets of it. one we kept in our emergency command center which was devoid in the first minutes of the attack. the other i kept in trunk of my car which i parked in my office

on church street which was destroyed in immediate aftermath. what we thought, we had idea. an earlier speaker from the department of homeland security was analgizing that the agency, dhs, 15 years old, much like a teenager, the pros and cons of a teenager. i was thinking sitting in the back i think that was quite interesting. if you put yourself back in the time of 2001, the same, the same set of awareness or preparedness or maturity in thinking about how to approach these issues was more like, you know, as an infant or maybe even embryonic. there was a lot of creativity that was required in those times and as a lawyer the role, the role was being the facilitator. the operations folks had their hands, you know, full dealing

with unprecedented concerns, issues coming up literally every second. and your job as the lawyer was to figure out a way to make it work or help them prioritize on things that mattered. at one point, in a moment of clarity, deputy mayor asked me because we had closed bridges and tunnels. two of those tunnels connect manhattan with another state. he asked me does the mayor have that authority? my response as lawyer was, who cares? sometimes you have to say who will sue us at this point. we'll figure it out later. you know, it's a, the job is, the job is a difficult one. what i find so encouraging 15 years on is, the fact that we've taken these lessons, we continue to institutionalize buildings, essentially the infrastructure of local and state government, all these lessons learned so

you're not making this up on the fly. having said that, you're still as counsel always going to have to be creative even if it's a noticed event. we can note superstorm sandy is headed our way. you have no idea the impact it will have in certain regions or type of flooding associated with it. we lost a big chunk of the subway system in that storm. i mean that is the real challenges. i think we've come a long way. i think we'll never be, we'll never be quite there but that is a good thing. it is dynamic process. >> well-said in terms of role of the attorney in those circumstances. we try to train our attorneys to function in that way but often, you know, many local governments and state and city governments will have attorneys there who have not faced sensitive situations before and you really do have to let go of the ordinary risk analysis to just sometimes say in these circumstances who cares. we don't have any other choice.

>> right. >> and that can be very important role of the attorney to reassure the client what they need to do operationally, it is okay. we'll do it and clean up after the fact. >> exactly right. >> what i would like to do before we open up for questions from the floor, i would like to focus in on two things. really obstacles, and lessons learned. and come back to the new york 9/11 and zero in on issue i know both george and dan were tasked dealing with, as liaisons for information or lack of information between the federal government and the city of new york. and talk a little bit about some of the obstacles you encountered in performing that critical role. and some of lessons that you learned as a result of that unprecedented task that you were given. >> so, several obstacles that fly off the page, to reiterate

something i said earlier. all of the, all ever the normal modes of communication other than to face communication were either down or unreliable. you know, well, at least for several weeks, if not more. into the event. so we had to, but yet, normal modes of communications were down, but, the need for information skyrocketed. i mean, in the garage, we call it the garage operation, the garage, those of us alumni of that garage, the best way if i can help you visualize it, and anybody seen the movie, "the sting" and they set up the big wire room? that is what it was. they gerrymandered this wire room operation. they had long tables and over

time we probably ended up with 100 or 150 people in that garage from every federal, city, state entity our agency could think of, they had liaisons at the garage. they had this lead desk. they had pile of leads. the leads were coming in by the dozens. nobody thought, in the mix there is one thing i just throw things out that i know people would be familiar with, there was the whole anthrax scare that came up in the middle of this where people were actually dying. it was, stuff was happening. so we were tasked pd, and i set up a little table, literally right outside the door of moore's office, with no previous background and training in counterterrorism and things like that i found myself and to moore's credit he let me in. dan and i were involved in these

conference calls and information that was coming around the country. and we had to figure out what was hot, what we needed to push to the pd hierarchy, what we needed to push to mayor giuliani. there was actually a couple controversial things, significant things we had to run literally and find the mayor physically and get his feedback. he was tremendously supportive throughout i would have to say as would be expected. so we had that but then, here's another thing that is crucial, is we, there was a culture, we were going against culture. and it is, on the federal end, there were various issues among the federal government themselves as to intelligence side and criminal side and who communicates what with who. there are a whole, nypd had certain information and certain ways of doing things. the fbi had certain information and certain ways, we were thrust

