HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/06/2010, B 3 - CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE CONTRACT DISPATCH SERVICES Council MmkzDw
July 6. 2010
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CITY OF SAN LUIS O B I S P O
FROM: Deborah Linden, Chief of Police
SUBJECT: CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE
CONTRACT DISPATCH SERVICES
RECOMMENDATION
Consider requests from the Cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach to submit a proposal to
provide contract Dispatch services to those Cities and to the newly formed Five Cities Fire Joint
Powers Authority and provide direction to staff.
DISCUSSION
Background
Approximately two years ago, the Cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach and the Oceano
Community Services District (CSD) began the process of consolidating their Fire Departments
under a Joint Powers Authority (JPA). A consolidation agreement was reached and during the
week of June 7, 2010, the governing bodies of all three jurisdictions approved the formation of
the new Five Cities Fire Joint Powers Authority effective July 1, 2010. All three jurisdictions
will contribute funds to the new JPA. In order to provide payroll and retirement benefits, as well
as workers compensation and liability coverage, the JPA firefighters will be employed by the
City of Arroyo Grande; however a new employee association.representing the fire employees was
formed and an MOU ratified. Starting July 1, 2010, the new JPA will provide fire services to the
Cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach and the unincorporated area of Oceano within the
jurisdiction of the Oceano CSD.
As part of the Fire consolidation process, the involved agencies identified the need to have
dispatch services for the new Fire JPA provided by a single dispatch center. Currently, dispatch
services for the involved agencies are provided as follows:
___ __ __ _ Law_EnfoicementaDispatched B
Jurisdiction Fire Dis atched 11j:-'
Arroyo Grande Arroyo Grande Police Dept. Arroyo Grande Police Dept.
Grover Beach Grover Beach Police Dept. Grover Beach Police Dept.
Oceano Grover Beach Police Dept. SLO County Sheriff's Dept.
In order to examine different options for consolidating dispatch services, in 2009 the City of
Arroyo Grande commissioned a dispatch consolidation study conducted by Dhillon Associates.
Other cities and the County were invited to participate in the study-, ultimately, the cities of
Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Atascadero, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, and the Oceano CSD
all participated in the study. The study, which was completed in December 2009, outlined the
Request to Submit Proposal to provide Contract Dispatch Services Page 2
activity and staffing levels of each.jurisdiction and examined different consolidation possibilities,
including consolidation of dispatch services among the south county agencies and with the City
of San Luis Obispo.
Since the study was finalized, the cities of Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach and the Oceano
CSD have been in on-going discussions about consolidating their dispatch functions for both
police and fire and these discussions are continuing. The involved agencies are also interested in
exploring an alternate option of contracting with our City for dispatch services. On June 10,
2010, after receiving approval from his City Council, the City Manager of Arroyo Grande
formally requested the City of San Luis Obispo consider providing a cost proposal for the
provision of police and fire dispatch services to Arroyo Grande and the new Fire JPA. A copy of
a letter from Arroyo Grande City Manager Steven Adams to City Manager Katie Lichtig
documenting this request is attached to this report. Staff has received a similar letter from Grover
Beach City Manager Robert Perrault to City Manager Lichtig.
Considerations
Consolidated dispatch centers are in use in several areas in California and throughout the United
States, either through JPA arrangements or contractual relationships. Contracting for dispatch
services has the potential to be beneficial for the parties involved; however there are many
factors to be considered when deciding whether or not to participate in a contract arrangement,
including!
1. Service Coordination: A contract dispatch arrangement has the potential to increase
coordination and communication among the police and fire departments involved and to
provide enhanced services to residents. Consideration must be given to how a contract
arrangement impacts the residents in each jurisdiction to ensure that callers in need of
emergency police, fire or medical services are receiving assistance in a streamlined and
coordinated manner. A common set of dispatching procedures and protocols would need to
be agreed on to avoid the confusion of dispatchers having to use different protocols for each
jurisdiction.
2. Staffing Needs: In order for the City of San Luis Obispo to provide contract dispatch
services to the requesting jurisdictions, additional dispatch staff would need to be added since
the increase in call load would exceed the capacity of existing staff. Further discussion and
analysis will be needed to better define the services to be provided under the contract and the
amount of additional staff that would be necessary to provide the service. The addition of
staff to handle the contract workload has the potential to benefit the City of San Luis Obispo
by providing a larger pool of employees to cover shifts during vacations or illness and
increasing minimum staffing levels on some shifts. Any added staff would become
employees of our City and be subject to existing hiring and training standards. Should the
City Council ultimately decide to provide contract dispatch services to the requesting
jurisdictions, any potential impacts on the wages, hours or working conditions for our
existing employees resulting from the decision may be subject to meet and confer
requirements with the affected employee associations (SLO Police Officers Association and
SLO Police Staff Officers Association).
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Request to Submit Proposal to provide Contract Dispatch Services Page 3
3. Technology: Much of the dispatch function relies on advanced technology to communicate
via radio and computer and to capture and store call information. The agencies involved
operate on different radio frequencies and utilize different Computer Aided Dispatch and
Records Management systems. Infrastructure for radio connectivity would need to be
installed and computer software developed to link the differing computer systems to ensure
interoperability with all contract agencies.
4. Cost: For the City of San Luis Obispo, providing dispatch services to other jurisdictions
would generate a dedicated funding stream for dispatch operations and related future capital
upgrades and replacement. Contracting agencies could potentially realize a cost savings while
increasing dispatch service to their communities. Contract costs would include initial start-up
expenses, such as the cost for technology set-up connections and the initial training of new
employees, as well as on-going service and capital costs. These costs would need to be
carefully calculated to determine if on-going savings would actually be realized for the
contracting agencies.
