Good afternoon.

For the record, my name is Henry Santana, at large city councillor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on public safety and criminal justice.

Today is March thirty-first, twenty twenty six.

The exact time is three oh two PM.

This hearing is being recorded.

It is also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city dash council dash TV and broadcasted on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and Files Channel 964.ps at Boston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all counselors.

Public testimony will be taken in at the end of this hearing.

Individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up, and we'll have two minutes to testify.

If you are interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the chamber.

If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison Ron Cobb at Ron dot cob at Boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on docket number zero four zero zero.

Order for a hearing regarding all city of Boston grants administered by the Boston Fire Department.

This matter was sponsored by uh myself and was referred to the committee on February twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-six.

Today I am joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, District Two City Councillor at Flynn and at large city councilor Aaron Murphy.

Um I will give um brief remarks and then I'll introduce our panel um with us here today.

So with that, Councillor Flynn, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you to the um members of the Boston Fire Department for being here.

Uh, want to say thank you to you, Chair, for bringing us together as we discuss critical grants that will impact and support the Boston Fire Department, whether it's whether it's upgrade of technology transportation, whether it's for personnel training, whether it's for hazmat material.

But um, I'm here to support these dockets, learn more about this information.

Also want to focus as we go into the budget season, how are we ensuring that the health and wellness of firefighters and their families is a top priority for all of us in this budget process.

So I will stop there and I'm looking forward to hearing from the firefighters that are present.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Flynn, Councilor Murphy.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the fire department for being here.

I have to admit, um, Chair, when you did this last year when we called them in once and we kind of talked through all of the grants and we passed them all.

I felt like it may um you know kind of stop our ability to kind of meet with them throughout the year, but I do just want to highlight that everyone in the fire department from the commissioner all the way down is always so responsive.

So even though today we're gonna get an overview of all the essential important grants that go through the fire department.

I know that this is not our only opportunity to connect, so I just want to say that because I know it's not um like other departments where each time a grant comes up, we kind of call you in.

So thank you for doing that.

Also just want to highlight how important it is that you know the city wouldn't run.

The departments would not run if the grant makers and those in the finance department aren't writing these grants, looking for these grants, and I know we'll hear more about them, but these grants are essential to the safety of our firefighters, to the safety of the public.

So just looking forward to supporting all of these but learning more.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor Murphy.

We've also been joined by Councillor Fitzgerald.

Um, Councillor Fitzgerald, if you want to um offer brief opening remarks, you have the floor.

Thank you all for being here.

Hope to get the money that you need to continue doing the great job you do.

Thank you, Chair.

There you go.

Quick and efficient.

Um keeps our residents and our infrastructure safe.

There are a team of dedicated professionals whose work goes beyond firefighting.

Our firefighters work tirelessly on fire prevention, carbon monoxide safety, excuse me, and emergency medical services.

The grants that will be discussed today help them fulfill our parts of their duties, and I look forward to hearing from our panelists from the fire department and um to all of our panelists and um the folks in the room.

Um I just really want to thank you for your service to the city of Boston and to our residents.

Um with that, I would like to now introduce um today's panelists.

Um, with us to here today, we have Paul Burke, who is the fire commissioner, chief of the department, um Rodney Marshall, Chief of Operations with Support Services, Patrick Ellis, Chief of Operations with the Field Services, Kevin Coyne, Deputy Commissioner, um administration and finance, and Julie Devin, um, financial grants manager with administration and finance grants unit.

Um we are also joined by the um by people below um but that are not part of the panel.

I just want to acknowledge um fire marshal um slash deputy chief, um Colin Kelly with the fire prevention division, deputy chief Jody Shea with the safety, health and wellness division, deputy chief Scott Malone with the training division, district chief John McDonald with the training division, district chief um Keith Kelly with the Special Operations Command, and Shauna Lynch, um the programmatic grants manager um with the administration and finance grants unit.

So um thank you all for being here, and I'll turn over the floor to you all for your opening remarks and statements.

Thank you, Chairman.

Today is very important for us because we all know um grants are harder to get now.

And uh the two I just want to talk about right away, real quickly, and then I'm gonna pass it to the rest of the subject matter experts here.

The assistance for firefighters grant is 1.2 million dollars, and that's the one that does the cancer screening and keeps us safe.

Without that, it's a lot of money to come up with to do that.

And we have uh I think the numbers, Chief Chair, you'll tell us how many people tested positive just for screening that this was paid for last year.

And then the training airmark for 1.7 million dollars.

Training is a constant with the fire department.

It makes us the best fire department in the country, and hopefully we can continue to keep this money coming in.

So I'd like to pass the floor over to Kevin Coin, the Chief of Finance.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner.

Uh thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Council Santiana, for hosting this again, and the counselors that are with us today.

