In an effort to help Guadalupe recruit and retain firefighters for the city's mostly volunteer department, the chief is seeking a $100,000 federal grant to help.

The city has applied for the five-year grant under the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“(In) every volunteer fire department in the country there is always the challenge of recruitment and retention,” said Chief Carmon Johnson. “That is part of the main theme of the SAFER grant, that there is monies there to help volunteer fire departments to recruit and retain firefighters.”

The Guadalupe Fire Department has 12 volunteers who receive a monthly flat-rate stipend, Johnson said, along with three full-time paid captains, a fire prevention technician and the chief.

For the volunteers, the city has $45,000 budgeted for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which began July 1. That is about half what it was the prior year.

Johnson cited lean economic times for the cutback, but noted that the city's dedicated volunteers are making the sacrifice.

“That's asking a lot and they are doing it,” he said, noting that he is proud of his department.

Advertisement

If the grant application is successful, the money would go into stipends and perhaps allow the department to bring on at least two more volunteers, he said.

The federal grant program is designed to help departments increase staffing levels to meet the standards of the National Fire Protection Association and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The goal of the grant, which this year has $180.5 million available, is to provide faster, safer and more efficient protection as a result of more staffing.

After shoring up a $200,000 revenue shortfall in the 2007-08 budget that occurred midyear, the city adopted a balanced 2008-09 budget, said City Administrator Carolyn Galloway-Cooper.

To balance the budget the city was conservative with revenue expectations and minimized expenditures wherever possible, she added.

“We cut every department down to the penny to balance the budget,” Galloway-Cooper said in an e-mail.

“Council asked all departments to seek no-match grants, if possible, as we try to build our General Fund reserves back up. We are happy when departments find ways to fund expenses through grants, especially in this economic slump,” she said.

As part of the grant requirement, departments that receive the award are required to begin matching portions of the grant over the first four years and then the entire cost of any added positions by the fifth year, according to the FEMA Web site.

As for absorbing the cost in an already strapped department, Johnson said he hopes to see the economy turn around by the time the department would have to do so.

Additionally, he said, projects such as the large residential DJ Farms development planned at the edge of the city could help, and as the city grows more sales tax can be expected, which would also help offset the cost.

Malia Spencer can be reached at 739-2219 or mspencer@santamariatimes.com.

July 16, 2008