Firefighters Save Lives, Grants Save Firefighters?

We noticed a note in last week’s City Manager’s report that the City has submitted an application for the Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant. This federal program awards funding to fire departments to help increase the number of trained, “front line” firefighters available to comply with established staffing, response and operational standards. Tacoma’s application is for $7,737,403 to cover 24-months of wage and benefits for 37 existing firefighter positions.

Tacoma applied for and received a SAFER grant for 2011 for $1,566,699 to hire ten firefighters, and cover their compensation for 24 months. The resolution accepting that grant contains an interesting clause (emphasis added):

Resolution No. 38207

Accepting a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security, in the amount of $1,566,699; depositing said sum into the Fire Miscellaneous Special Revenue Fund, to pay salaries, benefits, and certain training costs of ten firefighters for two years; agreeing to not lay off commissioned Tacoma Fire Department employees during the period of the grant; and retaining the SAFER-funded firefighters for one full year after the end of the two-year grant.

The language appears to make it a condition of the grant that Tacoma not lay off any firefighters for the two year cycle (which we are currently in). From what we hear, the grantors have been informed of Tacoma’s current budget challenges, and it’s unlikely that they would ask for their money back in the event that firefighters were laid off. Any layoffs would, however, be a mark against our recently submitted application, making it less likely that Tacoma would receive the much-needed funding again in this grant cycle.

Fortunately, for now at least, it sounds like Tacoma firefighter jobs are safe, and if Tacoma receives this grant, it seems like it couldn’t come at a better time. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.