I know last year this has Councillor Murphy said this was somewhat of a different unique process to you know, kind of put all of the grants before the council at one time.

And you know, I think there was some confusion throughout the year with this, but you know, it really wasn't efficient way to handle this.

So I'm hoping that we can get the same level of review today.

These grants, as the commissioner said, uh vitally important to the operations of the finance of the Boston Fire Department training, cancer screening, everything every grant we do, regardless of how small is super important to the ongoing efficiency and effectiveness of the department.

Um, I can't take credit for it.

Um, the most of the work in the grants committee goes to Julie Devon and Shauna Lynch who are here with me today, um, all of the other subject matter experts that are with me today, the other ones that are kind of on the ground managing these things day to day.

There's a tremendous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that we're compliant with federal and state agencies for reporting and building these things out appropriately.

We also have somebody that works in our grant writing as a consultant with us who's been working for the fire department for many years, who her skills are just impeccable in terms of securing these money from these grants.

So look forward to you know answering your questions today.

Certainly, if there's something that you know comes up and we're not able to address it, we'll be able to get the information for you and bring it back to the council.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

I'll pass it over to Jules Julie.

Okay, so Jay Ellie.

Can you help me with the slides?

I think we're there you go.

Yeah, please.

There we go.

Um, good afternoon, Chair Santiana.

Thank you for having us.

Um, I want to give you a high level presentation of the grants that the fire department currently has and historically applies for.

So, right now the department has 13 active awards, eight of which are federal, five of which are state funded, and they total more than four million dollars.

Up until March 21st, we were administering two assistant for firefighter grants funded by DHS and FEMA.

As the Commissioner stated, the goal of these funds is to enhance the safety of the public and firefighters with respect to fire and fire related hazards.

These funds have supported officer training and development, fire ground survival training, cancer screenings, a registered dietitian, an injury prevention specialist, and have supported our health and ladders program, which is a nutritional counseling comprehensive injury prevention program comprised of BFD members with training or certifications in areas such as fitness, nutrition, or sports medicine.

Under this award that just expired, those funds allowed us to screen 587 members by dermatologists, and that resulted in 94 members needing referrals for further treatment and three possible cases of melanoma.

In addition, we were able to conduct over 700 screenings.

We partnered with a cancer screening company who maintained HIPAA compliance data.

We did a nine organ scan.

The OBM also allowed us to reallocate 100,000 within our budget to support additional screenings.

And as a result, 1,059 total actionable findings were reported by the screening company.

Of those 637 were high risk, and 413 were cardiovascular findings.

Two of which required CPR.

As I said, these members that went through this screening are protected by HIPAA, but we have been given anecdotal information from some of the members by way of our sworn subject matter experts.

One member's wife thanked us for offering the testing because she attributed her husband's life being safe because this program found a high-risk issue that may not otherwise have been detected.

And it allowed for proactive treatment.

In addition to the robust cancer screenings conducted with these funds, the department was also able to engage with the IAFF to conduct fire ground survival training.

IAFF trained 34 of our training instructors, which allowed them to become certified to teach the life-saving techniques to all sworn members of the department.

And 1400, over 1,400 sworn members were trained in fire ground survival.

The benefit of having our instructors trained in this technique allow us to continue offering this skill to future members of the department and to risk refresh the skills of our current members by incorporating the fire ground survival in future training sessions.

I've been told firefighter training skills are considered perishable because they are often learned through practical experience and hands-on training.

Skills become less effective if not regularly practiced.

So the incorporation of fire ground survival funded under this grant within a live fire scenario with Mayday and self-extrication scenarios allows for our members to have continued on hand, hands-on practical application.

Our current AFG grant, which the Commissioner mentioned, expires in September of 2026.

It totals 1.2 million dollars, and it can it funds continued support of the department's in house wellness program, Health and Ladders.

That program aims to physically and mentally prepare our members through education and nutrition, fitness, and recovery.

And actually, by way of conducting the cancer screenings and finding high risk items, she has been able to change her course of action to sort of cater her nutritional plans to some of the high act high high risk items that we discovered through the screening.

This grant also funded participation in a two-day employee assistance program, peer support behavioral health training course, as well as an NFPA 1021 chief officer training.

A two-day high-rise training course for all deputies and district chiefs was conducted in November.

The grant funded the procurement of 30 vertical cardio trainers, which is a compact machine that allows for a low impact full-body workout that mimics climbing ladders.

Again, like I said, that grant ends in September of 2026.

We did apply for a fiscal year 24 grant under AFG, and we were not awarded those funds.

The application was a continuation of the services provided in our current AFG grant, and these valuable programs are likely to be discontinued as there are no funds allocated in fiscal year 27 to continue these impactful and powerful programs.

