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South Burlington council approves SAFER grant application to seek three firefighters after staffing discussion
Summary
The South Burlington City Council on June 16 authorized staff to apply for a federal SAFER grant to fund three additional firefighter positions, following council questions about long-term staffing plans, budget timing and growth impacts.
The South Burlington City Council on June 16 voted unanimously to authorize submission of a SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant application that would fund three firefighter positions for a limited term.
City Manager Jesse Baker said the vote authorizes staff "to go forth and put in and see what happens," stressing the application is an early step and that acceptance of federal funds would come later. "This is just giving us the kind of yellow light to say, yes, go forth and put in and see what happens," Baker said.
A fire department representative (title not specified in the transcript) told the council the department frames equipment and staffing needs in its budget, capital improvement plan and strategic plan, and has consistently raised a shortfall in command-level staffing. "If you look back to my first budget to this council in 2022, it highlighted our shortfall for ambulance coverage and our concern about not having big dedicated shift commanders and the risk that presents," the fire department representative said. The speaker added South Burlington now runs more than 5,000 calls for service annually.
Council members asked whether applying for the SAFER grant would precommit future councils and whether it would create trade-offs with staffing in other departments. Baker and the fire department representative said the grant is a competitive, federal program with a long lead time — awards often arrive six to eight months after application — and that accepting funds, if awarded, would occur under future budgets. Baker said the grant has been used locally to phase in staff increases while minimizing immediate property-tax impacts.
The council motion to authorize the SAFER grant application passed unanimously with a verbal aye vote from those present. The authorization simply permits staff to complete the application and, if awarded, to accept the funds consistent with future council budget decisions.
Councilors and staff noted that the application aligns with anticipated growth and with efforts to manage call volumes and deploy leadership capacity, but emphasized that the decision to accept any award would occur later and depend on budget projections at that time.
