BACKGROUND  

The Village’s participation with surrounding fire departments to provide/receive mutual aid when necessary was established by the Mutual Aid Box System (MABAS) Agreement, adopted by the Village in 1989.  It has been determined that an Addendum to the Agreement is necessary in order to set forth a guide for recouping and making financially whole communities who provide mutual aid for a prolonged period of time (more than eight consecutive hours) to a stricken community. The intent is not to start charging for mutual aid on a daily basis, but to put our Village in compliance with FEMA policy. Without the Addendum, FEMA policy considers mutual aid assistance without an assigned cost to be “volunteer work,” and, therefore, non-reimbursable for federal funds for Declaration of Disaster responses.  With this Addendum, our Village will be in compliance with the FEMA Recovery Policy and remain eligible for federal mobilization and deployment reimbursements.     

RECOMMENDATION  

It is recommended that the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System First Addendum to MABAS Master Agreement, be approved.