Consideration and Approval of Grant Agreement: with the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission for the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant in the amount of $293,693.00 for the Northern Arizona Street Crimes Task Force (METRO unit).

Approval of the Grant Agreement will provide the continued operation of the METRO unit to protect life, property, and the rights of the individuals by participating agencies through a sustained, coordinated, multi-agency effort to reduce drug and gang related crimes. This will be accomplished by vigorous investigations, apprehensions, prosecution, and community participation.

Subsidiary Decisions Points: None

The grant award is in the amount of $234,954.00 with required matching funds of $58,739.00. The METRO board has authorized matching funds from the Rico account. The Rico account has provided matching funds in the past years and the board has agreed to provide the above matching funds for this year's grant. This amount will include all city costs, estimated in kind and administrative costs if above normal departmental allocation. The grant award will be the 27th funding cycle (FY 2014) for the METRO unit. This grant is budgeted in Fiscal Year 2014.

Effective governance

Yes, the Flagstaff City Council has approved the acceptance of this grant money for the past twenty six years.

• Approve the acceptance of the of the grant which will provide additional funding to staff the METRO narcotics unit at no cost to the city.
• Reject the acceptance of the grant which could jeopardize the operation of the METRO unit which may lead increased drug related crimes. 

As previously stated, this is the 27th cycle of this grant in which the Flagstaff City Council has approved the previous 26 cycles.

This grant and the investigative officers this funds is supported by nearly every law enforcement entity in Coconino County including the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, The Flagstaff Police Department, Northern Arizona University Police, ATF, FBI, DEA and the Department of Public Safety. This grant provides specialized police investigations to all the communities located within Coconino County.

Officers in the METRO Unit continuously provide support to numerous community groups including Citizens Against Substance Abuse, local schools, Citizens Academy programs, etc in the form of training and educational presentations, drug awareness, and proactive investigations.

Involve

If approved the grant would allow for the acceptance of $293,954.00 in federal through state funds that will provide proactive enforcement that would otherwise not be available to our citizens.