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SR-700-014 City Council Meeting: June 14, 2005 Santa Monica, California TO: Mayor and Councilmembers FROM: City Staff SUBJECT: Contract with City of Los Angeles for Regional Fire Dispatch Introduction This staff report requests that City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a contract with the City of Los Angeles for Regional Fire Dispatch and related maintenance services to improve service to the community and enhance firefighter safety. Background During the past ten years, the Santa Monica Fire Department has experienced a 45 percent increase in the number of emergency responses and will exceed 11,200 responses in the current fiscal year, rapidly exceeding the current one dispatcher per 12-hour shift capacity. Without making some change, service response and firefighter safety will be compromised. For that reason, the Fire Department has evaluated a number of strategies for increasing dispatch capacity, from increasing staff to joining a regional dispatch system as has been highly recommended by the 9/11 Commission and the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association. No-match federal funding, including $1.7 million sorely needed in Santa Monica to replace antiquated radio and station alert systems, is available to departments that opt into a regional system. Discussion After evaluating four regional dispatch centers, a possible restructuring of the Santa Monica Fire and Police joint communication center, a potential joint communication center with the Beverly Hills and Culver City Fire Departments, and several increased staffing scenarios, the department has determined that joining a regional dispatch center would be most advantageous for our community for two primary reasons: ? Fire Departments throughout the nation, California, and within the Los Angeles County area have faced circumstances similar to Santa Monica?s and effectively improved service delivery to the community and firefighter safety by establishing or joining a regional dispatch system ? By consolidating dispatch resources into a centrally located facility, economies of scale are realized and response resource availability is increased The Los Angeles Area Fire Chief?s Association (LAAFCA) representing all 31 Fire Departments within Los Angeles County supports and is working to establish six Regional Dispatch Centers to maximize the use of available resources by dispatching the closest available resource(s) to an emergency in the shortest amount of time, regardless of jurisdiction. The LAAFCA is designating no-match Federal grant funding for establishment of these Regional Dispatch Centers and to local agencies that join the Centers. Of the four regional dispatch options evaluated by Santa Monica Fire, the Los Angeles City Fire Department Regional Dispatch Center offers the service delivery the community expects and safety standard the Fire Department requires. This option also meets the federal objective to coordinate resources regionally. Service improvements realized by contracting with LAFD include: ? Emergency Medical Dispatch (trained dispatchers provide medical advice to callers while paramedics are en route) ? Decreased dispatch times (time of receipt of call to dispatching of emergency resources) ? Improved response times to simultaneous emergencies ? Depth of dedicated dispatcher availability (dedicated positions increased from one to twenty five) ? Repair and maintenance provided 24/7 to radio, Fire Station Alerting, Mobile Data Computer (MDC), Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS) ? New fire-based MDC, CAD and RMS systems Safety improvements realized by the contract include: ? New mobile and portable radios for firefighters ? New fire station alerting system ? A dedicated dispatcher to monitor radio emergency trigger activation (radio button pushed when firefighters become entrapped or lost inside a structure fire to transmit information about their situation and location) ? Fire ground accountability (monitoring the location of emergency resources and personnel at the emergency) ? Major incident management assistance by Chief Officers and command staff in the dispatch center ? Dedicated dispatchers assigned to major incidents for continuity of information while other dispatchers process additional calls ? More response resources at particular emergency incidents ? Automatic resource move-up to provide coverage in simultaneous emergencies and during training activities ? Number of available radio frequencies increased from four to twenty four ? Increased knowledge/expertise of dispatchers (Fire Dispatchers are firefighters with at least 4.5 years field experience) While regionalization means calls are processed faster and resources respond faster because one dispatcher can verify caller information while another dispatcher simultaneously dispatches the appropriate resource(s), for the person seeking help in an emergency, the process will feel unchanged. A 911 call would still be answered by the Santa Monica Police Department to determine if the caller is in need of Police or Fire Department assistance. The Police Department would still transfer the call to a Fire Department Dispatch Center, but to the Los Angeles City Fire Department Regional Dispatch Center rather than Santa Monica Fire Department. The Regional Fire Dispatcher will answer the phone, ?Fire/Paramedics. What is your emergency?? To facilitate regionalization, the LAAFCA has pre-authorized more than $1.7 million of no-match Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grant funds for the Santa Monica Fire Department, contingent upon Santa Monica Fire Department joining a Regional Dispatch Center. These funds will be used to secure the new radio equipment, fire station alerting system, and all ancillary software and hardware. Additional grant funding may be available to agencies participating in a regional dispatch system. There are currently five Santa Monica Fire Department employees performing dispatch duties. The schedule for transition to the regional center provides five months lead time during which Human Resources will work with the employees to identify fire dispatch recruitments in the region and vacancies in the Santa Monica Police Department dispatch center for which they may qualify. Budget/Financial Impact The current cost to operate the Fire Department Dispatch Center is $551,000, which includes all salaries, benefits, overtime, and equipment maintenance contracts. The cost to contract with the Los Angeles City Fire Department Regional Dispatch Center is $250,000 for the first 11,000 Santa Monica emergency responses in a year and $23 per Santa Monica emergency response in excess of the 11,000. The annual fee, paid quarterly, includes all maintenance and repair costs. Recommendation It is recommended that the City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a contract with the City of Los Angeles for Regional Fire Dispatch and maintenance services. Prepared by: Jim Hone, Fire Chief Bruce Davis, Deputy Fire Chief Rob Wirtz, Fire Division Chief Reference Contract No. 8484 (CCS).