In addition, our FY24 application, which was not funded, requested federal funding with the intention to support crisis intervention and administrative support, maintaining a 24-7 pager callback capacity to include phone consults, on-scons, and assistance with intake for residential crisis interventions.

We have found some money to fund that, but future funding is unknown.

And he meant that literally.

We are drafting an amendment on our current AFG grant in order to fund the remaining six months of fiscal year 26 to continue this program forward.

But again, the funding stream for this contract is unknown for fiscal year 27.

The department is excuse me, currently administering one fire prevention and safety grant, which is also funded by DHS and FEMA.

The objective of that grant is to provide critically needed resources to support the reduction in residential fire risk, including access to smoke alarm installations and fire prevention education and training, providing support for the adoption and awareness of building codes, and assisting recipients to aggressively investigate every fire through increased equipment training and personnel resources.

With reductions and level funding in our operating budget, this award has been instrumental in paying for registration fees for a hot work training, continuing education courses for members of the fire investigation unit, and training courses for our fire inspectors and engineering unit members.

We also applied for a fiscal year 24 fire prevention and safety grant, and it was not awarded.

In addition to the AFG funds, the department has received over 200,000 in federal funds under the Port Security Grant program.

These grants support the department's focus on shipboard training to ensure that chief officers and company officers responding to fires on vessels are readily prepared.

A few weeks ago, 20 of the department's chief officers completed the command strategies and tactics for marine emergencies training.

It emphasized unified command, long duration incident management, and coordination among multiple agencies operating in the marine environment.

We were awarded additional funds under the fiscal year 25 award, which chair that is pending accept and expend by the council to do a second iteration of this training, which would focus on the essential skills needed by our company officers who would be responding or assigned to companies adjacent to the port.

These events are low frequency, but they're high risk.

So this training has been instrumental in offering training to our members relative to address incidences of this nature.

From the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission to purchase and install carbon monoxide detectors in the homes of vulnerable populations within the city.

The department's cadet program in partnership with the American Red Cross and Councillor Flynn's office, especially his staff member Melissa Lowe, resulted in a successful first campaign in the Chinatown South End area of the city in October of 2025.

The community members were extremely appreciative of the engagement in their neighborhood, and we successfully installed over 100 carbon monoxide smoke alarm combo detectors and over 50 units.

So feel free to let your constituents know that this is available.

It is citywide.

We will take referrals from other neighborhoods.

We're taking a campaign-based focus in neighborhoods, but anybody in need can request an install.

They're funded by the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, but they're passed through the Mass State Police, and they're to support the accreditation of the department's forensic lab.

Our lab consists of one employee, John Drugan, who's brought transformative change to the lab with over 36 years of experience.

This grant has allowed us to procure a highly qualified quality assurance manager to conduct a gap analysis of the lab's processes and procedures and assist the chemists with a quality manual and a quality control document for the lab.

As a result of these funds, the department was able to submit an application for accreditation with the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation, which was accepted and approved.

The next phase is the assessment by the accrediting body.

This will be a bit of a challenge because our lab is such that John assumes the role of director, quality manager, technical lead, and analyst.

But we continue to apply for funds annually in order to maintain our accreditation.

But that also comes with other quality assurance measures that need to be maintained and would require funding as we move forward.

We were also awarded the fiscal year 25 Pipeline Emergency Response Grant from the U.S.

Department of Transportation, totaling $99,000.

This program focuses on training emergency responders in high consequence areas to protect people, property, and the environment from accidents involving gas or hazardous liquid pipelines.

The Boston Fire Department has identified the NBridge, formally Spectra, high-pressure natural gas transmission line in the West Roxbury neighborhood as needing improved response capabilities.

So this grant will fund a command level pipeline safety and emergency response training to approximately 78 students, likely district and deputy chiefs.

And it would be run by an outside subject matter expert.

In addition, the grant will fund a crisis management tabletop exercise for a pipeline leak requiring evacuation, also facilitated by an outside subject matter expert with pipeline response expertise.

This will also be a collaborative effort, including police, mayor's office of emergency management, Boston Public Health Commission, EMS, and any agencies or entities that have a statutory responsibility for the pipeline will be invited.

That is our federal funding currently.

On to our state funding.

An annual state earmark has historically provided significant funding for the Boston Fire Department's training academy budget, subject to yearly legislative review and approval.

In fiscal year 26, the department received a contract for 1.7 million dollars.

These funds are critical to support the fire training academy and the robust training that occurs department wide.

An annual state yearmark has historically provided significant funding for the fire department's Hazmat response team, also subject to yearly legislative review and approval.

In fiscal year 26, the department was awarded a contract of 1.4 million dollars.

