Report Prepared by: Marvin Dillsaver, Communications Supervisor, Police Department
Title
SUBJECT: Acceptance of Grant Funding in the Amount of $346,000 from the California Office of Emergency Services (CAL OES) and $105,000 in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the State of California for Upgrades to the City’s 911 and GIS Systems
REPORT IN BRIEF
The City was recently awarded grant funds to upgrade its 911 and GIS systems. The Police Department will be using these funds to perform upgrades within the Public Safety Emergency Communications Center. These are direct funding grants, meaning that the grant funds will be held by CAL OES and the State and that all purchases will be directly funded by these agencies through a state purchasing program.
RECOMMENDATION
City Council - Adopt a motion:
A. Accepting the California Office of Emergency Services grant funding in the amount of $346,000.00 for 911 systems and $105,000.00 from the State of California for GIS systems; and,
B. Approving the purchase and acceptance of items to upgrade the 911 and GIS systems through the state purchasing program.
Body
AUTHORITY
City of Merced Charter Section 200.
CITY COUNCIL PRIORITIES
Enhancement of public safety and public emergency communication systems.
DISCUSSION
The State of California, E911 Branch is a mechanism that allows agencies to ensure high quality and best value for the procurement and maintenance of 911-customer premise equipment (CPE) on a five-year replacement cycle. The CPE allotment is determined per agency based on the agencies 911 and emergency call volume per agency.
The main funding obligation of the CA E911 division is for the delivery of 911 calls to the 911-call taker. The allotment is primarily designed to provide adequate funding for the replacement of all 911-phone equipment needed to achieve this goal.
The CA E911 branch provides to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP’s) the ability to obtain equipment from any vendor; however, the reimbursable costs cannot exceed those that have been approved by the CA E911 branch. The goal is to enable each Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to provide the fastest, most reliable, and cost-effective access to emergency service for any 911 caller within California. There are two ways to purchase; the first is through direct funding through the State of California E911 branch, where all bills are sent directly to the state for payment. The second would be through replacement funds where the City of Merced would purchase first, then pay and send completed paperwork to the state for reimbursement. Either way requires prior authorization from the State of California E911 board to spend any funding.
The Merced Police Department has been awarded $346,000 in E911 funding and an additional $105,000 in Geographic Information System (GIS) funding. The purpose of this funding is to solely provide PSAP’s the necessary funding to provide upgrades, equipment purchases and services necessary to support the PSAP.
Through this funding, the Police Department will be using the E911 direct funding process to procure all equipment and software necessary to upgrade our existing phone, voice, and radio recorder. There will be no impact on the current budget, as purchases will be made through a direct funding process with the State.
The primary purchase will be a phone system upgrade. The upgrade will consist of all new PC computers and new servers to support the Emergency Communications Center. The phone system that is being purchased has redundant servers in an effort to keep the system up and running at all times. The phone system will also be purchased with onsite maintenance support. With the addition of this new technology, the City of Merced will also be able to implement text to 911 capability.
The existing voice and radio recorder has also surpassed its life span, and the technology has continued to move forward. The new recorder will have the ability to store and purge all audio recordings based on the current city adopted retention schedule. The new recorder will also have the ability to store all data on a network drive which can be backed up and restored if there was some type of hard drive failure on the recorder.
All funding necessary for these purchases plus the maintenance for the next five years will be funded through the State of California E911 funds. There will be no city funds used for this purchase
IMPACT ON CITY RESOURCES
No appropriation of funds is needed - Purchases will be direct billed to the State of California.
ATTACHMENTS
1. State of California Customer Premise Equipment Allotment Funding Letter
2. State of California GIS Funding Allotment Increase Letter