SR 05-11-2021 3F
City Council Report
City Council Meeting: May 11, 2021
Agenda Item: 3.F
1 of 4
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Bill Walker, Fire Chief, Fire Department
Jacqueline Seabrooks, Police Chief, Police Department
Subject: Authorization to accept the 2020 Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Grant
Funds for Homeland Security Projects and enter into a Subrecipient
agreement with the City of Los Angeles
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Authorize the City Manager to accept a grant awarded in the amount of
$2,164,108.00 from the 2020 Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) for homeland
security projects in the Police, Fire, and Information Services Departments, and
to accept all grant renewals.
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents to accept the
grant and all grant renewals.
3. Authorize budget changes as outlined in the Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
section of this report.
Summary
Each year, the Federal government allocates grant funding to enhance regional
preparedness for disasters, emergencies, and other threats to homeland security. In
2020, $2,164,108 was awarded to the City of Santa Monica Fire and Police
Departments and the Information Services Department as a part of the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Area
Security Initiative (UASI) grant:
• The Police Department was awarded funding in the amount of $672,108 to be
used for an automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) program and the initial
phase of the Santa Monica Pier Infrastructure Protection Plan.
• The Fire Department was awarded funding totaling $1,492,000 to be used for
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) Training,
Hazardous Materials Training (HazMat), Urban Search and Rescue Training,
Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) equipment, equipment and props
3.F
Packet Pg. 45
2 of 4
for the Training Center, Cyber-security planning project, and programs on behalf
of the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs’ Association Regional Training Group
(LAAFCA RTG).
• The Information Services Department was awarded funding totaling $200,000 to
be used for a cyber security project.
Staff recommends that Council authorize acceptance of the 2020 UASI grant funds and
execution of a subrecipient agreement with the City of Los Angeles for a performance
period of September 1, 2020 to May 31, 2023. The City of Los Angeles administers the
UASI grant on behalf of the Los Angeles-Long Beach Urban Area, which includes Santa
Monica.
Discussion
The UASI program’s focus is on enhancing regional preparedness and capabilities in
major metropolitan areas. The Santa Monica Fire Department requested funds to send
staff to trainings that support its core public safety missions as well as regional
homeland security goals. The following are the four major regional homeland security
focus areas of the UASI grant program, known as Investment Justifications:
1. Strengthen interoperable and communications capabilities;
2. Strengthen information sharing, collaboration capabilities, and law enforcement
investigations;
3. Protection of critical infrastructure and key resources; and
4. Catastrophic incident planning response and recovery.
The Police Department would use the $672,108 for an automatic license plate
recognition program and the initial phase of the Pier Infrastructure Protection Plan. This
funding provides mobile ALPR technology to the Santa Monica Police Department that
can be effectively deployed throughout the City to meet the mission of protecting critical
infrastructure and key resources. The ALPR investment sustains the existing systems
and expands the ALPR capabilities to meet evolving needs to capture vehicle data to
assist in traffic management, and occasionally investigations. The Santa Monica Pier
Infrastructure Protection Plan project will support Phase One of protecting the Pier as a
3.F
Packet Pg. 46
3 of 4
key asset. The project includes adding rising bollards and drop arm gates for
deployment at and around the Santa Monica Pier to meet the mission of protecting
critical infrastructure and key resources. The funding of phase one of this project will
strengthen critical infrastructure protection capabilities at the high demand tourist
destination.
The Fire Department would use $1,292,000 in funds to send members to training to
support the City’s Type I Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) and HazMat teams and
specialized Hazardous Materials CBRNE training. Funding in the amount of $600,000
would be used to host the LAAFCA’s RTG training delivery model, which creates and
disseminates regional training. The remaining funding would be used to support
equipment purchases for the TEMS program and new equipment and props for the
SMFD Training Center. The Fire Department was also able to secure $200,000 from
this year’s grant for use by the Information Services Department to fund the City’s
ongoing Cybersecurity program. This program will assist the information security team
with enhancing measures to protect the City’s newly developed website, improve
governance controls over the City’s cloud solutions, safeguard City data stored with
cloud-based providers, improve identity management, and identify and block malicious
cyberattacks. Procurement for projects funded by the UASI grant will follow Santa
Monica’s policies regarding competitive procurement processes.
The UASI program directly supports the national priority of expanding regional
collaboration within the National Preparedness Goal, which defines what it means for
the whole community to be prepared for all types of disasters and emergencies. The
UASI grant is intended to assist participating jurisdictions in developing integrated
regional systems for prevention, protection, response, and recovery from natural or
man-made disasters.
The UASI grant program is 100% federally funded from the Department of Homeland
Security and managed through the State of California's Office of Emergency Services.
