Recommendation To Provide Direction on Blaine County Emergency Communications Center Contract

Transcription

1 September 5, 2017 Mayor Jonas and City Councilors City of Ketchum Ketchum, Idaho Mayor Jonas and City Councilors: Recommendation To Provide Direction on Blaine County Emergency Communications Center Contract Introduction and History In 2013 the City of Ketchum joined with seven other agencies and entered into a joint contract for Blaine County to provide emergency communications for all the agencies. The cost was divided based on a chart in the contract with an automatic 3% increase each year. The contract automatically renews each year unless one of the parties notifies the other parties by June 1 of their intent to terminate (Attachment A). The City of Ketchum has provided all parties with an intent to terminate on May 31, 2017 based on the following concerns. Issues Since 2010 the Ketchum Fire Chief and others have been documenting problems with emergency communications service (Attachment B). Attempts have been made by the Chief Elle and Mayor Jonas to work with Blaine County to remedy the problems. Unfortunately, little progress has been made and problems continue. Problems that exist pose a risk to public safety and create a liability for Ketchum. Problems brought to light include: Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) outdated and frequently inoperable resulting in emergency responders being provided inaccurate addresses for emergency calls Wrong agencies are dispatched to emergencies due to CAD errors Inaccurate dispatching has occurred for CPR calls for service. An example is an ambulance being sent to a Hulen Meadows address when the emergency was at an address in Warm Springs Ketchum Fire not dispatched to an emergency that occurred within Ketchum, another agency was dispatched Poor radio transmission occurred causing responders to miss information and have difficulty communicating with dispatchers Radio calls from emergency responders in the field have not been answered because dispatchers are overwhelmed with other calls for service Picabo radio communication network was out of service rendering Carey Fire and EMS unable to communicate by radio Emergency text messaging frequently inoperable causing Active 911 to not work as a pre-alert for responders and provide accurate address mapping. This impacts the readiness of a responder

2 Concerns with the technology and resulting communications operations have been increasing in the last year as expressed by the Ketchum Fire Chief and Ketchum Fire Department staff. In response to these concerns, on May 31, 2017 the Mayor provided the seven other agencies with notice to terminate participation in the contract. This was done to bring all parties to the table to acknowledge the problems, identify solutions and undertake action to address the concerns raised by Ketchum s emergency responders. After the City provided all the parties notice of intent to terminate participation in the joint contract, Mayor Jonas, Commissioner Greenberg, County Administrator Derek Voss and City Administrator Suzanne Frick met to discuss the issues. County Administrator Derek Voss and Commissioner Greenberg asked Ketchum to provide a letter documenting the problems. The letter was sent on June 13, 2017 (Attachment C). On July 4, 2017 County Administrator Voss sent a letter in defense of the Blaine County Emergency Communications Center, requesting the City rescind the termination letter and requesting the two agencies work over the next year to assuage any concerns Ketchum has with the delivery of emergency communications services (Attachment D). After the letter from Administrator Voss, Mayor Jonas and Chair McCleary met to discuss the issues and options on how to proceed. On July 31, 2017 Mayor Jonas provided a letter to the Chair McCleary outlining requested actions the County undertake to address the problems (Attachment E). Chair McCleary scheduled a discussion of the issues before the County Commissioners on August 15, The City is awaiting a response to the July 31 letter. Potential Liabilities Many agencies across the country have undertaken major reviews of their 911 emergency response systems. While system shortcomings may be known for years, it often takes a tragedy to spur agencies to act. Based on the specific structure of the individual agency, the identification of the issues and solutions may be done through hearings; an audit; a grand jury; an investigation by a designated entity, a controller or public advocate; and/or a consultant s review. Ketchum emergency responders have gone on record and expressed concerns with the current technology, dispatch response, staffing, and system redundancies for emergency communication operations. Based on these concerns, it s time to act before a tragedy occurs and all parties are held responsible, including the City of Ketchum. Vulnerabilities and aging technology in communications centers have life altering consequences as illustrated by the following events. - Dallas, Texas Families blame at least two deaths, including that of a toddler, on an outdated 911 technology. Callers were placed on hold for long periods, and were not called back after callers disconnected. Earlier in the spring, ATT&T users nationwide were temporarily unable to call San Francisco, California A power outage in April revealed deep understaffing at the San Francisco 911 call center. In response, based on an audit, the city established performance measures to meet the national standard for answering 90 percent of emergency calls within 10 seconds or less. - Bingham County, Idaho A cyberattack on the entire county disrupted 911 service and required dispatchers to use ad-hoc fixes to continue to provide emergency services. Because there were insufficient redundant systems in place, dispatchers had to use physical maps and cell phones to direct officers to emergencies and at times used computer-aided dispatch services from Boise. City of Ketchum, 8/29/17, Page 2 of 4

