A Roundup of Oct. 5 Special City Council Meeting

Here is a roundup of tonight's special City Council meeting.

FEMA denies federal emergency declaration

With Mayor Jim Ruane and City Manager Connie Jackson back from their visit last week to Washington, D.C., the council discussed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's recent decision to reject the city's request for a federal state of emergency to be declared following the Crestmoor disaster.

In a letter (see attached) FEMA sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office on Sept. 24, the agency said it denied the request because "we have determined that assistance from other sources, such as a responsible party, will be sufficient to meet the needs of the event."

Both Ruane and Jackson said they were disappointed with FEMA's response but were anticipating the governor's office and California congressional leaders to appeal.

"It kind of puzzles me when we don't have any idea of what the final outcome is going to be," Ruane said.

Grand jury report on sex offenders and law enforcement

Police Chief Neil Telford led the council in a short discussion about a July San Mateo County grand jury report that recommended police agencies develop a countywide protocol for handling sex offender cases.

The report concluded police are not doing enough to reduce the number of incidents involving sex offenders, mainly because they haven't done enough to share resources and information.

The council approved the city's response to the report's findings (see attached).

City, firefighters agree on tentative bargaining agreement

The council unanimously adopted a resolution approving the bargaining agreement the city tentatively settled with the firefighters union.

The agreement extends the union's current contract until 2012 without any salary increases. The union's bargaining unit also agreed to cover increases related to medical costs.

In other news, officials said the debris cleanup in the Crestmoor neighborhood is moving along quickly with more than half of the neighborhood cleaned up so far.