Consideration and Approval of Cooperative Contract:  2016 Cooperative Fire Rate Agreement (CFRA) with AZ State Forestry

The CFRA is a long-standing Agreement between the City and AZ State Forestry, renewable every two years.  The current CFRA expired March 30, 2016, but was extended until this new CFRA was provided by the State and ready to be acted upon by the City.  The CFRA allows the City to participate in inter-agency emergency events and response activities outside the City (when assistance is requested by  either the State and/or Federal government) and to recover 100% of all equipment and personnel costs associated with such action.  At no time does our involvement with the CFRA diminish our staffing and/or capacity to provide service to the City.

All incident response expenses are reimbursed to the City if the Agreement is current and in-place (no such expenses are reimbursed if the Agreement is not in-place).  Incident frequency, size, and duration are episodic in-nature: however, in the past two-year cycle (Apr 2014 - Apr 2016), the City participated in 76 separate events, and reimbursed/recovered the following:

• Personnel - $1,403,200.00,
• Equipment - $218,500.00, and
• Travel - $120,000.00
• TOTAL - $1,741,700.00

Wages earned by involved members are brought home to the community.  All personnel expenses (individual plus backfill) are reimbursed: however, when an individual responds that does not require backfill, the reimbursement directly offsets costs, including all benefits, that would otherwise be incurred by the City.  Equipment generates revenue, over-and-above expenses, that is then returned to the General Fund and/or redirected into Fire Dept. budgets.

COUNCIL GOALS:
1) Invest in our employees and implement retention and attraction strategies;
3) Provide sustainable and equitable public facilities, services, and infrastructure systems in an efficient and effective manner to serve all population areas and demographics;
4) Develop and implement guiding principles that address public safety service levels through appropriate staff levels;
7) Address key issues and processes related to the implementation of the Regional Plan;
9) Improve the economic quality of life for Flagstaff through economic diversification, and by fostering jobs and programs that grow wages and revenues; and
11) Ensure that we are as prepared as possible for extreme weather events.
 
REGIONAL PLAN:
Environmental Planning & Conservation – Vision for the Future:  In 2013, the long-term health and viability of our natural resource environment is maintained through strategic planning for resource conservation and protection.
Policy E&C.3.3 – Invest in forest health and watershed protection measures.
Policy E&C.6.1 – Encourage public awareness that the region’s ponderosa pine forest is a fire-dependent ecosystem and strive to restore more natural and sustainable forest composition, structure, and processes.
Policy E&C.6.3 – Promote protection, conservation, and ecological restoration of the region’s diverse ecosystem type and associated animals.
Policy E&C.6.6 – Support collaborative efforts for forest health initiatives or practices, such as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), to support healthy forests and protect our water system.
Policy E&C.10.2 – Protect, conserve, and when possible, enhance and restore wildlife habitat on public land.
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The City has had a CFRA with AZ State Forestry for the past two+ decades.  Previous Councils have approved the renewal when such action was required.  Several members of the current Council participated in the most recent renewal (Mar 2014).

Two options exist:
1) Approve the renewal of the CFRA, allowing continued engagement with other partners and 100% cost-recovery, or
2) Reject the CFRA, reducing the opportunity to acquire large-scale incident training and expertise at no-cost, restricting opportunities to maintain and grow inter-agency relationships, and eliminating a positive source of cash-flow source into the General Fund. 

The CFRA has existed between the City and AZ State Forestry since the mid-1980's, and is renewed every two years.  It's a standardized Agreement with Fire Depts. state-wide.  It is the mechanism by which City resources are requested by the State and/or Federal government, then assigned to out-of-City emergency events, and for which we recover 100% of associated costs plus a positive cash-flow to the General Fund for equipment usage ($50,000+ per year on average).  

Activation under the CFRA can be for local, regional, and national events.  All involved personnel meet both State and national training, experience, and physical fitness requirements for their specific position(s)/function(s): equipment meets State and national standards as well.  We participate in a variety of ways:

• Standing and rostered members of regional and national Incident Management Teams (IMT's), 
• Single-resource individuals who fill positions as needed,
• Crew (Engine, Water Tenders, and Hand, with associated equipment).

Response is primarily fire, but may also include all-hazard type responses (Search and Rescue, Hurricane, etc).

Equipment rates are set for each specific type/kind of equipment throughout the two-year period.  Personnel costs are not: we are able to adjust those throughout the two-year period as needed to reflect wage and/or benefit changes.  Personnel costs include all benefits, including PSPRS contributions.

The entire community benefits from the skills, knowledge, and abilities gained and maintained by employees when assigned to large-scale complex incidents outside of the city (the best place to learn and practice).  When faced with large events here (emergency or planned), we  function much more efficiently and effectively, and have inter-agency relationships established and in-place that provide a smooth and seamless operating environment.   

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