into the middle of all of that. and it was extremely murky. and, frankly i'm going to, a couple of times, the word, framework i had to be kind of bold and assertive on a few occasions as the lawyer to get the job done to say look, it's not about me. i'm not here for me. i'm here as a crucial vehicle. if there's information here that could be relevant to protecting the city of new york, i need to get that and i need to take that where -- then people ultimately went along with that. one of the tangible things that we did, you know, just moving along because time is short, seeing that, working with dan and josh, i had the police department actually starting in the full of 2001 work on federal legislation that ultimately became the homeland security information sharing act, probably one of the fastest

moving piece of -- between the fall of' 01 and fall of two, you can look under 6 usc 491, relevant sections 891 to 889where we -- 893, we started with patriot act. we didn't quite what which need in the patriot act and follow through on the homeland security act. if you look on the first page in section 891 you see a lot of stuff in there about the federal government relies on state and local personnel to protect against a terrorist attack. it acknowledges the fact that information-sharing is crucial. it sets up a lawful framework, with specifics likes that the government has to, you know, grant clearances of the government needs to be sensitive of declassification of

information where appropriate. create a framework. so we saw that as a problem we didn't wait. as we were dealing with stuff in real time i assigned lawyers in the nypd legal bureau to work with dan's lawyers and josh as our government liaison. that is how josh and i worked together previously in terms of getting legislation. and we were, as we were dealing with this coming here on december 11th, we had a whole round ever meetings with some top people in washington who were involved in senators and congressman who were involved making this happen for us. now that, like i, to go back to the morning of 9/11, i was even remotely thinking of anything like that? no. but you know what saw what problems were. you saw what obstacles were, my job, in in other words, how we

should think about things, my job thrown into that. wasn't to come back and report problems to the mayor and to the police commissioner and to the hierarchy. my job was to figure out what they needed to know and find a way to get it to them. as i was doing that, dealing with obstacles, i also started thinking what can we do among other things legislatively to deal with that? not to say, sometimes we talk about legislation as lawyers, we talk about legislation in a way to get out of stuff. well, boss, i really can't do that, what we really need is legislation. let's work on the legislation. that is certainly not what we would be doing on 9/11. you work in stereo. you do what you can with what you have while you're there. to the extent you see a legislative solution you work on it in real time. now obviously to get federal law from concept to delivery to actual passed by congress and signed by the president inside of a year on something this significant was quite unusual but it was unusual times.

it shows what can be done. and i am proud of the fact as lawyers and this general counsel these are kinds ever things we were able to do -- >> i was -- >> in 20 section i will say, biggest obstacle, i still think it exists to certain degree but much less so now, really mind set. we were inventing way we communicated with each other. we were meeting with each other in some circumstances first time. when we were in this garage, there were members of the new york office of the fbi essentially meeting other members of the fbi, who worked on the intelligence side versus the criminal side. none of the infrastructure of communication, none of the mind set existed. we were inventing that in the middle of the storm. and i would say that is single, because that permeated everything we did. we were all trying to catch up

to where we needed to be. and today, through the work that is being done at dhs and at fema, we're so much better at it. i think this generation will be okay. hopefully we build all of this into the infrastructure. and institutions for all time. but it was, it was, it was unfortunately a brave new world that required immediate governmental response. it was really quite challenging under circumstances. >> so we'll open up for questions. i wanted marie claire and adrian talk about some of the legal lessons learned from sandy and ebola, that you took from that. then we'll open it up to questions. >> i will say very briefly, in general what we've learned since 9/11 through katrina to the present is as lawyers how important it is to have all the legal stuff taken care of ahead of time, right? the templates, the form

