The City Council is expected to meet with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency this month regarding the Staffing for Adequate Emergency and Response grant. Pictured, from left, are Mayor Eddie Sundquist, Acting Director of Public Works Mark Roetzer, City Council President Anthony Dolce, R-Ward II, and Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon during a recent City Council work session. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The City Council is preparing to meet with the Federal Emergency Management Agency regarding the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant prior to a vote this month.

City Council President Anthony Dolce, R-Ward II, told The Post-Journal that Mayor Eddie Sundquist was planning on meeting with FEMA on Wednesday to present the agency with the City Council’s questions prior to a Zoom call meeting that will be scheduled between FEMA and the council.

“The plan would be to try to find a time when they’re available and most, if not all, of the council could be available, whether that is at our work session on Monday or some other prescribed time where we could have a special meeting where the council could come in and just specifically ask questions to them and get some information about the FEMA grant,” he said.

Asked about the mayor’s recent statements regarding the City Council tabling the SAFER grant by bringing up new questions during April’s voting session, Dolce indicated that the council’s questioning of administration officials during the voting session was not what caused the SAFER grant to be tabled again.

“I don’t think it’s so much that,” he said. “Because we don’t have a comptroller, I think there were some questions because there were some delays about the financial impact, so the council was waiting for those as well as some of the other questions. It seemed like we were getting some vague answers.”

Dolce said the question regarding whether the city is required to hire eight additional firefighters to receive the SAFER grant or whether the exact number of firefighters is negotiable with FEMA was not clearly answered prior to or during the voting session. As a result, Dolce said additional questions came out of the meeting.

“One of them is do we have to hire eight firefighters?” he asked. “Will the grant allow us to hire fewer, and if so, how many? I know that the chief and the administration had to submit the roster with the number of current firefighters, so is it a total number that we have to meet, or can that be reduced down at any point?”

Dolce said both Sundquist and Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon indicated during the voting session that there might be some room for negotiation with FEMA regarding the number of firefighters required to be hired under the SAFER grant.

Asked about the mayor’s recent indication that a compromise of fewer than eight additional firefighters would most likely not be possible, Dolce said, “That’s not what was told to us last Monday night.” Dolce explained that Sundquist said at the meeting that he would find out from FEMA if a compromise would be possible. The City Council has not received any additional indication from Sundquist regarding a compromise since the voting session. To date, the City Council has also received no official word from FEMA regarding a potential compromise on the number of additional firefighters hired under the SAFER grant.

According to Dolce, a potential compromise on the SAFER grant would be determined by whether the city could hire fewer additional firefighters, as well as the impact that would have on staffing for the Jamestown Fire Department.

“We did hire four additional firefighters through ARPA, so we’re already up four from what we have been at literally for the last 20 years,” he said. “If we were to hire four more, how would that impact the staffing level moving forward, and most importantly, as I asked last week, how does it impact the ability to run a second ambulance?”

Another question the City Council has is whether the city would be required to keep all eight additional firefighters through to the end of the SAFER grant or whether the city would be able to slowly reduce the number of firefighters through attrition as firefighters retire over the next few years if the city is not successful at obtaining another grant to financially sustain the additional firefighters.

Additionally, Dolce said the City Council plans on asking FEMA what the likelihood would be for Jamestown to be awarded another SAFER grant in three years. Before the City Council can make an informed decision, he indicated that the council wants to know the percentage of other municipalities that have received SAFER grants more than once.

“I think the big concern that the council had was the sustainability, after the grant runs out, how to pay for this,” he said. “We do realize that with a second ambulance, there will be some additional revenue, but it’s certainly not going to be enough to cover the overall cost of all of these firemen, so that’s going to leave a huge hole in the budget that we’re going to have to figure out.”

Dolce told The Post-Journal that public safety is the top concern most constituents in Jamestown will discuss with council members. While Dolce said public safety is certainly a priority for the City Council, he emphasized that the City Council also has to consider the financial impact and long-term sustainability of the SAFER grant, especially as the city is very close to its constitutional taxing limit.

“It’s a very important decision,” Dolce said. “Again, it’s not that the council doesn’t want to do this. It’s just they want to make sure that the decision that they make not only enhances public safety, but also is something that is sustainable and that we can count on moving forward to be able to keep going and be able to afford to keep that level of service. 20 years ago, we had to make difficult decisions about our staffing within the police and fire side, and it wasn’t easy, and nobody wants to see us have to cut down the road.”