In FY26, this earmark was transitioned from the Department of Fire Services to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

We also received a new state earmark, the Delta Unit Earmark, totaling 100,000, and that was awarded to fund dedicated emergency services through three Delta unit vehicles assigned to Castle Island, Pleasure Bay, and Carson Beach in the South Boston section of the city seasonally from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The department also historically received sub-recipient funding from the Boston Police Department under their PSAP Support and Incentive Grant and State 911 training grant funded by EOPS to support training and costs relative to our fire alarm dispatchers and the required continuing education to remain certified.

The department applied for the fiscal year 26 Firefighter Safety Equipment Grant, and we actually received the award just this morning.

This grant will require accept and expend from the council as the end date is June 30th, 2026.

To give you some information about this grant, we were awarded 49,476 to procure 24 reach poll systems and elevator rescue kits for all of our latter companies to make extrication incidents safer for members and civilians being removed from elevators while causing less damage to the elevator and its equipment.

In addition, the department requested and received the replacement of 36 carbon monoxide detectors which are attached to each company's respirator medical equipment bag.

We have 57 companies within the department.

This will replace 36 of them that have been taken out of working order or need to be replaced.

And these detectors are able to alert our members to a dangerous condition which may have gone undetected otherwise.

With support and encouragement for the from the Environment, Energy and Open Space Cabinet.

A grant application was submit submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources for the Advancing Massachusetts Powers Safety and Education Track.

These funds, if awarded, will equip the department with knowledge tools and best practices around the reasonable risks and emergency response protocols for energy storage systems.

We requested the grant to fund an eight-hour in-person training delivered by subject matter expert in emergency response, which reflects best practices and fire service education.

In addition, we worked with the public facilities department to assist in applying for a grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

In addition, under the leadership of the Office of Budget Management and Office of Emergency Management, the department has also submitted two funding requests to increase public safety resources for the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

OEM and OBM gathered data from various city departments to apply for the FIFA World Cup grant program administered by DHS and FEMA, which would then be passed through to SAAs, state administrative agencies to the host cities where the games are occurring.

So the request was submitted by Office of Emergency Management to the state.

OEM has yet to provide us with our portion.

It was a city collaborative, but it is something that we have included in part of our request of funding.

We also submitted a grant request to the Mass Office of Travel and Tourism for the Sports and Entertainment Event Fund grants for the FIFA World Cup related round of funding, which again was also submitted by the Office of Emergency Management in collaboration with the Office of Budget Management in order to fund public safety for anticipated watch parties throughout our city's neighborhoods.

So I know you recently met about FIFA, and there was a lot of discussion about funding.

Provided what we think we would need for public safety for those events in order to make sure that we are prepared.

A contracted accreditation and quality assurance manager, and contracted laboratory equipment validation services for the forensic lab.

We have not heard as to whether or not we have or will receive that funding.

Some other grants of note that we have applied for in the past and tend to apply for in the future or request to apply for through the KK01 process is the first responder comprehensive addiction and recovery act grant.

And that is funded our knock and talk program.

If an individual experiences an overdose, often our EAP program gets information about those calls and does it follow up with the family members or at the location to provide services or assistance of any kind.

And again, like I said, we applied for the fiscal year 24 AFG grant and fire prevention safety grant.

Um and we were not awarded those funds.

And due to the partial shutdown that's happening now within DHS and FEMA, the solicit solicitations for fiscal year 25 for those awards have not yet been released.

They're usually released around this time, and we do intend to request permission to submit an application, and we are constantly monitoring you know the federal websites and intend to apply for the grants when the solicitations are released if they're released.

Um we thank you for your time.

That's a lot, I'm sure.

Um like I said, with the exception of our port security grant and our newly awarded Department of Fire Services Equipment Grant, all of our active grants have been approved by city council.

So we do appreciate the expediency that this annual hearing allows for the acceptance expend process from city council with our grant funds, and we thank you for your competent continued support.

Awesome.

Thank you, Julie.

I know that was a lot.

So thank you so much for walking us through those grants.

Before you look to counselor questions, can you just name the two grants you that you said that are currently on the on the in the committee of part of the sure?

Um the fiscal year 25 port security grant is um it's gone through the KK1 and KKO2 process.

Um so you should have that sort of in your I think we sent over one pager via she just got the okay today.

But we were waiting for this this one to sort of talk about that grant and the FY26 um DFS equipment grant.

We just received the contract today.

I had the commissioner sign it, sent it back to the state.

Um, so that has not gone into the KKO2 process, so you may not see that you know in your queue just yet, but that's one that is expiring June 30th.

We have a very short timeline for the procurement of the items.

Uh they are specialty items.

I've done my best to get procurement procurement rolling now.

Um, but anything you can do to expedite that one would be excellent.

Great.

I think the poor security one we could make sure that we bring it up tomorrow, and then whatever the other one is, we can bring it up at our next council meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, with that, I just want to make sure.

