ORDINANCE approving and authorizing submission of an Electronic Application for Grant Assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for the FY2016 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program; declaring the City’s eligibility for such grant; authorizing the Chief of the Houston Fire Department to act as the City’s representative in the application process, to accept such grant funds, if awarded, and to apply for and accept all subsequent awards, if any, pertaining to the program

Approval of an ordinance authorizing the application and acceptance of award for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) FY 2016 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

SPECIFIC EXPLANATION:

The Houston Fire Department (HFD) requests City Council approve an ordinance authorizing the application and acceptance of award for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) FY 2016 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program in the amount of $1,150,049, with a cash match of $172,507 for a total program cost of $1,322,556.

The intent of this program is to address multiple core competencies identified in the National Preparedness Goal through the introduction of the Blue Card Hazard Zone Incident Command Training and Certification Program (Blue Card). The Blue Card program will enable HFD to improve upon issues related to fire management and suppression, threat and hazard identification, operational coordination, and operational communication. These issues, along with a multitude of other suggestions, have been identified in HFD’s catalog of Line-of-Duty-Death (LODD) reports prepared by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The goal of the department is to certify every Command Staff Chief Officer, Deputy Chief, District Chief, Senior Captain, Captain and Incident Command Technician in the Blue Card Program.

HFD will utilize funding to bring 709 members in on overtime to complete the manipulative learning labs in order to complete the Blue Card training and become certified incident commanders.

$172,507 General Fund Cash Match (Fund 1000)

$1,150,049 Federal Grant (Fund 5000)

Total Project: $1,322,556

Bryan Sky-Eagle                   Phone: 832-394-6762