SAFER.....Another Waste of Funds

[onebugle]

http://www.eagletribune.com/latestne...m-as-grant-cut

With an award of over $6 million that money could have been spent more wisely elsewhere.

What could have that purchased under AFG?

20+ pumpers

1100 SCBA

2400 complete sets of PPE

667 TIC's

[SLY4420]

The article continuously makes FEMA sound like the bad guy for "not deciding to renew" this grant award, almost as if it was expected.

The 2010 SAFER Program Guidance required a two-year POP with commitment that a third year would be funded and firefighters retained. That would be through 2013.

Time to cross that bridge!

[BC79er]

Looks like a rope bridge with a frayed set of connections. This is going to be the norm on SAFER too, no more repeat awards since the 1st one should have a solid plan of continuation in it in the first place. After all it's what the Financial Need section is looking for in order to score well. Several other cities are going to be in the same boat within the next year.

Pretty much why SAFER needs to go back to the 5 year reduced matching program so that those with true needs for growth are funded, not welfare situations. That would cut it about in half for the funding need, so doing so would put another $100mil into the AFG program and avoid cuts to any other grants. There's where the $104mil can come from. Still prefer taking it from foreign grant programs since we don't need to hand welfare out to other countries.

[EMT6126]

Maybe one day they will realize that public safety cannot be compromised. Jeff

[firefighter7136]

The worst thing I took away from the story is that no one in the city seems to understand the purpose of the grant. They look at it as if it should be ongoing funding. Did not a single person in the department or city read the program guidance. To top it off they are going reapply next year with the expectation of being awarded.

[BC79er]

If they can, remember the restrictions on empty positions are more specific now so they'd have to be laid off before the app period closes to be eligible. Rumor has it that the app period for SAFER might come before AFG, and even if it doesn't they'll both be done by August. And same thing will probably happen, this was one of the most advertised/discussed repeat awards for the same positions since they were funded to get these same positions the first time and needed the 2nd award to keep them. So obviously the Peer Review wasn't about to fund them a 3rd time for the same people, don't see that changing in the 2013 Review process. I'm sure there is more money to be found that can get cut up there on top of the voting machines. Just like the WH claiming we need to reduce military and other first-responders thanks to sequestering, I'm pretty sure if we cut off the handouts to all sorts of folks that aren't making an effort to contribute to society we'll find more money. Like no welfare/unemployment for those that test positive for illicit subtances. If you aren't working, and test positive for drugs, tax dollars paid for them since that's the only source of money. And that needs to stop yesterday. Either go to rehab, and I have no problem with tax dollars paying for that once, or no more welfare. Relapse, and no more anything on the taxpayer's dime. Bad decisions should not be rewarded.

[WJVaughn]

yep. It definitely sounds like someone did not read the fine print about that 3rd year. Oops
I also wonder why it took so long to get everybody back. The way I read it they just finished rehiring the last of the folks.

[onebugle]

The original grant was to rehire 23 laid off FF's (not all went back) and hire 15 FF's to fill vacancies. The LFD FF's are civil service FF's meaning the process is not at all speedy.

The bigger issue is the financial impact to other communities that hire civil service FF's as well. When these FF's are laid off they go onto a statewide layoff list. Any community that hires subsequently has to hire from the layoff list before moving on to the regular list. What this means those departments are spending thousands of $$$$ for medicals, uniforms, PPE etc. with no guarantee they will stay. If the FF's leave to return to LFD (as the case previously) the department hiring that laid off FF must start the process again with the same expenses.

As SAFER stands right know it has the potential to hurt more departments than the good it does saving positions. Accountability has to be put back into the program.

[islandfire03]

the problem is, Lawrence is subscribing to the great hogs at the trough theory. Someone from the govt will always bail us out when we screw up.. There never was a plan in place to keep the safer funded positions when they applied for the federal $$$.
The folks at the top of the food chain just assumed the money would be renewed forever.What they were hoping for was that the politicians would be able to keep the trough full.

Ted Kennedy is gone and that ain't happening any longer.

[EMT6126]

I would like to read their "Sustainability" portion of the previous grant. Just wandering what they said they was going to do when the "Trough" was empty.Just curious.
Jeff

[LVFD301]

SAFER has some really good stuff available, but I fear the Hiring portion is fraught with issues. Don't throw out the program entirely - just get it back to where it is not such a handout.