documents. fema spends a lot of money, money goes out the door very quickly. we task other agencies to do things. we know we will do that in an event. now we have prescripted documents so we can pull it off the shelf to execute it very quickly. >> but in a safe place though. >> safe place, multiple locations. idea of keeping stuff in your trunk is not a bad one. >> unless the building false on it. >> instructed to have go kits in our trunks but sometimes even the backup fails. i think as lawyers it is readiness and preparedness function. i think 9/11 really taught us that communications can be completely wiped out. our offices can be wiped out. our cars can be wiped out. we really need those templates and documents that you know you're going to need in an event ready to go and in multiple hands. >> i will say ditto to that. and to add, as far as the

communication, yes, having the actual document templates and other things handy is great but also developing advanced messaging and i think that's one of the things that is somewhat of a cure to the chaos. and that messaging not just for the public but for the attorneys. one of the other big lessons learned, i think we need to, we discovered there are other areas that we never considered in responding to emergencies. and that's personal issues. so we've got, we end up having issues with people who are essentially required to come to work, union issues. you know there is potential for abandonment of patients, abandonment of assignment. those are things we come into contact with. the whole medical records issues. one thing that would recommend for all counsel who are involved with this is to sit down and

take some ics training so you exactly know how things are being handled. you know lines of communication. you know chain of command and you're ready to respond to the emergency on a legal basis. of course we have our plan at my house, i have, i'm set up to dial into my office and, as is everyone in my specific administration, so that business continues as usual on, we can dial into our server and from wherever we are. so, it is just, you know, issues will never, will never have them all addressed, but, you know, one thing we didn't think about was transmission of bodies, with communicable diseases where there is no crematorium in the district. those are the kind of things we have to start thinking about, crossing state lines.

>> time for one question. ma'am? >> my name is alice. i'm former u.s. department of state foreign service. and i live in harlem in a six-building, 26-story each development. we're under the jurisdiction of hpd and we're -- i came here specifically for this session to know, to relate to my corporate counsel, what are their responsibilities to us if the disaster? now we survived the storm. we had things like who will be responsible for my car damage? is it lawyers? is it your insurance company? i just wanted to know comments like, i didn't know if it was a private lawyers responsibility or city or government lawyers

responsibility in case of emergency. is it only civic? >> i think, in terms of the, depends on exact nature of housing. if it is under jurisdiction of housing preservation department in first instances their responsibility is certainly the emergency response to it. . .

>> we are starting in just a few minutes - at the housing and training conference in washington, d.c. this morning we will be hearing from the secretary of housing and

washington, d.c.. / [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> washington, d.c. this morning the national fair housing training and policy conference this is being called a call to advance housing rights. we will be hearing from hooley

on castro expected to be one of the first speakers speakers then later in the schedule of the conference we will hear from former vice president walter mondale as well as the junior senator from virginia during this housing conference. [inaudible conversation]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> here on c-span2 this morning a call to advance housing rights and opportunities a conference of the housing and urban development department will be hearing from secretary castro as well as former vice president walter mondale and virginia senator tim kane scheduled a few minutes ago looking like it is running a couple minutes behind schedule but should start

shortly. some background in 1968 senator walter mondale was it sponsored of the housing act that banned housing discrimination in the u.s. and opened the door to an integrated america. at this conference lasting three days about 350 housing leaders from across the country are discussing. the intersection of climate justice and fair housing some of the topics we will be hearing at this conference.