Oh, Commissioner.

No, I was just gonna ask if you wanted the deputy chiefs in charge of the divisions to speak briefly about the grants or how would you like the permission?

Let's do it all right now and then we'll go to Consider's questions.

All right, um, first one I'd have would be Deputy Chief Malone and District Chief McDonald from training.

Okay.

There's a microphone right here, I think, right?

There's a microphone right there.

Oh I'm sorry.

Hi.

Can you hear me?

Yep.

Okay, thanks for having me.

So this year we got an increase in the uh Airmark from uh 500,000 to 1.7 million, and this has given us the ability to increase our training as one would expect.

Uh and it the way the grant is written is to train Boston firefighters as well as surrounding communities.

So initially, what we do is uh at the beginning of the year, we do what they called uh we do ladder ops uh and we do elevator training, and then that leads us into fast water, and then we take those dance steps and we put them together, we do what they call back to basics, which is live fire training.

So then what we do is we advance that to the surrounding communities that gives them ability to come down and work on their skills as well.

And did they they have mutual aid companies are part of the UASC community?

So these are companies when uh cities that we naturally work with, and uh we get to uh work with them and see where their skills are, and we get they get to see what we can do.

We've also expanded into like Logan Airport.

We haven't done in a while, and we're also we have expanded into uh training with the MBTA.

We have a partnership with them now on the red line.

Uh we're getting a green line train coming soon, and we've also uh uh we're doing a seller training as well.

So the grant has really expanded what we hadn't done in the past, and right now we are reaching out to we're working with the owners of the Connie Hospital, and we're doing some large area search training over there.

That building is the ability.

The building is posted right now because it's unfit, it doesn't have any safety.

Uh, but we are doing some training over there just in case God forbid something happens over there that we are on site joint training for uh what we hope doesn't happen.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We can have uh fire marshal Colin Kelly come up next.

Hi, thanks everyone.

Uh Cole Kelly, I'm the fire marshal here in the city.

Um so Julie did such a terrific job explaining uh the grant program.

It's uh kind of a tough act to follow, but I'm gonna um just stress a couple of uh the points that she made.

So um we have our Heartworks program that we're implementing um with the assistance of our training division, and uh the goal is to have 70 percent of our sworn members certified in Heartworks, which is basically safety during cutting, welding, and you know other construction.

Uh we want to capture 70 percent of the membership by August, and the the goal is to get all 1,544 of us certified.

Uh I believe in September we're not gonna allow people to work paid fire details unless they've taken the 51B course, you know, which makes sense.

Um so our uh certified fire protection specialist.

That program we're um we're using to uh get our engineers or our plans examiners um more experience and education when it comes to fire protection systems, sprinklers, fire alarms, that sort of thing is just gonna make them more effective in their work.

Um we have the uh pump controls and operations class where we sent 10 members through in April 2025, and we are hoping to send another 10 through this year.

Um basically what that does, it just it helps the inspectors better understand the fire pump, how it works, you know, they take it apart, put it back together, it just it makes them better at their job and able to identify issues when they're doing acceptance testing.

Um and lastly, our certified fire inspection training is just for our sworn folks.

It it's it's just gonna help them uh you know be better, uh more efficient and safer, you know, in their duties and their inspections, especially with the acceptance testing.

So um I think that's about it.

That was the four programs for fire prevention.

Thank you.

Thank you, fire marshal.

Um we can have Deputy Chief Joseph Shea come up for safety, health, and wellness.

Thanks for having me here, counselors.

I just would like to add on to um a few of the talking points that uh Julie mentioned.

I want to um mention that as of January 2025, we've had 10 members diagnosed with cancer, with two active, two active member deaths.

The other thing uh I I'm kind of going back and forth is as to whether I should mention this now.

But my division is pretty much run with uh grant money, and and it's my strong belief that it shouldn't be that way.

Uh member our members are our strongest asset.

Uh and I'm here to ask you for for support when it comes to the budget that money is allocated to continue these programs that we're we're we're really finding uh helping our membership and saving lives of the 10 cancer of the 10 cancer diagnoses, 34 uh five half of them, five of them were in their 30s in their mid-30s.

So there's it we're finding cancer younger, it's not it's not just guys in the 50s and 60s towards the end of their career.

These are uh young guys that have long careers ahead of them that if they go off, we're gonna we have to replace that the the money is is astronomical that would be paying out if we make the small investment now, we might be able to save save some lives and jobs.

So I I would second the deputy's request that this his division is funded through our operating budget for that reason.

They look out for the safety of the firefighters.

So it was suggested to us through physicians when we do our cancer screenings that they do not every year, it's like every three years.

So if we could do a third of the department every three years, we could we could keep up and start a great baseline for these people and stay ahead of it.

