I see our fearless leader has again proposed more money for SAFER whil cutting AFG. For a democrat he seems a little out of touch with the needs of the fire service.
Looks like they dropped some 1199As on Friday based on the email dates. Was out at OCS so wasn't checking, plus no peeps here so didn't think they did anything.
What's amusing with the change in program is that so many said they couldn't afford the old way, and many of the same say they can't afford the new way either. Mainly because in the more urban areas they're getting flak from the other employee unions about the layoffs they have to face while the FD gets grant money to keep their jobs.
Ain't nothing worse to screw up a good family relationship like free money...
old 5 year program = Hand up
new 2 year program = Hand out
Exactly my point Mark. The way the rehire program is set up It's no different than handing out welfare checks for a 2 year time frame. and then they will all be back in the same place. This is not going to fix the underlying issues of cities and towns being in a position to no longer afford these positions.
Falling tax base = cuts across the board for everyone. Urban areas are getting hit harder in the old manufacturing states as jobs go offshore and leave forever.
for two years until this funding runs out, Then what?
Safer is a short term band aid to proper funding mechanisms being put in place by the cities & towns.
Similar to what happened with the COPS program a few years back. Once the funding went away so did the positions.
old 5 year program = Hand up
new 2 year program = Hand out
for two years until this funding runs out, Then what?
Safer is a short term band aid to proper funding mechanisms being put in place by the cities & towns.
Similar to what happened with the COPS program a few years back. Once the funding went away so did the positions.
After 5 years of no awards, we recieved an email from AFG stating our grant was favorably reviewed, 10 (actually 14 I think) questions attached. I checked and sure enough the 1199 was there. I know alot of people do not like the SAFER program but I think our department is in a great position for this grant!
They aim for rehiring/layoff prevention first, then additional positions, then R&R, but because some of the hiring end up not taking the money they circle around a bit. It's just like AFG, they mix things up between Ops, Vehicles, and Regionals so all the same aren't coming out at once. Same as the geographic mix in awards, they aim to not have all one area in an announcement.
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