Title
Approve and authorize the Contracts / Purchasing Officer to sign the Agreement for the Sharing of Costs for a Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS) between the County and cities in Monterey County that are participating in the system.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
Approve and authorize the Contracts / Purchasing Officer to sign the Agreement for the Sharing of Costs for a Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS) between the County and cities in Monterey County that are participating in the system.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
In 2008, during the Basin Complex Fire State of Emergency, the Board of Supervisors authorized the purchase of a Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS) used to deliver public health and safety information via telephone and personal communications devices. A significant portion of that purchase was paid for by a grant from the California Office of Homeland Security. Since that time, the system has been used to provide a number of notifications to Monterey County Residents including: residents affected by wildfires including the Basin Complex Fire and the Gloria Fire; flash flood warnings from the National Weather Service to residents in the burn area; information regarding the Dayton Hazmat event after an explosion at a paint factory; missing person alerts including at risk elderly and juveniles; alerting neighbors of SWAT type actions, and messages to residents surrounding areas where a homicide or shooting occurred seeking information from witnesses.
During the first two years, use of the TENS system was restricted by terms of the grant to emergency notifications only. Now that the grant period has expired, all participating agencies can use the system for non-emergency notifications such as community meetings, special events, road closures or traffic problems due to events or road work, and safety messages to the public. Operation of the system will continue to be gover...
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