Recommendation to Accept $2,205,300 Grant from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Program and to Amend the Fire Grants Fund Budget for Fiscal Year 2015-16. (Fire 3210)
Recommends you to accept the $2.2 million grant from these Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Program to amend the Fire Grants Fund. But Budget for Fiscal Year 20 1516. Good evening, Madame Mayor. Council members. City staff. The Gong Fire Chief. Come with me, Chief. Good evening. I come with good news for you tonight. The fire department has once again applied for and been awarded a staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant, also known as the SAFER Grant. This current one is for $2.2 million. The Safer grant is administered and implemented by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grants provide financial assistance to fire departments to help hire additional frontline firefighters or replace laid off firefighters or replace firefighters who have been lost through attrition. The fire department applied for safer grants in 2009 and 2011 and were granted those awards also both for $1.76 million. The grant will allow the fire department to hire six additional firefighters for two years. It covers all associated costs for salaries and benefits, including workers comp ers and OPEB costs. The only cost that it doesn't cover is unscheduled overtime uniforms and ambulance differentials. Fire Department's current authorized number of firefighters is 92. So our internal staffing analysis, we've concluded that we need 98 personnel to provide the service that we currently provide to the city. Adding these six additional firefighters will get us to that number of 98 that we need to do respond adequately in the city. On an annual basis using the C4 grant to hire these six additional firefighters. It'll save us approximately $500,000 annually in overtime cost. I recommend the Council accept this current save for grant. And amend the Fire Grants Fund budget for fiscal year 1516. The grant has no match required. It's a really good one. I completes my report. I'm open for questions. You. I swear. I think this is always good to get a grant. I'd like to have us approve the acceptance of this grant, but I also like us to prepare for when we don't receive it. I think we're getting used to. A level of service that has been provided by this grant. And I think we need to prepare ourselves at some point, not either receiving the full amount or six. Or any amount because there may be communities more needy than in this community. And I don't want to have that day come on us and be unprepared. Remember Ashcroft. Thank you, Chief. You mentioned the dollar cost and overtime savings, but what was it again? $500,000 annually. Once, once the firefighters are trained and online. Right. Because they have to go through academy in there. That's correct. To bring them up to speed. I. I don't disagree with what the vice mayor said, and I but I also agree that this is a great opportunity to get this grant. We just heard an exciting presentation about the library and the vice mayor, and I know that it was a state grant that got us the the money. And in that case, we needed to come up with a local match, but we had that, too. So it's always great when you can leverage, in this case, federal dollars for our needs. And and I do know that we've had a lot of firefighters recently working a lot of overtime hours. And not only does this cost the city money in overtime costs, but there's a human cost, too. Because when you think of the hard, physical labor of fighting fires, it adds to all kinds of injuries. You have people out on medical disability and leave. They're away from the department. There's recovery time. So I think this is something that's important. And also, I think some of the community is aware that we actually had an engine company, one of our engine companies, doing a mutual aid assignment in helping fight the lake fires. Valley Fire Valley. For Guy Fires. And they were gone for. Just under 14 days. Yeah. So almost two weeks. And so, I mean, and that's the sort of thing that was one company that stayed there and they would get their 24 hours off from time to time, but it was pretty intense. So anyway, I like I read through this in the grant agreement and I'm prepared to support it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Have a question. First of all, congratulations on this. And I'm wondering, back in 2011, was that for two years also or when did that one expire? They are. They're all for two years. What we've found is we've been able to extend them by a few months each time, because what they're figured out on is is. At full cost of a firefighter or academy. During the five months that they're in the academy, they're only paid 40% of the normal cost of a firefighter. So at the end of the two years, we still have funds that we can apply and request to move forward. Okay. So did you apply in 2013 or 14 or can you not. Those those positions were filled then. So nine got us through a couple of years, then we got to 11. The problem with counting on the safer ground as councilmember matter, he pointed out, is that they expire. And then we're in a period where we're short people and we're waiting to see if we're going to get a grant or not. And then by that time, once we've found out whether we're getting it or not, we have that time where we still have to recruit and hire and train people. So we end up with these large gaps where we're backfilling with overtime and our overtime costs go very high. But it looks like the 2011 would have expired in 2013. Then you probably applied in 14, I'm not sure. Yeah. And were. You denied at. All? No, we've been waiting to hear. This one took us longer to hear. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you for clarifying that. Okay. So then Brody. Thinks about America to move recommendation or move the staff recommendation to accept 2,205,300 grant from for the staffing for adequate fire and Emergency Response SAFER program and to amend the Fire Grants Fund budget for fiscal year 20 1516. A second. Those. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Well, thank you. Thank you, Chief. Long for this report. You know, we're as you well know, you know, we're a city of 75,000 and growing slowly. And what that implies is that on the cost side and we always have a demand for services, whether as we had heard earlier, whether it's demand for services for library or as important demand for services for a fire. And those services, demand for services continue because the population is here. Unfortunately, on the revenue side of things, things aren't always readily available. And so, as you well know, and as our executive staff all knows and councils and past councils know, you know, we're always scrambling. So this is part of that scramble. And fortunately, we were you were able to secure another level of funding. And for that, I think you should definitely be thanked and this should be definitely supported. So I look forward to doing that. Thank you. Vice Mayor. I'd like to consider in the motion. Direction or some sort of return back to us to have the the present the plan of what we're going to do if we either cannot apply or do not receive a grant at the end of this grant. So that we avoid a situation where we don't know if something's going to be renewed. That's one scenario or that we don't get the grant renewed because again, I'd like to be prepared now. Rather than wait till that time is on us and have to scramble and maybe make a decision in haste. Do you want to modify the motion or do you want to bifurcate that issue and have a second motion on that? Could I just ask for some input from staff about how you might anticipate moving forward with the Vice Mayor's request? I think what we would do is I would ask Chief Long to take a look at their staffing. And you know what? What does it look like without those six bodies? What does that look like? What is the service level look like without those six bodies? I mean, I think that's what the vice mayor is asking for. And counter-balance asked. Right. And maybe if it's not six, maybe it's three or something like that. So my only concern is just reading through and maybe this isn't a problem, but reading through the attachment for the safer ward, I believe you have to show that you have approval of your of your city council. And I'm just wondering whether we wanted to do a cleaner motion and direction to staff. So my preference would be to separate the two issues. Okay. And go forward with your motion member already. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I mean, I think we just did the budget that goes out to 17. These these grants expire in 18. So it seems to me maybe the more proper time to have this discussion is when we do the budget for 17, 18 and 18, 19. We're continually analyzing our numbers to to see, you know, where we are with this, what it would look like when we're at this 92 level. We've trying to maintain the level of service that we currently have. We are starting to incur a huge amount of overtime, specifically mandatory overtime, and our injuries are starting to increase. So yes, we'll come up with a staffing plan of what it looks like. So at this point, I'd like to proceed with a member of this motion and circle back. I just I'll make. One quick comment. And then when it comes to a sudden shortfall of funding, the fire department has made a really tough decision. I remember recently, I think you had to let go a certain number of people who were part of this program because the funding had ended. And I think there was a good number of people who, you know, they were here temporarily part time. I think it's like some kind of ambulance type of program. The bill assembly. Yeah. And, you know, that's under that that was under your purview. And so unfortunate. You know, it's unfortunate. But when you have to make those kind of hard decisions. You know, you pull the trigger. But by the same token, we will always need some level of staffing to to accommodate a city of 75,000 people. Whether that staffing is made up by actual new bodies or whether it's made up by the same people but working longer hours. You know, that's that's the situation we're in. On the revenue side, that's why we need to go after these kind of things. So we have emotion, memory. Can you repeat your emotion? Okay. Just to accept the recommendation I read. Right. Okay. So we have motion to accept the recommendation or recommendation to accept the grant and we have a second. So all those in favor. I. I so that part passed unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Now, did you want to make a motion. Or is it just direction to staff? This isn't even an agenda item. So I'm concerned about having this discussion at this point without, you know, notifying the community that we're