So just something to think about.

Thank you for having me here.

Thank you.

I'd like to just add um to what uh Chief Shay just said.

Um in addition to the uh members that we were able to screen for cancer screening, originally we were only able to do a certain age group, and now we're able to do a majority of the members on the department, all ages.

So, like you said, we were actually actually able to capture members in their 30s that were diagnosed with possible cancer uh diagnosis.

So it's essential that we have this funding for uh continue continued um support for the uh cancer screening programs.

Thank you.

Uh District Chief Kelly is next.

He's from the uh special operations command center.

Afternoon, thank you for having me.

Uh Keith Kelly, district chief with the Hazmat unit in special operations.

Uh I worked with Julie talking about all the grants that she's already mentioned.

I'm just gonna touch on lightly on a few of them.

Uh the pipeline emergency uh response grant.

I have been in contact with NBridge and their emergency management specialist.

Um we are gonna work together to do another walkthrough and understanding of the safety standards and uh what they use over in West Shroxbury.

Though if you don't know, it's there's 4.1 miles of a 16-inch natural gas pipeline that operates at 750 PSI.

That was put in place in 2018.

Since that's been put in place, we have not gone back and done any more training on it.

So that's the point of this grant.

The turnover rate since 2018 is kind of eye-opening.

So all of the people that we have out there in District 10 and district 12, very small percentage were there in 2018.

So that's the point of that one.

Our state emergency um excuse me, our state hazmat grant is really what gets the Boston Fire Hazmat unit to be able to be operational.

Our operational budget is a fraction of what we get from the state, and I can tell you that the equipment and the metering detection uh the meters that we use with with all the hazmat stuff is extremely expensive, and having the state grant is really what allows us to do what we do.

And in the works, uh I just finished the application with Julie and Shauna and Kevin last week.

We submitted the uh advancing Massachusetts power grant to try to get chief level and command level staff training on stored energy response.

Um, I'm sure many of you know energy storage systems are coming.

Um I've been working with ISD to identify them, and I'm gonna work with a couple third-party vendors that I've identified to come out here and work with us to have a proactive response rather than a reactive response to any sort of emergencies that may come up with stored energy.

Yes, thank you.

Anybody else?

That's it for uh experts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We heard from you on that he came um to me and said, I want to hear directly from the people on the ground.

So I really appreciate um you all doing that today and appreciate your leadership.

Um, Councillor Flynn.

Counselor Flynn, you have the floor.

Uh you know, just a few of us I'll just do six minutes and we'll do as many rounds as as needed.

And thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, thank you, Commissioner, and your team for being here for the important work you're doing.

Thank you for briefing us.

Uh Julie, the the briefing you provide was excellent, informative.

I know you're doing an outstanding job there, and um just want to say thank you for for your professionalism and dedication to um to the job.

Um was there anything mentioned?

Um, I listen closely, but in health and wellness is something I'm gonna continue to advocate for in the budget, and I think it's a top priority for me because it's a top priority for our firefighters and their families.

But was there any mention on heart disease about health and wellness and uh how we're working uh on heart disease, heart disease related issues.

Was there anything that you mentioned?

Um, I don't know if Chief Shay would like to chime in.

I mean, we are the clinical director is a nutritionist.

Um the grant requires that it be somebody with you know medical license, um, and based on some of the findings in the cancer screening, there were cardiac findings.

So she has tailored her plans for members who are interested to sort of work with individuals that may have cardiac risk factors, but Chief.

Yeah, so uh to just to piggyback off of Julie.

So what would some of the major findings some of the major findings we found with fatty livers and high cholesterol, things of that nature?

So we were inundated with with requests to the nutritionist to, you know, and then we had her uh process some programs that um we could put out to the membership to lower the cholesterol, fatty liver, things of that nature.

Um the grand scheme of things can pandemic cancer, they're not the guys tend to think of it not that big of a deal, but what it is is a precursor to a much major, uh much more larger problem.

So, yes, we have been dealing with uh we have been focusing on that.

Yeah, thank thank you for for that information, thank you for that important work.

Not only the the cancer, um the cancer treatment and prevention, but also heart disease um supporting supporting firefighters, both men and women.

I wanna I want to say thank you to everybody here that's been involved in this, certainly the the fire commissioner, but also the men and women that are that are here as well.

I also want to say thank you to the um to the union that has been very supportive of health and wellness for firefighters, not only at the national level with um with Eddie Kelly at IAFF, but here PFFM at the state level and Sam Dylan at the local level, it's the local 718.

I also bring up heart disease and how it impacts firefighters.

I'm gonna continue to advocate for uh cancer prevention for health and wellness for our firefighters and their families.

I always include the word families, that's that's how I that's how I grew up as a as a veteran.

