Recommendation to direct City Manager to prepare an application for the 2020 SAFER Grant for submission by the March 12, 2021 deadline. For this funding cycle, the grant will provide $4.8 million to cover the cost of 12 FTE entry level firefighters for Engine 17 over three years to fall within an estimated timeframe of mid-FY 22 through mid-FY 25.  (Citywide)
16, please. Communication from Councilman Super not Councilman Allen. Councilman Price, Councilwoman Sara Recommendation to direct City Manager to prepare an application for the 2020 Safer grant for submission by the March 12th, 2021 deadline. Citywide Construction Grants. Thank you, Mayor Garcia, and I always appreciate the opportunity to extoll the virtues of Fire Engine 17. First, I'd like to thank my council colleagues for joining me on this agenda item Cyndi Allen, Susie Price and Sally Sara. As the clerk just read, the recommendation is pretty narrow in focus. We're simply directing the city manager to prepare the application for submission to FEMA next week. If there, I'm open to a further discussion on funding, but tonight the urgency is to get this vote accomplished so the application can be submitted. Following in the agenda item. Within the discussion, we included what the grant is. It's a grant of $4.8 million over a three year period, and that actually cuts in half the cost of operating engine 17 over that three year period. So it's a significant grant under background in the agenda item. We kind of explained the response zones for four engine 17, a very wide area squarely in the center of District four, also directly impacting Districts five and three, also measuring it diagonally from the north west. It spans from the Redondo Avenue in the 405 all the way southeast to seventh in Bellflower, a huge, huge area and but citywide. Having engine 17 in place cuts those response times citywide by a huge amount. And within Seventeen's area, it's up to a minute and a half that it cuts down with it with it in inaction . We also look through an equity lens at the item and we mentioned that. Engine 17 response areas includes a zip code of 90804 and 9081590804 is the most densely populated zip code in Long Beach and Engine 17 response area also abuts the response area of Engine ten. Engine ten is located in District six in central Long Beach, and it is one of the busiest engine companies in the city. And when I say that, that that's an historical statement also, I think probably for over 50 years, Engine ten has been either one or two in total number of calls in the area. It's critically important because twofold when Engine 17 is not in place. Engine ten is responsible for calling on parts of Engine 17 area. So that takes that very busy fire engine out of central Long Beach out of their area of response. The statement of urgency I already mentioned, and that was that this application has to be submitted next week. I also didn't mention in the agenda item, but I'd like to make a statement about the intangibles not measurable, but I think they're very, very important. And Station 17 is located right next to the Captain David Rosa Training Center. So every recruit that trains that are training center gets to watch Station 17 on a daily basis. And I think it's critically important that these recruits, these rookies, see a fully functioning fire station, one that includes a fire engine. And just as a side note, there are training center. This is a second training center we've had in the city of Long Beach, and it's been there since 1964. The first training center in the city was located right next to Engine Hour Station ten, where those recruits got to see that busy fire engine functioning on a daily basis. I'm not going to take my first 5 minutes. I'd like to reserve some time for any type of discussion after and emergency. If you'd like to go to public comment that that works for me. That's great. Let's do that. Let's do is there I think we do have one member of the public and then we'll go back to the council. Yes, we have Rex Pritchard. Yes. Rex Pritchard, president of Long Beach Firefighters. I too want to thank council members, supervisor Alan Price and Turrell for bringing this item forward. It is urgent as the date for submission is this Friday, and this is an urgent action that, again, I'm going to just keep my comments brief. Council member Super nine made very good points and our ability to bring nearly $5.2 million to help fund resources. The International Association of Firefighters work diligently with the Biden administration in making the 2020 Safer program even better than it was in 2018. And we appreciate everything the Biden administration did in allowing the no cost sharing aspect coming forward so we can support and encourage council members to support this item. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. We have a motion that comes from a supernova and it's a second by Councilwoman Price. Councilwoman Price. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to support Councilmember Superdog in this item and in supporting this motion. Engine 17 has been a priority for Councilman Superdog for really since since he started his service on the Long Beach City Council. And as he mentioned, it services multiple different districts, a number of different diverse communities that have different response needs from the fire department throughout the city. And I think that having a plan for Engine 17 on a short term plan and a long term plan is obviously in the best interests of the city, but also in the best interest of our fire department and our residents, because having Engine 17 there will take the stress off of the nearby stations that are now doing a lot of the responding and have been for some time. And the response times, although they've gotten better, certainly need to be a focus and a priority for our fire department. So I do know that District three among other districts would be a beneficiary of a long term restoration plan for Engine 17, and therefore I support that item on behalf of my district and of course, on behalf of the city. Councilman's in the house. Thank you. I really want to thank Council member Steve Bernoff for championing this item. I know that this is something he's very passionate about and I really admire his commitment to maintaining these emergency services in this community. I know that we are really going through a difficult financial situation as a city, but I'm certainly hoping that this grant funding will help to address these issues, that we can explore this as an option in providing these services to our residents in the fourth District and the surrounding communities. Thank you again, Mr. Cooper. Now, council members are not for championing this item. Thank you for asking. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and to Councilmember Supernova for bringing this item forward. As you all know, in our budget, our discussions in the last year, we had a considerable amount of conversation about super grants in our past super grants and the potential for future super grants. We know that this grant comes with some some level of risk. But at the same time, we do value and pride ourselves as being a city who puts public safety as a high priority, and particularly our fire department, as they seek to save lives and be heroes every day in our communities. We went through a period of time, I would say ten years ago or so, where they were cuts. We lost an engine 17, we lost engine 12 and rescues as well. In this council, previous council worked through Measure A to restore of many of those services. We do not want to reverse course. We want to continue to provide the excellent public safety services that we promised our constituents. Now, this the safer ground is, I understand, a little bit different than the one in 2018. I wanted to give the city manager an opportunity to explain the differences between the 2018 SAFER Grant and the 2012, and specifically where we're both the flexibility of how is this 2020 Saber grant more or less flexible than the 2018 Super Grant? And, and then allow you to answer that question. But I also want to just make a statement that I think. It is certainly worthwhile to apply for this grant as an option to consider. This is I mean, it doesn't hurt to apply for especially for money from from the federal government. We do know that there are strings attached. But this is this is a prudent move, I believe, to to help us outline a strategy moving forward for our fire services. I'm a city manager. Can you answer the question? Yes, it does have slightly different scenarios compared to the 2018 grant. It is a little bit more flexible. We've outlined a lot of that in our memo, but I'll have Lynda Tatum talk about the specific comparison between those two. Good evening. Council Member Austin and other members of Council. Probably the the two most significant differences in this grant is that it it gives the city more flexibility. As you recall, the last grant had a very specific timeline for performance. And in this case, while it does have that same three year timeline for performance, there is the ability for the city to request an extension of the grant without any penalties. The current grant establish essentially says that if you can't perform, you'd have to return the money. So that's one significant difference. The other difference is that with the staffing, the staffing level requires you to add in, in this case, the 12 positions. We're asking for it, ask you to add those 12. In addition to whatever the budget positions are, the 2020 grant says it's the the 12 in addition to whatever the staffing level that is in place at the time of the grant application. So that again is, is, is, is significantly that's a significant benefit to the city and requires us to add fewer staffing. So those are probably the two most significant components that differ from the grant. But overall, we feel that it's a lot more flexible than the 2020 grant provisions. Well, thank you for that clarification. And yeah, I have no further questions. So my comments. Thank you. Councilwoman Allen. Yes. I thank you, Mayor, and also thank you, Councilmember Supernova, for bringing this forward. And I agree with all of your comments. I'd like to see us apply for this 2020 Safer grant. It's more flexible and it has fewer requirements than previous grants. And if we were awarded the ground, it's almost $5 million, which is a lot of money. I do understand some of the risks, given our fiscal position and future uncertainly uncertainties. But nevertheless, I think this grant is a huge opportunity and I am confident that our city staff can find fiscal opportunities to ensure that we can take full advantage of this funding opportunity. I know that there's an urgency to get this application done because we have a deadline just right around the corner. But just because we're applying for the grant doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to get it. So in the event that we do get it and it gets approved, does that mean that we have to accept the grant? Let's remember, this is America. No. So this is an application process. We would then, if awarded, bring it back to the council and you would take a second vote to decide whether or not you're in a fiscal position to accept the grant. And we expect that if they stay on schedule to happen in September. Okay. Awesome. Thank you very much. I look forward to supporting this. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Happy to support this application. I certainly want to lift up the improvements to the program. I remember, you know, we've we've had this discussion probably over the last decade about the safer grants, the fire safer grants and the challenge that they provide. Glad to hear from Mrs. Tatum about some of those improvements. And we want to continue to work with the federal government to continue to improve the program. But I think this is the right thing to do. And Councilmember Supernormal, good job on the tap on the equity lands. I really appreciate seeing that your item as a well thought out item and I love the way that you presented it. So I'm happy to support this thing. Thank you. Councilman Mongo. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Super. Nice council member, Superhot. As you know, I've been a champion for the Safer grants since I've been added to the Council. I think it's a great source of revenue to support our first responders and a way to expand. I appreciate that we're going for 4.8 million. But if you look at the SAFER website, there are entities and cities that have received significantly more than that. And so if we're going to go in, make sure we know that we're going all in, that some cities get upwards of 8 to 13 million. And I know size does matter, but if there is a need that fits in the grant and we're going for it, let's just be sure that we have a really great write up and ask for as much as we actually need and can use. And we have a lot of need right now. So thank you. Super not for bringing it forward and I look forward to finding out the outcome. Thank you. Councilman Ciro. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank council member Superman for bringing this item forward. And I'm happy to sign on to support this application to the SAFER Grant. Given the equity lens and its impact in District six without Engine 17, it takes Engine ten, which is as Council member Superman shared earlier out of a very already busy and high need area. And so I also just think it's great to explore grant opportunities and to address increasing needs given our current situation with the pandemic. And I really look forward to making sure we meet the deadline and and hearing that we received guidance so that it can come back before council for us to do another look at it. So thank you so much. Thank you. That concludes council comment. And we have a motion on the second controversy for now. Please, let's catch the votes. District one. I. District two. I. District three. I. Catwoman price. I thank you district for. I. District five. I. District six. I. District seven. I District eight. Hi. District nine. I'm ocean cares. Thank you. Every time certain item 18.