City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: JANUARY 18, 2022
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: JAMES F. PARAJON, CITY MANAGER /s/
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Consideration of a Grant Application to the 2021 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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ISSUE: Consideration of a grant application to the 2021 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and its subsequent local funding impact.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
(1) Approve the submission of a grant application for $6 million over a three-year period to partially fund the addition of 20 additional firefighters for relief staffing for the Alexandria Fire Department (AFD) over a three-year period; and
(2) Authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents that may be required.
BACKGROUND: On January 3, 2022, FEMA opened the competitive grant application period for the 2021 SAFER grant program. SAFER grants provide financial assistance to help fire departments increase the number of frontline firefighters. The goal of SAFER is to help communities better meet industry minimum standards and obtain 24-hour staffing to provide adequate fire protection.
AFD will seek to hire an additional 20 firefighters for relief staffing through the grant program following on the Office of Performance Analytics (OPA) Report from November 2019 which recommended the Fire Department needed an additional 26 positions in order to meet relief staffing level requirements. In that report, AFD and the Office of Performance and Analytics (OPA) calculated a staffing relief factor for minimum required posts. A staffing factor is a calculation that establishes how many employees are needed to supply...
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