Direction from the Council
Developing a cost proposal for the provision of contract dispatch services will involve a
significant amount of staff time by members of several City departments. As such, staff is
seeking direction from the Council whether or not to: 1) Enter into contract discussions with the
requesting agencies (and other agencies that would likely be impacted by a dispatch contract);
and 2) Provide a contract proposal to the requesting agencies if requested after these discussions.
Should the Council direct staff to enter into discussions and provide a contract proposal, staff
will form a project team and create a timeline for discussions and proposal development. Staff
will inform the Council of the timeline and provide progress reports. Any actual contracts would.
come back to the Council for approval.
Should the Council direct staff not to enter into discussions or provide a contract proposal, staff
will inform the managers of the affected agencies of this decision and will decline to participate
in subsequent contract discussions.
CONCURRENCES
The Fire Chief, Director of the Human Resources and Acting Finance & IT Director concur with
the need to receive direction from the Council before proceeding further with contract
discussions or proposal development.
FISCAL IMPACT
At this point, the potential fiscal impact of a dispatch contract is not known. This information
would be developed as part of any contract discussions and cost proposal. The work involved in
developing a proposal will involve staff from the Police, Fire, Finance & IT, Human Resources,
and Administration Departments and the City Attorney's Office.
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ALTERNATIVE
If the Council requires more information prior to providing direction to staff about this issue,
Council members could indicate what additional information they desire and direct staff to return
at a later date to present the additional information and receive direction.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Letter dated June 10, 2010 from Arroyo Grande City Manager Steven Adams to City
Manager Katie Lichtig requesting a cost proposal for the provision of dispatch services.
2. Letter dated June 24, 2010 from Grover Beach City Manager Bob Perrault to City
Manager Katie Lichtig requesting a cost proposal for the provision of dispatch services.
T:\Council Agenda Reports\Police CAR\2010\Contract Dispatch Services Request 7-6-10.DOC
CITY OF
• CITY OF
ARROYO GRANDE
�111�11 I F I I�11A ` CALIFORNIA
June 10, 2010
Katie Lichtig
City Manager
City of San Luis Obispo
990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Dear Katie:
We appreciate San Luis Obispo's participation in the retent study on joint dispatch services'
contracted from Dhillon Associates-by multiple agencies In San Luis Obispo County. As you.
know, while there were disagreements regarding some of the speck staffing and service level
conclusions in the study, we believe the overall findings demonstrated that jointly providing
dispatch services can both increase efficiency and service levels. This is a direction many
jurisdictions throughout California and the country have been taking.
The report identified two options for Arroyo Grande. The first would be to provide services
jointly with the City of Grover Beach and Oceano. The second would be to contract services
from the City of San Luis Obispo.
Therefore, on behalf of the City of Arroyo Grande and per our conversations, we formally
request the City of San Luis Obispo consider providing a cost proposal to the City of Arroyo
Grande for provision of police and fire dispatch services under contract. Submittal of the
request was approved by the Arroyo Grande City Council at their June 8, 2010 meeting.
This will enable the City to evaluate actual projected costs and other issues prior to developing
a recommendation and decision. It is my understanding that the City of Grover Beach will be
submitting a similar request and we would like the proposals to be coordinated so we can
consider different joint options. Concurrently, we will also be working with Grover Beach and
Oceano to develop an alternative South County proposal for consideration.
If you concur, I recommend we schedule a meeting as soon as possible with all the appropriate
parties to discuss how to proceed.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Steven Adams
City Manager
cc. City Council
Steve Annibali, Police Chief
Mike Hubert, Fire Chief
Bob Perrault, City of Grover Beach City Manager
Raffaele F. Montemurro, Oceano General Manager
CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE • 214 East Branch Street • Arroyo Grande, California 93420
Phone: (805) 473-5400 • FAX: (805) 473-0386 • E-mail: agcity@arroyogrande.org • website: www.arroyogrande.org
ATT,�GHMer-,rr
R.W.VAR
City of Grover Beach
Mayor John P.Shoals Mayor Pro Tem Bill Nicolls
Council Member Karen Bright, Council Member Robert C.Mires, Council Member Debbie Peterson
Bob Perrault
City Manager
June 24, 2010
Katie Lichtig, City Manager
City of San Luis Obispo
990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR A COST PROPOSAL TO PROVIDE DISPATCH SERVICES
Dear Ms. Lichtig:
Recently, the City of Grover Beach decided to participate in the consolidation of fire services with the
City of Arroyo Grande and the Oceano Community Services District. As a part of the consolidation, we
reviewed the consolidation of dispatch with our partners in the fire services consolidation effort. At the
end of this initial effort, it was determined that immediate full consolidation of dispatch at the local level
was not cost-effective at this time.
In presenting this information to our elected officials, the Council indicated that the consolidation of fire
dispatch was a priority. They also indicated a desire to continue the efforts to review options for full
dispatch consolidation. Consequently I am formally requesting, at the direction of our City Council, that
the City of San Luis Obispo consider providing a cost proposal to the City of Grover Beach for the
provision of fire and police dispatch services. Further, it is my understanding that the City of Arroyo
Grande has submitted a similar request. We would like the two requests to be coordinated.
Should you have any further questions regarding this request, please feel free to give me a call at (805)
473-4567.
Sincerely,
,B T PERRAULT
City Manager
c: City Council
Police Chief Jim Copsey
Fire Chief Mike Hubert
Arroyo Grande City Manager Steve Adams 133 —i
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