3 - New York City, New York Two children trapped in a burning building in Queens died after a delay in ambulance dispatch to the scene. The NYC Department of Investigation found that human error, complicated processes, unintegrated technology, and other systemic issues with the dispatch system were at fault. - New York City, New York A young girl died after being struck by a SUV driver on the sidewalk. An investigation examined the City s four-minute delay in dispatching an ambulance to the scene. The investigation recommended a series of policy changes and procedure improvements related to dispatcher recruiting and training, technology capabilities, staffing levels, and on-site supervision. - Multiple cities, Major technology issues with CAD dispatch systems in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Bethlehem PA, Portland, San Francisco, and Austin led to incorrect dispatching, information gaps, and manual information collection. Given the experience of other government agencies facing emergency communication deficiencies, action to identify the issues and develop solutions before tragedy or near-tragedy strikes is essential. Public safety is the top priority driving the requested actions to be undertaken by Blaine County. Ketchum believes emergency response should be the best that it can be for residents, visitors and workers in Ketchum and continuous review and improvement is the best practice to achieve this goal. Based on the experience of other agencies with emergency communication centers there are several best practices. Those are as follows: (1) Independent Reviews should be regular and ongoing. Given that the 911 system is public-facing, the underlying demographic and technology landscape is constantly changing. Improvements in technology can both pose new challenges and provide new opportunities for operations. (2) Independent Reviews should be broad. Given the many different users the public, dispatchers, police officers, firefighters, medical personnel, technology personnel no one person or user can fully understand the entire system. Reviews often find that the biggest areas of potential improvement are those that require coordination or feedback between different user groups. (3) Regular Independent third party reviews and audits are not the ceiling, but the floor when it comes to best practices for emergency dispatch operations. In addition to conducting reviews, some agencies have established performance standards and regularly report out on emergency response performance as measured against national benchmarks for life-threatening emergencies. This is the gold standard, as it allows the public, elected officials, and emergency responders to work from the same set of information. Options to Consider The goal is for Ketchum and Blaine County to work together to address the identified vulnerabilities and deficiencies. To move forward and identify solutions, the July 31 letter (Attachment E) identified specific requests by Blaine County. The key measures include audits by agencies and organizations recognized as subject matter experts in the field of emergency communications and dispatch. These audits conducted by independent third party evaluators will be unbiased and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the emergency communications technology and operations, identifying improvements to be made based on national and industry standards. The two audits consist of one performed by the United States Department of Homeland Security, Office of Emergency Communications and Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program. The second, a self-audit, would be performed by Blaine County and partners using the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) standards for public safety answering point City of Ketchum, 8/29/17, Page 3 of 4

4 service capability criteria and rating scale. An example of an audit performed by the Department of Homeland Security is contained in Attachment F. As demonstrated by the information contained in Attachment C, the CAD equipment is unreliable, out of date and inadequate to meet the increasing demands for emergency response. The Logisys CAD system currently being used is 11 years old. According to the Ketchum Fire Chief, replacement has been discussed multiple times in the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meetings for many years. There have been multiple new CAD system demonstrations over the years but no movement has been made to identify a replacement. Ketchum is asking the County to identify a new Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, the cost for implementation and the schedule for implementation. The new system must have a Fire dispatch software component similar to the Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) system to fully serve the needs of the Ketchum Fire Department. Benefits of professional, independent audits will identify other concerns such as staffing levels, reliability and redundancy of the equipment and technology, and general operations will be assessed and vulnerabilities and solutions identified. Cost for Service Ketchum is asking that the methodology for allocating charges be evaluated. The methodology has not been reviewed since 2013 and since that time, other agencies and their calls for service have increased. No change in the cost allocation may occur, rather Ketchum is asking for a review and determination if the current allocation methodology is appropriate in today s environment. Options The following options are offered for Council consideration: Do nothing, rescind letter of termination Negotiate with Blaine County to enter into an agreement with requested actions Explore shifting Ketchum emergency communications to another regional communications center Recommendation and Motion Staff recommends the council provide direction to staff on next steps to be taken to improve emergency communications. Attachments Attachment A 2013 Joint Agency Emergency Communications Contract Attachment B Documented Problems with Emergency Communications Operations Attachment C June 13, 2017 Letter from Suzanne Frick to Commissioner Greenberg and Derek Voss Attachment D July 4, 2017 Letter from Derek Voss to Suzanne Frick Attachment E July Letter from Mayor Jonas to Chair McCleary Attachment F DHS Audit City of Ketchum, 8/29/17, Page 4 of 4

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