Report Prepared by: Janet German, Management Analyst, Fire Department
Title
SUBJECT: Authorization for the Fire Department to Submit a Grant Application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Fiscal Year 2021 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program to Fund Replacement of an End-of-Life Station Alerting System, Training Courses with Employee Backfill Covered, Medical Equipment, and Assessment Vehicle with an Estimated Total Project Cost of $1,100,000 with FEMA Providing 90% of the Project Cost and the City Providing the 10% Local Match
REPORT IN BRIEF
Authorizing the Fire Department to submit a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Fiscal Year 2021 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program to fund replacement of an end-of-life station alerting system, training courses with employee backfill covered, medical equipment, and an assessment vehicle with an estimated total project cost of $1,100,000 with FEMA providing 90% of the project cost and the City providing the 10% local match.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion authorizing the submittal of a grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Fiscal Year 2021 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program with an estimated total project cost of $1,100,000 with FEMA providing 90% of the project cost and the city providing the 10% local match.
Body
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve as recommended by staff; or,
2. Approve with modifications; or,
3. Refer to staff for reconsideration of specific items as requested by Council; or,
4. Continue to a future Council meeting; or,
5. Deny.
AUTHORITY
Charter of the City of Merced, Section 200
Charter of the City of Merced, Article IV, Section 405
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
Public Safety as identified in the FY 21/22 adopted budget.
DISCUSSION
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program is one of three grant programs that constitute the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) focus on helping firefighters and first responders purchase life-saving equipment; receive training; conduct research and outreach; and protect emergency personnel and the public from fire and related hazards. The program’s goal is to enhance response capabilities and more effectively protect the health and safety of the public by providing direct financial assistance to eligible fire departments, nonaffiliated emergency medical services organizations, and state fire training academies.
The FEMA AFG Program competitively awards grant funding directly to fire departments and other agencies to provide support to those that lack the tools and resources necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and their emergency response personnel with respect to fire and all other hazards they may face.
FY 2021 AFG Program Factoids:
• $414 Million Available for Funding
• 2,500 Projected Number of Awards
• 11/08/21 Application Period Opens
• 12/17/21, 5:00 p.m., E.S.T. Grant Application Deadline
• 04/30/22 - 09/30/22 Anticipated Award Dates
• 24 Month Performance Period
• 05/01/22 Projected Period of Performance Start Date
• 04/30/24 Projected Period of Performance End Date
• Eligible Activities
o Operations and Safety
o Vehicle Acquisition
o Regional Projects
• 10% Local Cost Match
The Fire Department is seeking authorization to submit one grant application for four projects: Stations alerting system, training, medical equipment, and an assessment vehicle and the funding matrix is reflected below:
|
Grant Name |
Performance Period (Months) |
Estimated Total Project Cost ($) |
Local Match Requirement (%) |
Estimated Local Share ($) |
Estimated FEMA Grant Reimbursement ($) |
|
AFG |
24 |
$1,100,000 |
10% |
$ 100,000 |
$ 1,000,000 |
The Merced Fire Department’s (MFD’s) service capacity consists of a minimum daily on-duty force of 19 personnel staffing five fire engines, one ladder truck, and one command unit responding from the city’s five fire stations. Fire Department response personnel are trained to the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) level capable of providing Basic Life Support (BLS) pre-hospital emergency medical care. Advanced Life Support (ALS) pre-hospital emergency medical care and ground ambulance transportation is provided by a contracted provider under an exclusive operating area, performance-based contract with the Merced County Emergency Medical Services Agency (MCEMSA).
Fire and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) responders are on the front line of providing life-saving emergency and disaster response and providing the highest level of services to our community 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
Our community has the expectation to receive a timely response upon their initial call to the dispatch center regarding their call for help. To meet this expectation, it is of utmost importance to replace outdated equipment, obtain new equipment not currently utilized by the department, and improve our training program and personnel safety. Personnel must have radios and communication equipment to be able to communicate from the time a company leaves the station and at the scene during the incident. Communications and proper training are critical during incidents to minimize the loss of life, damage to the property and the environment. Upgrading the communications, improve interoperability and assuring the safety of personnel is critical to the success of reducing loss of life and property to our residents and visitors.
To respond to the requests for service, the notification system, which is called the Station Alerting system, needs to properly function. The current system was purchased in 2006 and is now considered to be end-of-life as it is operated from a Windows XP operating system which is no longer supported by Microsoft. Research in Fire Service Health and Wellness focus on proper station alerting. These systems not only provide for the audible tones and lights to alert the responders to a pending emergency, but they also raise heart rates, raise blood pressure, and can be detrimental to the health of the very responders who are being asked to provide care. Newer systems utilize technology to isolate tones and lights to only those who are needed to respond which improves the health for the rest of the members who are not involved in the pending emergency. Additional technologies that have been developed are interfaces to show best routes of travel and address recognition to show pre-fire plans to research while in route to emergencies.
