(a) This section shall be known and may be cited as the “Safe Neighborhoods Act of 1998.”

(b) By October 1, 1998, the department of finance and administration shall establish within the department a program to award state law enforcement assistance grants to local governmental agencies from money appropriated by the general appropriations act. The exclusive purpose of the grants is to assist local governments in meeting the local funding requirement necessary to receive a grant under the federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 for a portion of the costs associated with the employment of new law enforcement officers by local government.

(c) The department is authorized to promulgate, in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5, all rules necessary to establish and administer the grant program; provided, that no such rule or departmental policy shall be promulgated or interpreted contrary to the following guidelines:

(1) All state grants to local governmental agencies shall be awarded only upon the basis of merit as determined by the department in accordance with selection criteria established by rule and regulation pursuant to the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act. Local governmental agencies wishing to participate in the grant program shall submit an application to the department as prescribed by rule and regulation;

(2) The number of state grants awarded in a fiscal year is dependent on the amount of money appropriated for the grants and the number of qualified and conforming grant applications. Nothing in this subdivision (c)(2) shall be construed to mean that all money appropriated during a fiscal year for state grants must be awarded during that year if there are an insufficient number of qualified and conforming applications;

(3) No state grant shall exceed ten percent (10%) of the amount of the grant the local government has been approved to receive from the federal government;

(4) In order to receive a state grant pursuant to this section for the federal local funding requirement, the local governmental entity must have been approved for a universal hiring program grant under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 that is for the exclusive purpose of providing financial assistance for the employment of additional law enforcement officers in that locality; and

(5) Nothing in this part shall be construed to prohibit the awarding of a state grant to assist in hiring school resource officers that have been approved for a federal universal hiring program grant.