Um it's about ser supporting veterans and their families, and I I consider the same with firefighters, supporting firefighters and their families.

But I also bring up heart disease because many of you knew my uncle Dennis, who died as a fairly fairly young man, and I want to try to do whatever I can to support other firefighters that get the critical support in um prevention and health that they need, whether it's cancer prevention or or it's um or it's other related is issues such as heart disease.

Um my final my final point would be Commissioner, I just want to say thank you to you.

You you worked with me for a number of years and in working to get a fire presence down at the South Boston waterfront.

Want to say thank you to you and your team for always being there and advocating and um I know it's been a priority of mine, it's a priority of yours, but I also want to acknowledge my my neighbor in South Boston, Michael Flaherty, who um who worked with me on the city council on this.

I want to say thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Kevin Coyne is instrumental too with uh securing the Delta car funding.

Hopefully, we can keep it up every summer.

No, thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner, and thank you.

Um thank you, Kevin, and just want to say again, say thank you to Julie, and I was with Kevin and you, Commissioner.

We we did that um carbon monoxide program in the South End.

We were able to support many um Chinese residents, and uh just want to say thank you for that wonderful.

This probably one of the best days I had on the city councils of early Saturday, Saturday morning on the firefighters uh cadets too, I guess, uh went around and installed carbon monoxide with other community partners.

So not only are firefighters putting out firefighters, putting out fires, but they're really um in the role and job too of prevention in education and want to say thank you for your commitment to the residents of Boston.

Mr.

Chair, I have no further questions or comments, and Mr.

Chair, I do apologize.

Um I'm going to be leaving I'm gonna be leaving soon.

Thank you, Councillor Flynn.

Um Councillor Murphy, you have the floor.

Thank you, and thank you for going over all these important grants.

I think my neighborhood's next, they're coming to my neighborhood.

I was asked if I'd open up my house.

I said just give me at least 10 minutes to clean it up before you all walk in, but we're gonna try to get um my side um of Rochester there getting these testing in, it's so important.

So thank you for that.

I want to touch on FIFA.

I know there's been many hearings, Commissioner, where we've talked about people across the state, right?

They lean on us as a department for not just training, but we have equipment and others that they'll need.

Do you see that when FIFA and the tall ships and all of these people are coming into our city in the next few months into our state that they're going to be leaning on us more, not just here in Boston?

I do see that.

I think the mutual aid system will be ready and we'll we'll go wherever we have to.

Anything could happen in Everett, and uh we've sent people over there for entrapments in the that factory on the water.

So there's gonna be a construction going on.

I don't know when it starts on the soccer stadium.

So that's always hazardous.

They had that accident on the harbor over there not too long ago where we went over for that.

So yeah, I I think the staffing levels will be increased just to make sure we have enough staff because we are the biggest fire department in the state, so we'll be ready.

No, and I know you are always ready.

We just need to make sure here on the council when it comes to budget times that we're not pushing back if it's overtime or other pay that we'll need.

So thank you for reassuring us about that.

Can I also touch and it might have been a grant or not?

But um the electric cars, I know that's always gonna been a concern and where we store them and to see if you've got to.

Yeah, I was gonna have uh Chief Kelly talk about that because I know he's an expert, and and he gets on a soapbox, but it's really cool when you're yeah, and that's why I want to hear it because we need to keep it alive.

The right uh the other Kelly, I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's he knows this, and and as we know, we're we're switching from fossil fuels and buildings to electric, and he has a lot of research on it, and he's very passionate about making sure they're safe, those systems.

Okay, thank you.

Just to touch on it uh briefly.

Um where I have been doing a lot of research on it, it probably actually does fall under the fire marshal and fire prevention division and the work that he's been doing with his fire protection engineer and the current it's just the fire marshal.

Um working with all the developers, designers, and architects who are pulling permits in the city.

Right now, the fire code is not catching up with technology, right?

And so all the EV parking and all the stored energy stuff that we're pulling the grant for for next year, hopefully.

Um working with the developers ahead of time, having the Boston Fire Department become a stakeholder in a building rather than a final approval coming across his desk.

We're working, we're trying to work with them from the start.

And say when it comes to electric vehicles, where do you plan on having them?

Meet with us first.

Let's come up with a plan together.

This is what we would like you to see you guys do.

Can we make this happen?

How can we do that?

And Cole, I mean, it seems to be very well received to the point we've been doing it for so long now that they don't even have to ask us anymore as far as the new construction goes.

Um, what a lot of the larger construction programs are the companies that are doing the larger renovations, so they know exactly what we're looking for before we even have to ask them.

So we're trying to be proactive and not reactive.

I think it's working.

I have it has been.