[inaudible conversations] ♪

♪ [inaudible conversations] if one says i am not a good to eat to have a good decent job because of my race he is saying consciously or unconsciously but

i do not deserve to exist. >> fair housing for all human beings that live in this country is now a part of the american way of life. >> we can argue or talk about voting rights or we can talk about school rights or employment rights at one of the things that touches americans most deeply is housing, where the people live. >> it seems elementary to have fair housing that they are in their day in and day out to make sure people get treated fairly. >> i would say that it was one of the major stories of the last century and one would even say one of the major stories of american history.

that moment in time and i think we should be very proud of that one physical manifestation one legacy one of the solutions offered was was the department of housing and urban development. >> good morning and welcome to the 2015 national fair housing training and policy conference. please welcome the assistant secretary of fair housing and equal opportunity valazquez. [applause] >> good morning everyone. what a great morning. we have a tremendous amount of excitement i welcome each and every one of you to the national

fair housing training and policy conference. for those of you that are from out of town, welcome to dc. it's been more than four years seeing the national policy conference. this time i am much more modest at the conference but equally significant. in fact i would argue more significant given everything that has taken place just this year alone. wouldn't you agree with that? [applause] before i go on i just want to get a sense of the audience today. we have hundreds of people watching on the webcast.

we are representing one of the fair housing initiative programs what about one of our state and local government agencies. please raise your hand. i also want to welcome others are presented here today. we have a turkic program that i'm sure you will greatly enjoy. it is a great pleasure to have this morning secretary castro with us as well as the former vice president walter mondale and ten came from virginia. the fair housing community couldn't have a stronger support whenever he talks about it being in the department of opportunity

he technology be important role of equal housing and building strong vibrant communities and the relevance of the work that we didn't just hear at did just here at the office of fair housing that all of you. i cannot adequately express how thrilled i am to have him join us this morning. this year to be precise, september 9 marks 50 years since the creation of hud.

they made it unlawful to discriminate housing transactions because of the national origin. it will be expanded to prohibit sex cost that is in the disability. the health and sacrifice has become an equal society because but as the former vice president walter mondale. despite the resistance of many of both sides of the aisle to

pass such a law. indeed much has changed in the fair housing act since it became the law of the land. they enjoyed greater access to housing, educational and economic opportunities than ever before and we live in a nation that is generally more tolerant of individuals who look different, come from different places and speak other languages. those of you in the audience and those of you watching online know that we still have much more to do to create the america of the founding fathers envisioned. over the next three years we will have an opportunity to engage in robust discussions about the most significant fair housing issues of the time. we will hear from some of the most distinguished and accomplished their housing experts regarding effective strategies for overcoming the obstacles we still face. thank you for being here with

the national fair housing conference initially started and now please welcome with a big round of applause or opening program speakers. help me in welcoming to the stage castro joined by the former vice president walter mondale and senator cain. [applause] >> good morning. welcome to hud fair housing policy conference. everyone looks excited to be here. it is my great honor to be with you this morning and to share the stage with two very

distinguished public servants. i want to thank you for the great work that you do every day as assistant secretary of the fair housing and for your strong leadership. i know that the entire acosta do tremendous team work day in and day out. let's thank them for organizing this great event today. [applause] i would also like to thank senator tim kaine for joining us. senator kaine brings not just the prestige of his office as the senator of virginia, former senator to the stage but also the nearly two decades of the powerful and impactful work as a fair housing lawyer.

let me express the gratitude of two very special guest from a champion for fair housing. [applause] for the rights and dignity of all americans no matter how the political winds are blowing up the time. we want to thank you for your lasting contributions for all of us here it's quite a privilege to welcome you to this room named in her honor, the brooke mondale auditorium. thank you for the commitment to bring about an open and fair

housing market. we are partners in progress and help open new doors for families every single day keep up the good work. we share the common belief regardless of what they look like and where they come from or who they worship and the common resolve to do something about it. we know that they win when the family gets a chance at good housing and when a child gets a quality education and when a parent gets a good job then when the elderly have health care and that if air america is a thriving america. each generation has had to fight to make this promise real for

all of its citizens to advocate for equal treatment and classrooms in public facilities and the voting room. at the time and the blatant discrimination was still too common. in the summer of 1967, carlos campbell and african-american navy lieutenant testified at a hearing held by then senator mondale. mr. campbell landed a job at the department of defense after years of decorated service in vietnam. but when he went looking for housing she found only closed doors. the lieutenant visited nearly 40 places and encountered rejection

