Title
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to sign a no cost Interstate Cooperation Contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources to allow the Department to purchase Amazon Web Services for automated call-answering;
b. Approve and authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to agree to Amazon Web Services’ click-through terms and conditions for cloud services; and
c. Approve and authorize the Monterey County Contracts/Purchasing Officer to approve purchase orders for Amazon Web Services in an amount not to exceed $75,000 for the term of May 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to sign a no cost Interstate Cooperation Contract with the Texas Department of Information Resources to allow the Department to purchase Amazon Web Services for automated call-answering;
b. Approve and authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to agree to Amazon Web Services’ click-through terms and conditions for cloud services; and
c. Approve and authorize the Monterey County Contracts/Purchasing Officer to approve purchase orders for Amazon Web Services in an amount not to exceed $75,000 for the term of May 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
The Monterey County Emergency Communications Department is a consolidated Public Safety Answering Point for 9-1-1 emergency and non-emergency calls as well as a radio dispatch facility serving 28 law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical response agencies throughout Monterey County.
Due to significant vacancies, the Department’s dispatch staff work an average of between 30 and 40 hours of mandatory overtime each pay period. While the Department continues to recruit and hire new staff, additional actions must be taken to help alleviate the continued amount of mandatory overtime. The continued need to require mandatory overtime on the staff at this level has a cascading effect that impacts the work-life balance and has proved detrimental to employee retention.
The Department is requesting authorization to purchase automated call answering for non-emergency calls with Amazon Cloud Service on the terms negotiated in a Texas Department of Information Resources Cooperative Agreement (Agreement DIR-TSO-4221). This is an Artificial Intelligence technology that has been used successfully in other customer service settings to allow the system to converse with the caller to be able to satisfy the caller’s request. The technology can continue to grow as it learns how to direct the callers to the necessary information and provides the Department with more analytics to be able to anticipate what callers are requesting. This type of service will improve the speed of the call process, allowing more and more services to be done without the intervention of the Communications Dispatcher, who can now focus their time on 9-1-1 calls, law and fire resource management and critical incidents. This will be offered in English and Spanish and there will be mechanisms in place for emergency calls to be routed to a Dispatcher.
In Fiscal Year 2021/22 the Department answered 486,679 non-emergency calls and 241,334 emergency calls. By using this automated call answering service the number of calls answered by staff is expected to be significantly reduced which will save the Department money with reduced overtime and bring the number of overtime hours worked by staff down to a sustainable level.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
County Counsel has reviewed and approved these actions as to legal form. The Auditor-Controller, Information Technology Department, and Contracts/Purchasing have reviewed and approved these actions.
FINANCING:
An estimated $15,000 will be paid in FY2022/23 and sufficient appropriations and revenues are included in the FY2022/23 Adopted Budget. An estimated $60,000 will be paid in FY2023/24 and sufficient appropriations and estimated revenues are included in the FY2023/24 Recommended Budget.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
These actions correlate to the Board’s Public Safety Strategic Initiative by allowing the Department of Emergency Communications to more effectively answer both emergency and non-emergency calls.
Mark a check to the related Board of Supervisors Strategic Initiatives
__Economic Development
__ Administration
__Health & Human Services
__Infrastructure
_x_Public Safety
Prepared by: John Vaught, Finance Manager, x8883
Approved by:
________________________
Lee Ann Magoski x8880
Emergency Communications Director
Attachments:
Board Report
Texas DIR Interstate Cooperation Contract
Amazon Web Services Terms and Conditions