Dodd, Collins introduce bill to help retain volunteer emergency responders

[Bnechis 3,961]

Now I have a question. I live in a community that is protected by a volunteer department. Doesn't my tax dollars support the SAFER grants that help fund career staff in career departments? Couldn't I use the same argument?

You could make that argument and you would be correct. I can sympathize with why a taxpayer may have a problem with SAFER grants. However, there is one big difference... with a SAFER grant there is accountability. If the federal grant pays for firefighters, the firefighters who are being paid have to show up to work and respond when they are called.

Interesting, ok yes SAFER is supported by everyones tax dollars, but lets look a little closer at SAFER. Prior to this year this was one of the 2 main components:

2. Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters Activity. The goal of this activity is to create a net increase in the number of trained, certified, and competent firefighters capable of responding to emergencies likely to occur within the fire department geographic response area and safely. The primary focus is the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters who are involved with or trained in the operations of firefighting and emergency response. Volunteer, paid-on-call, and combination fire departments as well as local and statewide volunteer firefighter interest organizations are eligible to receive grants in this activity. With proper justification, applications for assistance in the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters could include activities that would require as many as four years to complete. There is no local match requirement for this activity and there are no maximum federal share limits.

What are some examples of incentive costs that are eligible under the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters activity?

Applicants who propose to initiate a recruitment and/or retention plan as a part of their application will receive equal consideration for the recruitment activities and the retention activities. Proposals in this activity may include providing incentives for volunteer firefighter members to continue their service in a fire department. Examples of the type of initiatives that may receive assistance include but are not limited to the following:

Accidental death and dismemberment insurance

College education cost reimbursement

Reimbursement for lost wages while attending training

Marketing program costs to recruit new volunteer members

Staffing needs assessment

Explorer, cadet, and/or mentoring programs

Initial entry physicals

Tuition assistance for higher education and professional certifications

Workers compensation

Length of service awards and other retirement benefits

Now here is the kicker if a VFD applied for SAFER and spent federal money on all of the above activities and the department lost members and did not recruit anyone then oh well no loss (except to us tax payers).

The career side of SAFER requires an 80% match by the local department so SAFER was just a 20% sale. In addition if you laid off the hired members for any reason you had to give all the money back.

Now lets look at that money, the 20% that SAFER paid equals $100,000 over 5 years, each of the new employees is now paying federal (and state) Tax. at the current rates they will payback all of the money in about 8 years. But to meet the goals we hired 8 ff's under SAFER and agreed to staff 2 seats 24/7 which requires 10.5 positions (on OT) so we actually generated additional taxes. If we maintain the additional staffing over 20 years we will more than triple the Feds money.

So yes you are helping to fund career ff's but they are returning the money in income tax.

And everyone has been funding the volunteer side of SAFER and can we measure what that has done for retention and recruitment?

Lets fast forward on SAFER to fall 2009. FEMA was ordered to drop the volunteer side of SAFER and concintrate on the rehiring of laid of career FF's as part of the overall jobs programs of the Obama administration. This is no different than how they have hired contractors for road projects to generate incomes to stimulate the economy.

[JFLYNN 681]

Interesting, ok yes SAFER is supported by everyones tax dollars, but lets look a little closer at SAFER. Prior to this year this was one of the 2 main components:

2. Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters Activity. The goal of this activity is to create a net increase in the number of trained, certified, and competent firefighters capable of responding to emergencies likely to occur within the fire department geographic response area and safely. The primary focus is the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters who are involved with or trained in the operations of firefighting and emergency response. Volunteer, paid-on-call, and combination fire departments as well as local and statewide volunteer firefighter interest organizations are eligible to receive grants in this activity. With proper justification, applications for assistance in the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters could include activities that would require as many as four years to complete. There is no local match requirement for this activity and there are no maximum federal share limits.

What are some examples of incentive costs that are eligible under the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters activity?

Applicants who propose to initiate a recruitment and/or retention plan as a part of their application will receive equal consideration for the recruitment activities and the retention activities. Proposals in this activity may include providing incentives for volunteer firefighter members to continue their service in a fire department. Examples of the type of initiatives that may receive assistance include but are not limited to the following:

Accidental death and dismemberment insurance

College education cost reimbursement

Reimbursement for lost wages while attending training

Marketing program costs to recruit new volunteer members

Staffing needs assessment

Explorer, cadet, and/or mentoring programs

Initial entry physicals

Tuition assistance for higher education and professional certifications

Workers compensation

Length of service awards and other retirement benefits

Now here is the kicker if a VFD applied for SAFER and spent federal money on all of the above activities and the department lost members and did not recruit anyone then oh well no loss (except to us tax payers).

The career side of SAFER requires an 80% match by the local department so SAFER was just a 20% sale. In addition if you laid off the hired members for any reason you had to give all the money back.

Now lets look at that money, the 20% that SAFER paid equals $100,000 over 5 years, each of the new employees is now paying federal (and state) Tax. at the current rates they will payback all of the money in about 8 years. But to meet the goals we hired 8 ff's under SAFER and agreed to staff 2 seats 24/7 which requires 10.5 positions (on OT) so we actually generated additional taxes. If we maintain the additional staffing over 20 years we will more than triple the Feds money.

So yes you are helping to fund career ff's but they are returning the money in income tax.

And everyone has been funding the volunteer side of SAFER and can we measure what that has done for retention and recruitment?

Lets fast forward on SAFER to fall 2009. FEMA was ordered to drop the volunteer side of SAFER and concintrate on the rehiring of laid of career FF's as part of the overall jobs programs of the Obama administration. This is no different than how they have hired contractors for road projects to generate incomes to stimulate the economy.

I'm glad I'm on your side...oops, actually I meant to say that we're all on the same side and I'm glad that you're, well...um...I'm, ummm, well you know what I mean....