some landlords said that it would take weeks to process a routine application, clearly a lie. others are more direct and told them they didn't believe in integration. carlos campbell couldn't find housing in the very nation that he risked everything to protect. his service, his job, his income, his character, all of that and nothing at all. the landlords only solve the skin color. in the 1960s this story played out in city after city and county after county year after year. the commission wrote that our

nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal. housing discrimination can find many families to a life of poor health, bad schools and low-wage jobs for the future. but walter mondale and ed brooks didn't accept this fate for the nation. and their determination to write the niche and strong lead to the passage of the fair housing act of 1968 which boldly declared that every american has the right to live where they choose. it's true that we have come a long way since 1968. communities are more integrated, opportunities are more

plentiful. this past june the supreme court upheld the disparate impact standard. [applause] i want to thank the team and the department of justice for the great work they did along with the the advocates and every day brings us closer to the goal of the housing market that welcomes and respects everyone but the struggle for equal opportunity isn't yet complete. the study revealed that families of color have shown fewer places" at higher prices into many communities remain highly segregated by race, national origin, income so all of us in this room know that there is still work to do. and we know that the role is as important as ever.

we have a great network of partners many of whom are in the room today from the department of justice. to the nonprofits that are carrying out in this work. they are taking proactive steps to promote better quality housing and greater housing choice for all. thousands of individuals brought complaints of housing discrimination. pregnant women united loans by banks, survivors of domestic violence evicted from their homes, residents harassed by their landlords. the hud is here for them and we are not just waiting until the wrongdoing occurs we are working

with partners to take proactive steps with eliminating the years and the opportunity to. this business from the fair housing act. it it will help insure families across the united states have the tools to maximize to keep the investment. to improve the opportunity in their bounds. to ensure that every family capacity is determined by their effort and not by the color of their skin and their last name. for all of the americans about

the housing and the nation made significant strides in shaping the society. without the wisdom and the determination of walter mondale. it is a controversial issue that requires action he once said the barriers of housing dissemination stifles hold and achievement. outlawing dissemination in the sale of the rental housing will not free those trapped but it's an absolutely essential first step which will be taken and taken soon. they helped take that step in 1968 and he displayed the

courage time and again proved his service to the nation as a corporal in the u.s. army who has time in government as a senator, ambassador and vice president. and even in his political life, with his decision to put the first woman on a presidential ticket, geraldine there are fararo. he's a hero for all of those that can walk through the doors that were once closed and it is a pleasure to have him here. one of the fathers of fair housing. please join me in welcoming the former vice president walter mondale. [applause]

thank you for your magnificent leadership of this crucial department and for your powerful message about fair housing. campbell who was the key witness i think that helped sell the fair housing at a time where people didn't know what we were talking about. a black navy officer with a beautiful family and was recognized in the navy was assigned to a top position in the pentagon.

they went to some 40 places and it ought to be routine. is there a place available, yes. they would show up at the front door with his wife, the handsome family and that person would say it is not. 40 times they did that. the compelling message had a lot to do slicing through the apathy is around in this issue. i'm also glad to be here with tim came the wonderful senator from virginia. when i hear that we had a senator from virginia who was a legal service fair housing lawyer i believe i'd been born and gone to heaven. [laughter]

the virginia team at the time don't tell me you're not making progress. the friends from minnesota that have helped me on this issue and one of the nation's experts in fair housing. [applause] and david wittman of the law school, they are with us on this issue. like 1968, today is a time of hope and uncertainty. i commend hud for its new disparate impact and the fair

housing rules and rejoice in the inclusive community project case. [applause] but in ferguson, baltimore and other cities continuing segregation undermines equal opportunity and as we know causes racial riots. this is the most important moment i believe for fair housing since the 68 and we must use it to the maximum advantage. in 1966 martin luther king. they rode segregation is not only politically, economically and socially unsound but is morally wrong and sinful. i think that he told the truth then and they are truthful words

today. the first time that i've been here he kept telling me to come. wonderful man, great co-author of the fair housing built, and i think together we made a difference. on the day that we raised the fair housing bill, i had a break. the presiding officer is a guy named hubert humphrey from minnesota and she recognized me as we were off to the races for. the bill struggled. you can't imagine what that was like. we had a fair housing measure that was tentatively presented and and there's about five different sections and one that was fair housing.

