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CONSIDERATION OF A STAFFING FOR ADEQUATE FIRE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE (SAFER) GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $967,377 TO PAY FOR THE SALARIES AND BENEFITS OF SIX FIREFIGHTER POSITIONS.
Presented by: Larry Tangney, Deputy Fire Chief.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Approve the application for the grant, and if awarded, authorize acceptance of the grant and the establishment of budget authority as provided in the Financial Considerations section of this request.
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Grant Renewal: No
Never Applied: No
Applied; not awarded: No
Grant Summary and Timeline: SAFER grants provide financial assistance to help fire departments rehire firefighters that have been laid off, retain firefighters facing imminent layoffs, fill positions that were vacated through attritions or hire new firefighters. The goal is to assist departments to improve or restore staffing levels to ensure they have adequate personnel to respond to and safely perform at incident scenes, thereby providing protection from fire and fire-related hazards. The grant provides two-years of assistance to fire departments by paying the salaries and benefits of the SAFER-funded positions.
If the grant is applied for and approved, it will pay the salary and benefits for six firefighter positions. At the end of the two-year grant period, the Fire District will not be required to retain those positions.
Financial Considerations:
Grant period starts: June 1, 2015
Grant period ends: The grant will pay the salary and benefits for the positions for 24 months.
Source of funding
Grant: $967,377
Required Match: $0
Required Cash Match: $0
Required In-Kind Match: $0
Other funding:$0
TOTAL SOURCES: $967,377
Uses of funding (Note: Include any Required Matches in your totals)
Operational costs: $0
Personnel: $967,377
Contractual services: $0
Operational supplies: $0
Equipment: $0
Indirect administrative costs:$0
Capital projects cost:$0
TOTAL USES $967,377
Source of matching funds: N/A
Source of other funding: N/A
Budget Authority Adjustment: If approved and awarded, budget authority would reside in a new fund center within the Fire District Grants Fund.
Personnel Considerations: As outlined in the attached budget form, the 6.0 FTE Firefigher positions that are currently held would be shifted to the new fund center within the Fire District Grants Fund for a minimum of 24 months.
Alternatives: Do not apply for the grant
Policy Considerations: N/A
Legal Considerations: The Fire District has the authority to submit this grant application pursuant to K.S.A. 19-3601a. The Fire District must comply with all of the federal requirements as set out in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the US Department of Homeland Security, including that the Fire District must maintain the current level of staffing throughout the two year grant period including the requirement to fill those positions that the Fire District loses through normal attrition such as resignation and retirement. The two year grant period is set to begin 180 days from the award of the grant unless an application is submitted to begin the grant earlier than the 180 day period. At the end of the two year grant period there is no obligation or expectation by the Grantor that funds will continue for the six positions or is there any obligation for the Fire District to continue funding said positions. The Fire District has the authority pursuant to K.S.A. 75-4326 and pursuant to the Memorandum of Agreement between Fire District No. 1 and Local 2612 IAAF (Article 9) to determine appropriate staffing levels for the Fire District and eliminate these additional positions at the end of the grant period to return to pre-grant staffing levels. The Fire District is prohibited from laying off operational personnel during the period of the grant and would be required to pay back the entire grant award unless it was able to get a waiver for economic hardship as a defense for said layoffs. If there is a vacancy in staffing during the grant period the Fire District must take "active and timely" steps to fill any vacancies.