So uh it is something we are aware of, and we are trying diligently to stay ahead of within the fire department.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

It was mentioned, and I do want to also thank Sam, Rich, and Eddie at the union level, because I know it's not just pay and benefit, you know, that they advocate for, it's also the safety of the members, and I've learned a lot from you know, just listening and watching them also along with all of you.

But we talked about the need for cancer screenings and heart disease, but if someone could remind me, because I think it's like a really scary number, the life expectancy of firefighters after they retire is like five years.

Five years, yeah.

So you dedicate your life and your family does to you know the safety of the city and then your life expectancies.

Yeah, five years.

So I think we need to continue to be reminded of that.

And are there grants?

Any of the grants you mentioned that we didn't get are related to any like health screening or health supports.

So the AFG grant, um, like Chief Shay said, the majority of the budget that funds safety, health, and wellness is usually grant funding.

Um I think a request for some of the important items for the programming that he has was submitted within our fiscal year 27 operating budget.

Um, but I'm not sure what has been funded or not funded.

Um the office of like emergency management, it's almost I think 100% funded through grants, so it's scary to think that the grants get cut, which we know in this time they easily could be that's such an important asset to our members and to our residents.

So if there's anything we can do on the side of you know putting it over into the operational budget, please let us know.

Thank you.

That's all my questions.

Obviously, here to support them all.

Thank you, Commissioner.

I know I said it the other night at maybe our last gala in Chinatown, but probably maybe our last hearing.

Thank you for your service and enjoy your retirement.

And I don't know, I don't mean to sound more, but I really hope you get way more than five years.

I'm like worried now that I mentioned I might see you one more time and yeah, I'm hoping yeah.

And please stay around longer than five years after you redo.

Thank you very much, Council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Murphy.

Counselor Fitzgerald, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, thank you all for being here today.

Really appreciate it.

Julie, I was wondering, could you please go through each grant and describe what they do and uh where they might go to?

Sure.

Julie, I'm just working on my April Fools.

That was a fantastic job earlier.

I it really took most of the questions I had out of commission.

Uh I am just happy to be supporting the health training and wellness for all of our employees across the city.

Um I actually did have one question, but Aaron kind of alluded to it uh around uh the best the battery energy storage systems.

I know more of those are going to be coming as development occurs and larger development occurs, people are gonna start saying, hey, this might be a good spot to throw one of these batteries, and I know they're gonna be near residence, and residents are gonna say, what is that and how does it affect my health, right?

If I'm raising my family next to it.

Um, and so I know putting them out and the issues that may come with that will be a lot with you guys, so I'm glad to see that there's training around that um and as well as for not just for the health of our constituents, but the health of you all as well.

So uh support this going forward, uh no further questions, and uh just again thank you all and commission uh obviously again once again happy retirement, my friend.

Thank you, counselor.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councillor Fitzgerald.

Um I do have one follow-up.

Uh Deputy Chief Shea, I think in his division, you mentioned that your division is mostly funded through um through grants, right?

Federal grants.

How how how much is the how much is your division?

What's your uh what's your budget for the entire division?

Just because I know I want to know what we're talking about here in general.

Um so when we apply for the grants, the AFG grants are generally done it in groupings.

Um so oftentimes it it would it can range between 1.2 and 1.4 million over the course of two years, um, but it's split among training officer training as well as safety health and wellness.

Um so I would say they're probably averaging about 500,000 of fiscal year that funds a good portion.

AFG also requires a city share of 10 percent.

So we're often taking money from their minimal budget that they have in order.

The grant requires that the city pay a certain amount.

It ends up being like 9.91% the way they do the equation, but we're also tapping into their money to get that 10% for the grant.

Um, so it is a significant amount of money, and we understand grants are not always going to be released.

We can't rely on them.

Um but it's a shame because his division has really seen some growth based on these grants, and we don't want to lose that momentum.

Do you have anything to add or okay?

Great.

I don't know.

That's really powerful to you as long as as we're in budget season and deliberating with our with my council colleagues.

Um do any of you have Councilor Murphy, do you have any other questions?

No, all right.

Well, uh, I don't want to keep you here longer than you um you have to, so um, I really do appreciate um all of you being here being president Julie.

Um thank you for for um for describing all the grants um in detail.

Um my role now is as the year continues, I will uh make sure that I'm pulling um these grants out for a council vote on the city on the city council.

Um, and if there's any I think you mentioned there's a couple yeah, just two.

Those two, and I think there's a couple that you're waiting on, maybe that we didn't cover today, or that you're applying for.

Yes, there are a few that we have applied for and haven't received a response.

Okay, yeah.

We'll keep an eye out for that for those as well.

So um I've been informed that we don't have anyone um signed up for public testimony.

Um so um yeah really appreciate you all again Commissioner thank you thank you um happy retirement um and this hearing on docket number zero four zero zero is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you Chairman