Dear Chief Averiett,
The Sheriff’s Office intends to apply for the FY2024 Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Local program on behalf of the eligible Alameda County cities and the county in order to recover this revenue for our respective agencies for the twentieth (20th) consecutive year. The United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) consolidated the Byrne Memorial Grants and Local Law Enforcement Block Grants (LLEBG) in 2004 to create the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program.
The federal JAG program is divided into two allocations, a state allocation and a local allocation. The state may distribute its allocation as they see fit, but the local allocation is distributed to eligible units of local government in predetermined, suggested amounts. Our county qualifies for a total allocation of $622,193.00 in FY2024 Byrne JAG Local funds, which may only be used by agencies to fund any one or more of the following areas: local initiatives, technical assistance, training, personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, and information systems for criminal justice, as well as research and evaluation activities that will improve or enhance law enforcement programs related to criminal justice.
Favorable features of our JAG Local awards include: a four-year funding span for awards over $25,000; no agency matching funds required; and a maximum 10% administrative fee using the reimbursement fiscal accounting method. However, the USDOJ timeline to apply for our FY2024 JAG Local grant is extremely tight and the fact that our grants unit is operating at a 50% capacity due to retirements and attrition makes this more stressful. Our application must be submitted to the USDOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) by October 22, so I will need your information and signed documents by Friday October 18th, if we fail to submit a completed application by the deadline, funding will not be awarded.
BJA has developed joint application groups with regard to their application process that consolidate certain cities and counties. Alameda County’s geographical boundary is the criteria for our particular Byrne JAG Local joint application group, pairing the eligible cities of Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Oakland, San Leandro, and Union City with the County of Alameda. BJA has determined the other six cities in our county (Albany, Dublin, Emeryville, Newark, Piedmont, and Pleasanton) are ineligible for the FY2025 JAG Local Grant because they did not fall within the federal government’s predetermined population and crime rate criteria. BJA has mandated only one application can be submitted from our group and the application must represent all eligible members. For this reason, we must once again apply for this year’s JAG Local Grant as a consortium We have developed a proposal to move forward with a grant application that allows all eligible members to receive their allocated share of the award with the disparate jurisdictions of Alameda County and Oakland with a realigned percentage. An attached, estimated equity sharing proposal has been outlined, whereby listed members will receive their federally-predetermined allotment of available funds, less a 10% fee to fund the Sheriff’s Office efforts associated with grant administration, application filing, and financial and auditing services. I am requesting your support for this proposal so that as many of our agencies as possible can continue to benefit from the Byrne JAG Local funding.
Our proposal includes the development of a necessary addendum to our annually renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) plus the federal Certification of Compliance form which must both be signed by your “Chief Executive Officer” before award monies will be allocated to your agency. All eligible members must have their City Manager/City Administrator agree to and sign both the MOU addendum and the Certification of Compliance declaring their acceptance of the joint application and the terms therein. To expedite the application process, the addendum to the MOU and the Certification are attached and will be formally presented for your review and acceptance at the next Alameda County Chiefs of Police and Sheriff’s Association (ACCOPSA) meeting. Our common goal is to ascertain an agreement on the addendum to our MOU and the Certification promptly to have the documents expeditiously signed by your City Manager/City Administrator, as required by BJA. Your city’s signed MOU and Certification must be received, if possible, no later than Friday October 18th, 2024 (color-scanned, blue-ink signatures are preferred).
I am also asking your agency to email a paragraph-sized description of what you intend to do with your FY2024 JAG Local funds and your budget worksheet within the next week. The final page attachment to this letter is a copy of your actual FY2023 JAG Local request and budget worksheet format.
We apologize for the extremely short turnaround time and remain here to assist in any way possible.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Kathy Martins, FSO-Grants Manager