DATE: February 24, 2026
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Fire Chief
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Accept and Appropriate $215,040 in State of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Grant Funding through the 2025 Wildfire Ready East Bay Grant Program to Support Chipping and Residential Assistance Programs Provided by the Hayward Fire Department
RECOMMENDATION
That Council adopts a Resolution (Attachment II) authorizing the City Manager to accept and appropriate to fund 220 $215,040 in State of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal FIRE) grant funding through the 2025 “Wildfire Ready East Bay” grant program to support chipping and Residential Assistance Program (RAP) programs provided by the Hayward Fire Department.
SUMMARY
The Hayward Fire Department (HFD) has been awarded the 2025 “Wildfire Ready East Bay” Grant through Cal FIRE’s dedicated grant funding that supports wildfire preparedness efforts.
HFD sought this grant to subsidize the strain on the City’s current financial status, while continuing to provide resources and emergency preparedness efforts for the community. The grant award will fully fund an expanded chipping and vegetation removal assistance initiative throughout Hayward and Fairview, as well as an education campaign and ongoing support efforts.
FISCAL IMPACT
This grant funds costs associated with completing residential chipping and vegetation removal services throughout nine identified high fire danger areas within Hayward and Fairview. This includes:
$112,000 No Cost Chipping Program
$60,000 Residential Assistance Program
$7,000 Community Outreach Toolkits
$3,750 Printed Educational Brochures
$3,000 Resilience Outreach Supplies
$3,250 Public Education Event Materials
$3,000 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training Supplies $23,040 Other, administrative costs
The grant has no cost matching obligations and is fully reimbursable through Cal FIRE.
BACKGROUND & DISCUSSION
Hayward Fire Department developed a vegetation management program in 2012 to assist residents of both Hayward and Fairview with creating defensible space in high-fire hazard areas. This program is powered by grant funding; the department was awarded the FEMA Hazardous Mitigation Grant to use in the 2022 fire season. The RAP was developed to assist residents unable to cut and stack the limbs due to limited physical abilities and/or economic barriers. The program has since evolved to include creating defensible space around their homes.
This has been a grant-funded initiative since the inception of the program, but funding has been varied and has become more difficult to attain. The current grant program offering from Cal FIRE allows for an expansion of the areas that have previously been included in the program, and for HFD to reach a larger area that is identified as “high hazard” in terms of fire severity risk. With this grant funding, the reach of the program will be expanded to include nine identified neighborhoods. Through the program, HFD will not only offer to remove the physical fuel load but will also encourage fire-safe education, CERT enrollment, and participation in the Firewise Communities network.
The performance period for this grant opportunity spans calendar year 2026, and will include two rounds of chipping/assistance, engage at least 300 parcels through targeted outreach, and inspections to confirm participation and compliance. At the conclusion of the grant period, HFD will identify neighborhoods with strong community leadership to participate in the Firewise Community program to continue to expand education and fire safe practices for the area. A Firewise Community is part of the Firewise USA program, which is a national initiative aimed at helping communities mitigate wildfire risk. This program encourages residents to collaborate on local plans to protect their homes from wildfires through education and specific actions. Communities involved in the Firewise program work together to enhance their resilience against wildfires by implementing strategies that reduce hazards and improve preparedness.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This initiative supports the Strategic Roadmap priority of Enhance Community Safety. In particular, it supports the metric “Strengthen Emergency Preparedness.”
NEXT STEPS
If Council adopts the resolution, the City Manager will accept and appropriate the funds and HFD will use the grant funding to proceed with community outreach, education, and enrollment in the chipping and residential assistance programs.
Prepared by: Lauren Dekas, Management Analyst
Recommended by: Ryan Hamre, Fire Chief
Approved by:
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Jennifer Ott, City Manager