going to be discussing staffing levels. Where we can direct staff to look into the the topic, can't we, and come back at another time? Actually, I don't think we're discussing staffing levels. Well, why don't you say what you think your discussion was? I think it's pretty simple. I don't want to wait until the we're in the midst of a budget and trying to slice and dice everything. I'd like to have us be prepared before that happens. This is two years we're talking about, and I'd like to know in advance what our strategies point. And if we get an extension, that's fine. But if not, I want to avoid some of the problems that resulted in some tough decisions. Part of them being tough decisions was they were made under that pressure. I'd like to have that. That analyzed. Absent the pressure. Amber Ashcroft. I don't disagree with any of that, but I would prefer to have it come back rather than make a motion now and vote on it. Something that we haven't had any report on. I'd love to hear a further discussion. And, you know, give staff and the fire chief and fire department an opportunity to assemble that information, come back to us with a report. But I am not prepared to vote on a motion, but I certainly would support direction to staff to that. And I think that's what I'm asking for. I'm not asking. For them to come. So we don't need a motion, is what you're saying just direction? Well, that's what I want to clarify. I definitely. Need consensus, but I need you to say yes or three of you to say no. Madam Mayor, if I. If I from my vantage point. If staff, whether the executive level staff or the department has staff are going to do. Are contemplating doing anything different. Then they would when it comes to losing funding. And then, you know, take the time to let us know. But if it's if your approach is basically, you know, you know, the situation that we we deal with. You know, we go through the budget process and and we allocate a certain amount of dollars for for our personnel. And if you have to meet those, if you can meet those personnel with new people, if you can get the existing people to work a lot more hours. Not the best of situations, but. Then I. I'm not quite sure why we have to have a discussion that is altogether some kind of new approach. And that what I would suggest is that. The vice mayor if he has specific. Ideas on how to deal with a staffing shortage that he worked with, with our executive level staff and then come back to us. So I would like to. If I swear. And I can't, I'm not the expert and we hire experts to do that. I just want to be prepared. And that's the direction I'm looking for, is instead of waiting until budget time and when other distractions are there, instead of waiting when the grant is either not receive and we have a gap that's it's that's why that's all I'm looking for is that we give direction. They have to come back to us. So I guess what I'm saying, though, is that if the direction is okay, let's say two weeks from now, the direction is in the event we lose staff, we lose. We don't get the safer grant renewed in two years. The direction is the people who were hired by the state for Grant. Unfortunately, are no longer hired. Well I suspect that would have been the approach anyways by staff. So I'm at wit's end to understand why we have to go through this special discussion on how to deal with this uncertainty when we kind of have a protocol in place on how to deal with, I don't know, maybe, maybe. I would agree. I would agree with member Ody and member de SOG that we do have a process and this grant is through the end of the it's through February 20th, 2018. So I would expect come maybe 2017 or something like that, that we would hear from staff and yourself if there's a change. But I don't I think it's premature at this point to prioritize that when we have especially. So I think it's we're it's too early and we have many other issues that need to be addressed sooner. Member Thank you. So I don't remember anyone saying prioritize and I certainly didn't mean to imply that it's it is something we are going to do though, a goal setting workshop at some point. But no, I just meant that it's something that staff can look into because I think we're verging on having a discussion of a non agenda item right now anyway. But I wasn't saying it needs to be a priority and come back. We've, we've got the grant. We should celebrate that this is good. It's and we know it's in place so it's not imminent. Before I get to the vice mayor's point, it's always good not to get complacent, but we've got time. And you certainly could put this down lower on your ever growing list of things to do. So I'm one for gathering more information rather than less, but at this. Point, I don't think there's a consensus to do that. So we can proceed to the next item. Thank you. Six. Thank you very much, Chief. Thank you, Chief. And congratulations. Six C. Introduction of Ordinance Amending the Alameda Municipal Code by amending various sections of articles eight Sunshine Ordinance and Chapter two administrations and adding new sections 20 dash 90 .3.4 and 20 Dash 91.18 concerning local standards to ensure public access to public meetings and public. Works. Good evening, Madam Mayor. Members of the Council, Michael Roush, appearing on behalf of the City Attorney's Office for the City of Alameda. And before you tonight are a number of proposed revisions to the city of alameda sunshine ordinance.