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Kootenai County outlines competitive SHSP process; 35% set-aside for law-enforcement terrorism prevention narrows available funds
Summary
County emergency management staff described the State Homeland Security Program application, scoring and review process, noting the program typically provides about $200,000 to the county, a 6% decrease from last year, and that 35% of funding must be allocated to law enforcement terrorism prevention activities (LEPTA).
Tiffany Westbrook, Kootenai County emergency management director, outlined the county’s State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) review and scoring process at the March 11 meeting and described why the grant cycle is competitive.
Westbrook said the county receives a population-based SHSP allocation that has been about $200,000 but decreased by roughly 6% this year. She explained that federal and state requirements include pass-throughes and carve-outs, including a requirement that 35% of the overall grant amount be used for law enforcement terrorism prevention activities (LEPTA). Westbrook said the LEPTA requirement and other community-resilience priorities reduce the amount of funding available for other projects.
She described the county’s application steps: the county receives a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) from the Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM); local applicants submit applications with an authorized equipment list (AEL) and quotes; the IOEM area field officer performs an eligibility review; and a local application scoring committee ranks applications using a rubric. The county’s rubric includes eligibility gates (full points or zero) and specific LEPTA scoring criteria.
Westbrook described the scoring committee as composed of representatives from law enforcement, fire, the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) chair, a grants administrator, a county communications representative (Colin McCroy), an auditor’s office representative, the OEM director, and a citizen representative. She said committee members may not sit if they submitted an application to avoid perceived bias.
Westbrook gave examples of items that have ranked well in the county process, such as Rescue Task Force equipment and multi-jurisdictional SWAT needs, because they support interoperability and terrorism-prevention priorities. She said the county typically receives roughly $200,000 and noted specific past application totals: about $589,000 requested in 2023 (with roughly $200,000 available) and $523,000 requested in 2024 (with roughly $214,000 available). She also said the LEPTA 35% carve-out represented about $75,000 of a $214,000 allotment and referenced a separate $15,000 community-resilience carve-out in a recent cycle.
Westbrook said legal and procurement staff assist after awards to create grant-use agreements and to manage inventory because SHSP funds are federal dollars with inventory and reporting requirements. Commissioners asked clarifying questions about radio interoperability and system upgrades; Westbrook said that operational needs that are required for day-to-day function may not be appropriate uses of grant funds (risk of supplanting) and that multiagency interoperability and multi-jurisdictional use cases rank higher.
