Knoxville City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with Knox County that authorizes the Knoxville-Knox County Emergency Management Agency to accept $22,505,100 in federal homeland security grant funding as a subrecipient.

The funds are intended for equipment and software to support the mobile command post and the city’s emergency operations center. The action was described as a required administrative step to accept the federal funds through the county and to permit procurement and deployment of technology and equipment intended to strengthen regional emergency response capacity.

Council took the item without extended debate; the motion carried.

Clarifying details: The MOU was described as enabling the city’s emergency management agency to serve as a subrecipient under the grant; staff did not provide a detailed line-item breakdown of how the $22.5 million will be allocated in the council meeting record.

What happens next: The city and county will execute the MOU and proceed with procurement steps required under the homeland security grant terms.