so they separated it in five different divisions and dropped the fair housing groups and became a separate bill. when i introduced the bill the attorney general. they said that this won't pass the people be nice to you and we are glad that you're doing it. we had to get 67 votes in the senate. to get a vote on a measure. and we made some new lessons about climbing. we finally got the matter on the floor and we had a three unsuccessful cloture motions.

the cloture measure was held up until that time. they said if you don't get it this time. i called the president which you don't do every day. any vote that can be cast to the person wouldn't be hurt. he's against cloture but also wants a housing project in downtown anchorage. so the next morning we are on the floor when we get the cloture was people didn't think we would do it.

resolve we saw the senator from alaska come through the backdoor and we passed fair housing and we got the cloture on the fourth vote but we got it. this is an 18th century committee chaired by a 17 country chairman. they forced the house to raise the bill from the committee and a past and a week later lyndon johnson signed the fair housing act it was the great victory in

modern history. [applause] it's important to know and remember and none of this was possible without support. we had a ed derksen, and brooks about 14 to 16 republican senators who were with us because they were republicans as they call themselves. they fought civil rights was their idea. and they voted for it and they gave the margin they needed. justice kennedy in his recent opinion and the inclusive community's case that show that republicanism resides even on the supreme court.

but the development is absolutely clear. above all the congress intended. in and the private housing discrimination to replace racial vibrant indicated neighborhoods. that's what we said in the bill. in the senate debate in 1968, and brooks said in overwhelming proportion of the public housing in the united states is directly built, financed and supervised by the federal government and it is racially segregated. senator brooks was right then and he's right today. they commanded federal funds not be used to create or maintain residential segregation.

if they receive any federal funds affirmatively for further housing. the recipients of the federal funding had to do everything in their power. they used their immense leverage to create a more integrated america. because of the fair housing act almost 45% of the suburban is a dense large natural health in areas. these communities are a model for the nation. eliminating the racial disparities education and economic opportunities all the studies show that. they suffer from discrimination and ongoing resegregation. the fair housing act has

unfinished business. they cannot qualify for the loan the goal of the fair housing act are not fulfilled. when the federal state governments were paying to build new suburban highways, streets, sewers, schools and parks. and in the fair housing act they are not fulfilled. when we build new subsidized housing and a black or latino neighborhoods, the goals of the fair housing act or not fulfilled. nobody is immune. and a reputation for supporting the citizens. but the recent supports are showing.

because of the communities in the recent rules we stand on the first time in nearly 50 years. the new laws that can help us finally attack these barriers effectively. with the disturbances that we have seen in ferguson and baltimore and chicago are all over the country we have reason to act and we must act. we tried for a century to fix the segregated neighborhoods without integrating. in the recent years the concept is separate but equal and has sometimes taken on the benevolent façade in the form of the community development and revitalization. the supreme court was right when it declared that separate is inherently on equal.

we know more clearly in 1968 that integration is the clearest path for the families to acquire the american education and economic system. compared to the poor children who grow up in the segregated communities for the mixed income neighborhoods as the schools are much more likely to graduate from high school and attend college and higher incomes later in life. and we know it works and we have to give major energy behind the stove. free from dust segregation very racially integrated places like louisville have become economic powerhouses.

