Hoover to accept $21.85 million DHS grant to expand NCFI; city to hire LeMoyne as program manager

The City of Hoover presented a $21,850,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expand the National Center for Forensic Innovation (NCFI) and asked the council to authorize acceptance and related expenditures.

City staff said the grant is 100% reimbursable and requires no city match. The planned expansion will add classrooms, administrative offices and a larger auditorium. Staff described the build-out as including three 35-person classrooms, a 250-person auditorium, roughly 20 administrative offices and additional common space. The renovation was described as more than doubling the NCFI’s annual training capacity from about 3,500 to over 8,000 law enforcement and judicial officials.

The council also considered a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a professional services agreement with LeMoyne Company to serve as program manager for the NCFI expansion. City staff said the LeMoyne fee will be paid entirely from the DHS grant and will not cost the city general funds. The presentation stated the city solicited local firms, interviewed finalists and selected LeMoyne as the firm best positioned to “advocate for the City” during the construction program.

Council members asked clarifying questions about federal presence in Hoover and the scope of the contracts; staff reiterated grant-funded scope and that the agreement with LeMoyne will place project management under a contractor funded through the grant. The transcript does not record a roll-call vote or final approval on either the grant acceptance or the professional services agreement.