The training needs of the fire department continues to increase with the specialization of responses. The Merced Yosemite Regional Airport has an Aircraft Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) truck that responds out of station 52 for aircraft emergencies on the airfield and immediately adjacent. Live fire training opportunities are not readily available in the local area and MFD has to send its members away for training. It has been in excess of 10 years since MFD members received ARFF live-fire training. This is an important step towards improving the status of Merced Yosemite Regional Airport.
Merced has been impacted with increase in the number and severity of fires through the community over the last 10 years. MFD does not have a designated Fire Investigator and the responsibility of investigating fires falls on the duty chief and the company officers on scene of the incident. MFD has a great need to increase the training of the officers within the agency for origin and cause as well as advanced research in investigation techniques. The goal of the training is to reduce the vulnerability of the City of Merced and its residents by removing arsonist and arson crimes.
According to the Standards of Cover report prepared for the City of Merced, “A review of ambulance contract compliance, as reported by the MCEMSA, shows that ambulance response performance met the response time requirement of 10:59 minutes or less for 90 percent of Priority 1 (life-threatening) calls within the High-Density from January 1, 2015 to May 31, 2017. Contract compliance fell below 90 percent, however, for June, August, and September of 2017, the most recent reporting period available. Both Riggs and County EMS staff advised Citygate that a statewide shortage of licensed paramedics has impacted Riggs and other ALS ambulance service providers’ ability to provide the number of paramedics needed daily to meet contractual response performance. In addition, a January 2017 EMS System Review Report cites the delayed transfer of patients to emergency department personnel at Mercy Medical Center, Merced as a continuing problem. Transfer delays require that ambulance personnel maintain patient care until the receiving medical center can accept the patient; the ambulance is thus not available to respond to emergencies until the patient transfer occurs. A 2014 statewide report also cited “very significant” to “extremely significant” patient offload delays in Merced County. This, combined with the reported shortage of paramedics, is increasingly impacting the Department’s available service capacity due to prolonged ALS ambulance response times and associated extended on-scene times for Department resources at EMS incidents.”
Through no fault of the contracted provider, the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates the delayed response times. MCEMSA and the contracted provider are, and continue to be, a valuable public safety partner since day one when they were awarded the contract. To continue this successful partnership of providing the highest level of service to our residents and visitors, we intend to expand and build upon our Fire Department’s EMS model. There are times of high call volume where there are little to no ambulances not only in the City of Merced but in the entire County of Merced. When a request for service occurs during these times a mutual aid ambulance responds from either Fresno County, Madera County, Mariposa County, or Stanislaus County. Those in need of service are faced with a minimum 30-minute estimated time of arrival.
MFD EMT’s are very capable and will provide a wide array of medical care, including Cardio-Pulmonary Respiration, use of oxygen, and Automatic External Defibrillator, or other life-saving equipment. Additionally, MFD’s partnership with Dignity Health will be instrumental in providing mid-level care to the unhoused; provide service to the indigent and economically disadvantaged population; and take a proactive and preventative approach to high utilizers of the 9-1-1 system and local emergency department. Our local partners at Central California Alliance for Health and Dignity Health will be instrumental in providing care to those patients who are unable to make an office visit.
MFD firefighter/EMT’s have played a key role in addressing the healthcare needs of our community during the pandemic. For example, on a regular basis, the fire department has walk in patients who come to the fire stations for medical treatment/diagnosis and even transport. Our firefighter/EMT’s are trusted and respected for their medical expertise, the emergency care they provide, and are generally welcome in patients’ homes. During the pandemic, our firefighters provided for public health while collaborating with other agencies and administered COVID-19 vaccinations for thousands of Merced residents. Our firefighter/EMT’s are on a first name basis with many of their patients and the acquisition of an assessment vehicle will result in reducing 9-1-1 requests for non-urgent, non-transport services thereby reducing the burden or the contracted provider needing to respond to non-life-threatening medical calls.
The $1,000,000 grant request is for station alerting equipment, training courses to cover backfill of employees, medical equipment, and an assessment vehicle will not compete with any provider and will only improve upon the existing level of health care provided to our residents and visitors and in return we will increase the survivability of those living in or visiting Merced!
The MFD has a long history of success in being awarded FEMA AFG grants in prior years.
IMPACT ON CITY RESOURCES
No appropriation of funds is required at this time. Should the grant be awarded, the fire department will return to Council and request that the grant be accepted.
If the grant is awarded, a supplemental appropriation will be needed from the unencumbered, unreserved General Fund and/or Measure Y balance for use as the City of Merced’s local match as required by the grant’s terms and conditions. Additionally, the use of pooled cash will be required to cover the initial outlays of the grant until the grant funds are reimbursed.
ATTACHMENTS
None