here the rules and principles of integration are not just for those working in fair housing at this level but also in places around the country where the strength and power is needed. i call upon all of you and i know you'll do it too and force the case and tap the new energy in the remarkable decision and the powerful new rules to provide you at every level to end segregation and help diverse places stay strong and vigorous. if they can help integrate the communities to prosper and work together, these children of the fair housing act can lead the country by example to a future of equal opportunity and resolve. that is the dream. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you very much mr. vice president for your insight and four joining us here today. we will certainly work hard to live up to your expectations and to live up to what we ought to for the nation with regards to fair housing. and now i have the pleasure of introducing another accomplished public servant senator tim kane as they mentioned a few minutes ago is no stranger to this community. he's dedicated much of his career to housing. 17 years is a fair housing lawyer. [applause] i know that will designate with all of the lawyers in the crowd. and he's also spent decades fighting for folks that need a

voice. as the governor in virginia and now as the senator virginia he's taken those values and that fighting spirit to the u.s. senate where he's been a champion for working families, and i am so pleased that he could join us today. please, give a great big welcome to senator tim kaine. [applause] >> thank you so much. what a wonderful event. if i wasn't sitting up here i would be sitting down there. the chance to hear the vice president talk about the circumstances of the passage of the built in 1968, this is really exciting. and secretary castro thank you for your great leadership you know these issues so well in this important role as the secretary and your leadership here on so many levels.

please give them each another round of applause. [applause] i am excited to be with all of you advocate in the front lines. we are making this a reality. we heard from the vice president a story about how the law was passed. and i want to share some stories about being a different line for a while for 17 years from 1984 to 2001. the vice president talked about the legal representation from the commonwealth sort of standing in the way in 1968 in both the senate and the house and i'm happy to tell you that virginia today is a lot different than the virginia of

1968. very happy to tell you that. [applause] when i started practicing it wasn't so different. what we tell you about the first client. you know what happens to the newest lawyer somebody comes and says i need help and it's kind of a pro bono thing and they say who can we get to do this. the vice president's discussion of the testimony of the hearing she said i wanted it to move out of my parents home i just got out of college i have my first job in my and i'm out in the big world for the first time. got my first job and i want to get my first apartment on my

own. i see something advertised in the newspaper. i call and i ask. yes it's available and i set up a time to come visit and see the apartment and as soon as i get there the landlord sees the answers we just rented the place. i go back to my office and it doesn't feel right so i asked a colleague to call the same number and then the colleague asks and the apartment is still available. we brought the case and we won it. but the thing that struck me as strikes me today is i have one for the grace of god that says i'm talking to rain because we were almost the same age. i just moved to a new city and i just rented an apartment. and for me the experience was an exciting one. i am starting a new chapter in life and i'm not under my

parents supervision. and where you live is not a physical thing. things are not important at your house where you live is interesting. it's part of the definition of who you are as a person. and as she told me the story my experience was such a positive going out into the world of starting my path as an adult for the negative getting turned away just because of the color of her skin. and not only was it a negative in the instance but admits the next time she looked for an apartment she would wander in my going to be treated fairly or not. she would be worried and concerned and an experienced it would be a positive for her. i never forgot the experience of sitting across the table and interviewing my first client and feeling some real similarities

with her and her time of life but seeing the dramatic difference that each of us had as we had this experience of the department. one case and i was the expert on the fair housing. the reason mr. vice president under the expert is the original fair housing law have strict limitations on the damages that you could collect until the 1988 revisions in the federal act of tough limitations and they were very integrated. but because i have done one and i was willing to do then suddenly i started it to do all kinds of cases. in the course of 17 years i worked on the case is about the rental of apartments into the purchase of houses, the purchase or the rental of mobile homes, advertising kind of financing mortgages and my largest case

was dealing with insurance redlining. there was race, disability and dealing with the family status, and my clients. it's one of the opportunities may be called an enrichment. especially those that would build group of adult group homes for the development of disability is. they wanted to rent apartments but then they were told that they didn't because the person that applied happened to be a minority and also and they had closed on the deal only to have to deal because they didn't want

his couples was representing to go in. and they got together and canceled the contract that she had and provided the home to somebody else. i won that case not only in the fair housing housing of antitrust law from monopolizing the market in the community and monopolizing it in a way that african-americans could be served. i said a lot of legal precedents and have the first case that established it using the un models and advertisements could be a violation in 1987 a big apartment company in richmond would put out a brochure about all of the apartment buildings and all of the people, 400 people in the brochure were white. we brought it under a disparate impact but we were able to prove in the course of the case but was actually done intentionally. i had to go to the spin court to prove that the fair housing act applied to mobile homes.

