Title
FY 2021 National Urban Search and Rescue Response System Cooperative Agreement with FEMA (Ordinance S-47955)
Description
Request to authorize the City Manager, or his designee, to apply for, accept, and if awarded, disburse Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds totaling $1,236,878 for the Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) 2021 Readiness Cooperative Agreement. Further request authorization for the City Treasurer to accept, and the City Controller to disburse, all funds related to this item.
Report
Summary
The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA provide support and funding for the maintenance and readiness of the national Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System. The purpose of this readiness cooperative agreement is to support the continued development and maintenance of a national US&R capability. This cooperative agreement provides direction to the Phoenix Fire Department for the use of funding to provide administrative and program management, training, support, equipment cache procurement, maintenance, and storage.
The Phoenix Fire Department is the sponsoring agency of Arizona Task Force One (AZ-TF1), one of 28 national Urban Search and Rescue response system task forces that can rapidly deploy skilled personnel and state of the art equipment to sites of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and building collapses. In addition to search and rescue, task force members provide immediate medical treatment to survivors, hazardous materials monitoring and stabilization capabilities. In the past, AZ-TF1 has been deployed to Hurricanes Florence, Harvey, Irma, Rita, Katrina, Ike, Gustav, the Oklahoma City bombing and to the 9/11 World Trade Center in New York City.
Contract Term
The term of the agreement, if approved, will be for three years. The contract will run from Sept. 1, 2021 through Aug. 31, 2024.
Financial Impact
The Fire Department will receive an amount not to exceed $1,236,878 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) 2021 Readiness Cooperative Agreement.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Jeffrey Barton and the Phoenix Fire Department.