The City of Santa Monica has received over $15 million in UASI funding since 2003.
These funds have been used to purchase necessary interoperable communication and
3.F
Packet Pg. 47
4 of 4
infrastructure equipment, supplies, and training in direct support of overall regional
goals to promote effective information gathering, sharing, and response to threats
and/or acts of terrorism.
Financial Impacts
Staff seeks authority to accept a grant totaling $2,164,108 from the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency for the 2020 UASI
program to fund training and equipment in direct support of overall regional goals to
promote effective information gathering, sharing, and response to threats and/or acts of
terrorism.
FY 2020-21 Grant Budget Changes
Establish Revenue Budget Amount Appropriate Funds Amount
20140001.40428E $200,000 20140001.55518E $200,000
20180001.40428E $672,108 20180001.55518E $672,108
20190001.40428E $1,292,000 20190001.55518E $1,292,000
Prepared By: Terese Toomey, Principal Administrative Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Written Comments
3.F
Packet Pg. 48
1
Vernice Hankins
From:Homa <homagod@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday, May 10, 2021 7:20 PM
To:councilmtgitems
Cc:Christine Parra; Gleam Davis; Sue Himmelrich; Oscar de la Torre; Councilmember Kevin McKeown;
Phil Brock; Kristin McCowan
Subject:Item 3-F; May 11, 2021: Please postpone accepting additional funds for the Police Department
EXTERNAL
Dear City Council:
I urge you to postpone accepting the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) funds in item 3-F for homeland security
projects in the Police department until *after* the community has discussed and addressed the issues raised in the OIR
after-action report of the events leading to, during, and following May 31, 2020.
This report indicates serious deficiencies in the police department and city leadership, not the least of which is that police
body cameras were not turned on in violation of department policy (page 11). If we cannot trust our police officers to follow
policy in using body cameras, how can we trust them to utilize a license plate reader and responsibly surveil residents (if
such a thing is even acceptable in a free America)?
The OIR report was only released a few days ago, and I haven't had a chance to properly digest it. But the failures of May
31st, 2020 are only the most recent debacle -- we are still waiting for the report from city-retained lawyers Irma Rodríguez
Moisa and Gabriel Sandoval on how (or if) Santa Monica Police failed to stop an alleged pedophile operating in their own
department.
Putting aside the serious privacy and civil rights issues of the expansion of the city's surveillance capabilities, it hardly
seems appropriate to further arm and fund a department with these performance issues.
I want to again emphasize my growing compassion for front line police officers in the city. There is every indication that
the failures we are seeing are primarily failures in organizational culture and leadership, and it is my sincere hope that
Council will hold city executives accountable as a first step in creating a community where we can all thrive.
Thank you,
Homa Mojtabai
Santa Monica, CA
Item 3.F 05/11/21
1 of 2 Item 3.F 05/11/21
3.F.a
Packet Pg. 49 Attachment: Written Comments (4532 : UASI 2020 Grant Acceptance)
2
Vernice Hankins
From:Jon Katz <tmbjon@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, May 11, 2021 9:09 AM
To:councilmtgitems
Cc:Kristin McCowan; Gleam Davis; Councilmember Kevin McKeown; Phil Brock; Oscar de la Torre;
Christine Parra; Sue Himmelrich; Lane Dilg
Subject:Item 3F - Oppose
EXTERNAL
Mayor Himmelrich, Mayor Pro Tem McCowan, and Councilmembers,
Please consider pulling item 3F from consent and holding off until we have had adequate time to review the OIR Report
that has just been released.
I have no concern regarding the allocation to the Fire Department, and I hope that can be split off and supported.
However, at this time, I believe it would be reckless to award more than $672,000 to the Santa Monica Police
Department specifically to be spent on automatic license plate recognition software.
The OIR report indicates serious issues with SMPD leadership and accountability. Notably, though the department policy
is that all officers must wear body cameras, we now know that we cannot trust SMPD to enforce this policy, and we are
lacking that crucial footage in review of the events of May 31, 2021.
Given the deficiencies in the SMPD response to those events, and the fact that the details from that day have just now
come to light and are in need of serious review and consideration, I do not believe now is the time to reward the
department with a new power that has the potential to be abused at the expense of our own civil rights.
Until we have had the ability to fully review the OIR report, such expenditures should not be approved. Along the same
line, this request should go before the Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission for review before Council
approves this expenditure.
Thank you,
‐Jon Katz
‐‐
tmbjon@gmail.com
cell: (215) 962‐4357
Item 3.F 05/11/21
2 of 2 Item 3.F 05/11/21
3.F.a
Packet Pg. 50 Attachment: Written Comments (4532 : UASI 2020 Grant Acceptance)