Title
a. Approve and authorize the Director of Information Technology to sign an Agreement between the County of Monterey, San Benito County, and Santa Cruz County for the extension and upgrade of the existing Monterey Bay Area Microwave System into San Benito County and the continued operations and maintenance responsibilities of the system between the Counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito County retroactive to October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2018; and
b. Approve and authorize the Director of Information Technology or her designee to serve as the County's representative on the Monterey Bay Area Microwave System Governance Committee and to assign staff to participate on the Monterey Bay Area Microwave System Technical Committee as needed.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
a. Approve and authorize the Director of Information Technology to sign an Agreement between the County of Monterey, San Benito County, and Santa Cruz County for the extension and upgrade of the existing Monterey Bay Area Microwave System into San Benito County and the continued operations and maintenance responsibilities of the system between the Counties of Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito County retroactive to October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2018; and
b. Approve and authorize the Director of Information Technology or her designee to serve as the County's representative on the Monterey Bay Area Microwave System Governance Committee and to assign staff to participate on the Monterey Bay Area Microwave System Technical Committee as needed.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
In August of 2006 the County of Monterey, Board of Supervisors approved Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the County of Monterey, County of Santa Cruz, County of Santa Clara, and County of San Benito for the construction, implementation, operation, and maintenance of a Tri-County Microwave Radio Communications Project. The funding for this project was through the Department of Homeland Security and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) administered by the City of San Jose and the County of Santa Clara with the upgrade implementation funding and costs managed by the County of Santa Cruz. This was a collaborative effort to coordinate communications between Law Enforcement, Fire, Public Health, Emergency Medical Services, and other emergency services agencies in the event of a disaster. The project ensured that the infrastructure was in place for a high bandwidth microwave network for use by the Counties to restore vital information resources.
In September 2008, the County Board of Supervisors approved the continued participation of the County of Monterey in the Tri-County project and approved and authorized the Director of Information Technology (ITD) or designee to serve as the County's representative on the Monterey Bay Area Microwave System (MBAMS) Governance Committee.
The current objective of the Tri-County Project is to enhance the infrastructure into San Benito County as Santa Cruz County 911 Operations now handles Dispatch and First Responder responsibilities for San Benito County and, with the upgrade, all of the Tri-County Emergency Communications Centers will become linked. The technical review has been conducted by radio/technical staff of all three counties. The approval of this recommended action, as requested by the Monterey County Director of ITD, will ensure the continuance of regional communications for the First Responders, Public Safety, Health Services Agencies, and link vital Emergency Services Agencies. The time needed for collaboration, development, and review of the continued Tri-County collaborative effort prevented the Information Technology Department from bringing this Agreement before the Board until this time.
Each County is responsible for the maintenance of the equipment and lease at their respective radio communications sites. The County of Monterey will be responsible for the maintenance of the MBAMS equipment located at Monterey County ITD. Should there be a need to upgrade the equipment maintained by the County of Monterey, the Director of ITD will work with the public service agencies within the County of Monterey that utilize the MBAMS system to identify possible funding sources such as grants before those upgrades are implemented.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel and Risk Management have reviewed the Agreement and concur with the recommendation. The County of Monterey Emergency Communications and Office of Emergency Services concur with the recommendation.
FINANCING:
There is no additional fiscal impact to the County General Fund contribution as a result of this recommended action at this time.
Prepared by: Sarah House, Management Analyst, 755-5108
Approved by:
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Dianah Neff, Director of Information Technology
Dated: May 19, 2014
Attachments: Agreement