City Council Members Table SAFER Grant Resolution

Following intense discussion and debate between City Council members, the city administration and the community, the City Council voted Monday to table a resolution that would lift the hiring freeze to hire eight additional firefighters in conjunction with the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.

The City Council Chambers were filled Monday night with a large number of union members from the Jamestown Fire Department, as well as members of the Jamestown community. Multiple community members urged the City Council to approve the resolution and hire eight additional firefighters to increase public safety. Following public comments, multiple members of the City Council expressed the City Council's commitment to public safety, reminding both the city administration and the public that the City Council has voted numerous times to allocate additional funding and personnel for the Jamestown Fire Department and the Jamestown Police Department.

While City Council members explained that the entire council was supportive of hiring additional firefighters and bringing the Jamestown Fire Department to full staffing for the first time in two decades, they also reiterated their position of fiscal responsibility and their concerns regarding how the city would be able to afford the eight additional firefighters after the three-year period of the SAFER grant. Finance Committee Chairwoman Kim Ecklund added that City Council members were in a "no-win" situation, regardless of how Monday's vote concluded.

Just prior to voting on the resolution, City Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large, made a motion to allow the City Council and the city administration additional time to work together to discuss possible alternatives instead of allowing the vote to fail or pushing the resolution through without adequate consideration.

"I'm going to be bold," he said. "As the mayor says, it's tough being in this position. We have to make tough decisions and everything else and I agree with the mayor. I'm going to bring a motion forward to table this due to some extenuating circumstances that were presented to us."

Russell acknowledged the possibility that his motion to table the resolution for another month might not make people "happy."

"I also believe in fate," he said. "As I sit here now, I just received a text that my brother is currently on the way to the hospital with chest pains and profuse sweating and he has a cardiac issue. I don't believe that is coincidental that we're sitting here talking about the firefighters, so I'm asking to bring a motion forward to have this tabled so we can have further discussion due to certain events that we were talking about prior."

While supportive of Russell's proposal, City Council President Anthony Dolce asked Mayor Eddie Sundquist if the city would run out of time to accept the grant if the council voted to table the resolution for another month. Sundquist explained that the city would communicate with FEMA to request additional time due to the council's need for additional information before accepting the grant.

"Can I add a comment to that since you're going to communicate with FEMA, can you also drop the eight or nothing?" Ecklund asked. "Maybe it's four."

Sundquist agreed that the city administration could work with FEMA to consider possible alternatives to the eight additional firefighters pending additional direction from the City Council.

City Councilwoman Marie Carrubba, D-Ward IV, thanked Russell for his suggestion to table the resolution until the city administration and the City Council had time to consider whether the SAFER grant could be accepted without the stipulation of hiring eight additional firefighters.

"I was having a hard time with eight, and the fact that it was brought to us at the 11th hour that we could perhaps hire fewer than eight," she said. "I would think that we need more time to discuss this. It was not appropriate how it was processed."

With the exception of City Councilwoman Regina Brackman, D-Ward III, the City Council voted to approve Russell's motion, tabling the resolution until next month's voting session.