CFAA Agreement

California & Hawaii Hotlist Questions and Discussion
#225

California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services

Fire and Rescue Division

TRANSMITTAL

To: REGIONAL FIRE AND RESCUE MUTUAL AID COORDINATORS

Daryl Osby Region I Coordinator

David Rocha Region II Coordinator

Mike Bradley Region III Coordinator

Eric Walder Region IV Coordinator

Mark A. Johnson Region V Coordinator

Dan Johnson Region VI Coordinator

Thomas Porter CAL FIRE

FROM BRIAN S. MARSHALL

State Fire and Rescue Chief

DATE: May 1, 2020

SUBJECT: 2020-2024 AGREEMENT FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT FIRE AND EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA AND FEDERAL FIRE AGENCIES

NOTE: TRANSMITTAL

PLEASE DELIVER TO REGIONAL FIRE AND RESCUE COORDINATOR I, II, III, IV, V, and IV

Please forward and distribute to the CAL OES Fire and Rescue Regional Coordinator and CAL OES Fire and Rescue Operational Area Coordinators within your region.

Please insure that the CAL OES Fire and Rescue Operational Area Coordinators forward and distribute to local Fire Agencies within their Operational Areas

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I’m pleased to deliver to the California Fire Service the 2020-2024 Agreement for Local Government Fire and Emergency Assistance to the State of California and Federal Fire Agencies and commonly referred to as the California Fire Assistance Agreement or CFAA. Included in this email are the necessary documents for your fire department to successfully implement this new agreement. Documents attached include:

  • California Fire Assistance Agreement
  • CFAA Changes
  • CFAA Rate Letter

Additional documents available on-line and within both attached letters as links include:

  • 2020 Attachment A – Non-Suppression Personnel
  • 2020 Attachment B – Supplemental Personnel
  • Instructions for Completing the 2020 Cal OES Salary Survey
  • Instructions for Completing the Administrative Rate Calculations
  • Indirect Cost Rate Plan Program/Function Definitions

The new Agreement and all supporting documents are posted on the Cal OES website at: https://www.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/fire-rescue/administration-reimbursement

I encourage you to thoroughly review the CFAA and all attached documents. There have been several changes incorporated into the new agreement.

The CFAA Committee will now focus on providing training to the California Fire Service. In light of COVID-19, training may have to be completed virtually. Staff will be working on the development of this training package with more information to follow.

For questions, please contact Cal OES Fire and Rescue Reimbursement Division at: cfaareimbursement@caloes.ca.gov or (916) 845-8711.

Thank you,

Brian

6 Likes
#226

Can anyone put the changes into layman’s terms for me? I don’t see many changes except that you can’t be with a department solely to be on an IMT.

2 Likes
#227

Eng. Rates went up!

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#228

Yikes looks like feds are gonna have a tough time filling IMT’s.

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#229

No doubt Eng1ne. No doubt.

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#230

So if I’m reading this correctly, If you have tribal or DOD fire departments that usually supply personnel and equipment on local government strike teams, they won’t be able to go now and get paid?

1 Like
#231

The way I read it, if they go to anything other than a Fed responsibility fire, they can respond under this agreement and get paid under this agreement.

Tribal fire dept that have a preexisting agreement w/BIA will be dispatched via Federal dispatch and not CFAA (i.e they can go but they can not belong to a LG S/T if they have the preexisting agreement or be ordered via CFAA).

Reimbursements on a fed fire to Fed, DOD or Tribal if available are covered under other agreements and the CFAA will not be involved in that process. (i.e. They might be paid, but under other agreements, not CFAA).

So I would guess, tribal and DOD will not be part of LG S/T because of the risk of being redispatched to a fed fire and the issues that involve.

Caveat…just me reading the plain text of the agreement, I have no policy roles…

#232

The way Exhibits A-10 and A-41 read, local jurisdictions can backfill personnel, and there is no specificity as where or what limitations those backfills are taken from. A-41 is there as DOD, tribal etc. are Federally dispatch, tribal specifically through BIA and as such are reimbursed through Federal transfers not through the CFAA Agreement. If there is a circumstance whereby Federal personnel are backfilled into LG depts., they would be paid as part of the LG resources under the normal ordering fills as part of the Agreement.

I would suggest that you should probably run the question up through your chain of command for clarification at least to the Region OES office to get a formalized clarification so that there is no question as to whether a specific circumstance like you pose gets paid and under what payment vehicle. There are going to be subtle nuances with this new Agreement which are going to require that questions be formally asked and formalized answers. The absolute last thing anyone should do is take anything for granted or assumed.

4 Likes
#233

Please be specific on why you say this. I’m new to the agreement so nothing is obvious to me. Thanks.

#234

Fed IMTs have a large number of retired Fed Employees that are employed by Local Gov agencies. With the new CFAA changes that tie IMT rosters to approved employment practices they have basically severed the ability for those retirees to go on incidents which means less IMT pools to have on rotation and activate.

2 Likes
#235

It appears the few specific fire departments that are the suppliers of large amounts of overhead for IMTs are reconsidering involvement.

If this occurs, the FS got what they asked for, which was take out its primary target. Now they may need to spend some time shuffling teams around. Or just cutting teams.

Curious to see how these 3-4 fire departments respond to the new CFAA. Any word?

2 Likes
#236

With the push to only have type 1 teams I’m not sure how they would have enough bodies to shuffle any teams around. I’m sure the few departments who were targeted are looking at how to move forward. I don’t see how cutting teams is an option when a majority of these teams are deployed on a pretty regular basis.

2 Likes
#237

Going to need more full time LG to sign up. May need to start ordering more teams from out of Cali.

#238

In the past working for a IMT, over 50% of the team were from local governments. As a AD-ATGS the last 10 years, our RT-378 classes every 3 years are 75% retired folks. Agency shortfalls appear everywhere?

3 Likes
#239

75%? Rough

1 Like
#240

Like I said before, I’m new to the CFAA so excuse my ignorance. Am I on track with this interpretation of the agreement?

  1. For 2020, LGs can have supplemental employees but not for 2021 and beyond.
  2. Supplemental employees (2020) will get the rate stated in the agreement unless other rates are on file with???
1 Like
#241

You are correct. Supplemental rates apply for 2020 based on position they perform. All supplemental go away under LG effective January 1,2021. Those who choose to still participate on teams will have to sign up as AD with a federal agency that will do it.

2 Likes
#242

How does this effect LG supplemental employees on CALFIRE/state incidents as single resources, not team members?

#243

I’ve heard one of the departments departments is no longer sending overhead to federal incidents. However will send them to state incidents.

#244

If resources are ordered under the CFAA Agreement, the rules of the Agreement apply to all resources not just to Team positions. Keep in mind, that CalFire incidents, would have a CalFire IMT assigned staffed with personnel predominately from CalFire although not entirely. There are some LG personnel in place on those Teams however, they are from larger agencies such as Ventura County.

In many instances however, a CalFire incident would not need to draw from the CFAA Contract as there are other California resource specific agreements already in place and are not tied to the CFAA Agreement. The CFAA Agreement is the primary vehicle to obtain resources from California LG agencies on Federal incidents.