you wouldn't think that would be controversial but i had a lawyer make a novel argument that because they were taxed as personal property rather than personal property in virginia the fair housing laws didn't apply to it. it was very close. i had a number of cases that made president of the fair housing act trumpeting in the zoning rules limiting the number of people that could live at the house the zoning laws often do that. but the fair housing act say you can't disseminate against those with disabilities. so if you have a group home for those with developmental disabilities would get shut down by a lot of the local zoning laws but i was able to bring the case that established the proposition of the fair housing act. in my biggest case i brought a case that established and improved the company that they were not doing anything different than others were.

others were doing the same thing but it just happened the case was in and they were redlining the neighborhoods in the issuance of the homeowners insurance and before i tried the case it took six years he for i for i tried it somebody handed a large article have you seen it. why has there ever been a successful case against insurance redlining. premiums are so complicated that it is impossible to actually win such a case. i'm thrilled to read this before we tried it. and in the verdict in the united states and in virginia.

it is $100 million punitive damage reward. the supreme court. but then i asked them to read here and vacated the ruling and on the ease of the argument for the $26 million. in addition to passing the act. remember they passed the fair housing laws and there were a few states that have the fair housing laws before but most of them didn't. but all 50 states and the district of columbia. they have the fair housing laws and that is something the vice president should get credit for as well because they made the way. >> i am proud to say that virginia after fighting against the act was the first state to pass the fair housing act and 71 and was a point of familial pride. my father-in-law my wife's dad

was a republican governor that pushed the passage of the virginia fair housing law and for at least a few years when i practiced i would always bring cases under the state law rather than the federal law because until 1988 the state law protected the family status is protected the ability and didn't have damage limitations. one last thing. after the wall past the vice president and i were talking about this before the one challenge was to bring the case that you couldn't get a jury to rule for you. the supreme court ruled earlier that if you try to fair housing case the defendant was entitled to the jury trial and there was a lot of nullification that went on in the first few years after. and if you try to case the jury would come back especially public role for the defendant.

it was convincing the jury that there was real damage. someone gets turned away from an apartment that was very common by the case went to trial they found an apartment. i can see what they were thinking as bad. we would try to bridge the gap and communicate to the jury how damaging this is to be turned away. so what did this feel like a.

all of my accomplishments. this crumpled all that up. you can try to strengthen it out and flatten it. but you will never get it back to where it was and you can kind of see the jury starts to now i can kind of relate to this. dealing with a woman that had married into the interracial marriage to a white husband that had a couple of kids. we can see the jury thinking that but when she explained that what it was like to be humiliated.

we can see the jury now we get this. and then by the time i finished practicing and 2000, the damages she wasn't so much of a problem either and that is probably why we were able to get the jury to award $100 million against nationwide in that case. the best thing about working in the fair housing is the people. my clients to be advocates. there are others around the issues and when we run nationwide i was the mayor of richmond to preside over the city council meeting after the case and i got interrupted in the middle of a meeting because the secretary was calling to say

good work down there. they've always been so supportive and so some of you in the room were actually working there when i did the case we were talking about that earlier. so the people are what make this such an impressive thing. we obviously still have a lot of work to do. differentials, 75% of caucasians on their own homes, 45% of minorities, a huge differential. 28,000, nearly 28,000 fair housing complaints received in 2014 by the agencies that work on the cases. disability is now the leading source of complaints and race second. a lot of complaints can't get processed because the classes that are not yet protected. we ought to protect the new equality act. [applause] senator merkley has a new act that we all signed on to that basically says look at all the civil rights statutes when we go