City staff seek $500,000 FEMA grant for citywide camera and access-control upgrade

City IT and public-safety staff described a planned citywide camera and access-control upgrade that would unify door-badge events and video footage to speed investigations. Staff told council they applied for a $500,000 Department of Homeland Security / FEMA grant but that the grant program is currently on hold; staff said they have applied for the next cycle as a contingency.

"500,000 is for the current camera system citywide, not just library," staff said, explaining the project covers door-access control and a camera platform that can retrieve short clips tied to badge events. The system vendor under consideration (Axis) was presented as an industry standard; staff said if the grant is not awarded the city will phase the project and may use local funds.

Staff also explained practical reasons for replacing more than cameras: legacy server and storage problems that make finding footage time-consuming and unreliable. The library uses a different vendor (Ubiquiti) and staff said integrating library footage currently requires asking library staff to pull video; the grant/fiber work would let the city access footage directly.

If funded, staff said they would put the project to bid and phase replacement to avoid a single large disruption. Council asked about timing and the effect of spending before receiving federal grants; staff said federal rules generally prevent retroactive reimbursement for purchases made before grant awards.