To: Board of Supervisors
From: David O. Livingston, Sheriff-Coroner
Report Title: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Urban Area Security Initiative for the period of December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2030
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Sheriff-Coroner, or designee to execute a 2025 Governing Memorandum of Understanding between the cities of Oakland and San Jose, and the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Sonoma, as well as the City and County of San Francisco, including full indemnification of each of the listed parties, as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Urban Area Security Initiative for the period of December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2030.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact.
BACKGROUND:
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a Homeland Security Grant Program which includes the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) Program. The UASI Program addresses the unique planning, equipment, training, and exercise needs of high-threat, high-density “Urban Areas” and assists those areas in building an enhanced and sustainable capacity to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from threats and acts of terrorism. DHS requires each Urban Area receiving grant funds to establish an Urban Area Working Group (UAWG) to act as an executive steering committee and provide overall governance of the UASI Program across the regional area encompassed within the defined Urban Area. In 2006, the City and County of San Francisco, the Cities of Oakland and San Jose, and the Counties of Alameda and Santa Clara, as the core cities and counties of the Bay Area Urban Area, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) setting forth their agreements regarding the objectives, governance structures, responsibilities, and financial agreements to use in applying for, allocating, and distributing UASI grant funds to the Bay Area Urban Area, and establishing the Bay Area UASI Approval Authority as an oversight body over the UASI Program for the Bay Area Urban Area. Additionally, the 2006 MOU designated the City and County of San Francisco as the primary grantee and fiscal agent for the UASI funds to the Bay Area Urban Area. Subsequent memorandums were adopted in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2021, whereby several other cities and counties signed on to the MOUs and became member agencies of the Bay Area UASI Approval Authority. The term of the 2021 MOU is set to expire on November 30, 2025, and as a party to the 2025 MOU, Contra Costa County can continue its partnership with other cities and counties in the Bay Area to build an enhanced and sustainable local and regional capacity to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from threats and acts of terrorism.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
A negative action to approve the Memorandum of Understanding and By-Laws would not permit Contra Costa County to participate in the distribution of grant funding among those agencies that apply for UASI grants.