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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFD Countywide Fire Dispatch Changes____________________________________________________________________________________ FOR CITY CLERK ONLY Council Meeting: April 3, 2023 Disposition: Countywide Fire Dispatch Services Agenda Item No: 6.b Meeting Date: April 3, 2023 SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Department: Fire Prepared by: Darin White, Fire Chief City Manager Approval: ______________ TOPIC: COUNTYWIDE FIRE DISPATCH CHANGES SUBJECT: INFORMATIONAL REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE CONTRACT WITH THE MARIN COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE AND NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE MARIN COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR FIRE DISPATCH SERVICES. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council accept this informational report about recent and forthcoming Fire Dispatch related activities. BACKGROUND: Since 2009, the City of San Rafael has contracted with the County of Marin Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) Public Safety Communications Center for fire department emergency (fire and emergency medical services (EMS)) dispatch services, hereafter referred to as fire dispatch. This arrangement was entered into as the Department had an imminent need to secure this capability to ensure timely receipt of emergency calls; and provide for dispatch, notification, and assignment of these calls to the appropriate resources. This partnership has benefited the San Rafael Fire Department and the City, which has the majority percentage of Fire and EMS call volume within the County. Additional value stems from the countywide use of the system and our interdependence with other agencies to quickly respond to calls in the community when resources are needed. In prior years, the Marin County Fire Chief’s Association explored upgrades to the current technological capabilities. This included new and innovative solutions to reflect the changes in the profession and improve service delivery models that could result from those changes. The Marin County Fire Chiefs Association eventually chose to study other potential options, including a possible regional dispatch arrangement known as REDCOMM. This arrangement explored the possibility of partnering with Sonoma County for Fire Dispatch services. The results of the feasibility study (which was completed in mid-2020) did not yield viable options for the Fire Service agencies due to emerging law, private stakeholder stance, and significant costs. Several weeks after being elected as the new Sheriff in August of 2022, Jamie Scardinia met with the Fire Chiefs to communicate the MCSO decision to terminate the contracts involving Fire Dispatch with all Fire Departments throughout the County. Various reasons were cited, including the challenges with SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 2 hiring and retaining sufficient dispatch personnel who are required to be proficient in providing both law and fire/EMS dispatch expertise and abilities, and the opportunity for the County’s Fire Service agencies to take full control of their fire dispatch model. Sheriff Scardinia originally sought to have the Fire Chiefs assume the full responsibility for fire dispatch by July 2023, but he has since agreed to a lengthier timeline. Currently, the targeted timeline for completion is approximately spring of 2024. In September of 2022, MCFD Fire Chief Jason Weber met with the Marin County Fire Chiefs to express his agency’s willingness to assume the responsibility for delivering the fire dispatch service on a contractual basis with each of the fire agencies using a cost recovery and billing model mirroring that which the MCSO utilizes. Simultaneously, the City began to evaluate other options to compare with the proposal communicated by Chief Weber. Although a few of the terms that were initially proposed were not deemed agreeable by the City, there have been multiple conversations with the Fire Chiefs, MCFD, and their representatives about an expedited path forward. ANALYSIS: Internally, San Rafael Fire and Police met to discuss the possibility of San Rafael Police Department (SRPD) providing the Fire Dispatch services. However, this decision would be not only cost prohibitive due to differing system technologies, the SRPD would likely face the same challenges as many other fire dispatch communication centers face with recruitment, hiring, and retaining qualified staff. The City’s Digital Service and Open Government staff were asked to provide preliminary calculations for standing up the function and operating it independent of the MCFD effort. Preliminary calculations showed ongoing annual cost for a City-led dispatch center were over a million dollars more than joining MCFD’s effort. The proposed contract for services that the Marin County Fire Department has shared with the fire agencies requires some adjustments based on the cost recovery methodology that had been used by the MCSO. The City has actively engaged with other fire agencies on creating a new methodology leading to a more balanced and equitable distribution of costs to all agencies for infrastructure, facility, staff, equipment, systems, training, and other miscellaneous but important aspects of fire dispatch service. In 2009, at the time the SRFD sought to enter a contract for fire dispatch services with the MCSO, the Fire Department found itself in an unenviable position of not being able to sustain its internally operated fire dispatch function due to staff attrition and other factors. Since that time, the contract with the MCSO has succeeded in meeting the basic fire dispatch needs of all county agencies, including San Rafael. However, given the Sheriff’s stated intent and the opportunity to provide for sufficient and trained personnel for command and control during large scale emergencies, use and benefit of technological capabilities such as Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and other emerging and proven solutions, the Sheriff’s decision to cease providing the fire dispatch services enables the fire service agencies in Marin County to further enhance the services we are able to deliver to the communities we serve. The SRFD has recently submitted a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to participate in the unified fire- centric, Marin County Fire-led dispatch communications center. Future agreement reached for fire dispatch services would be contingent on approval from the City Council at a future date. FISCAL IMPACT: There is no fiscal impact associated with accepting this report. Future agreements with the Marin County Fire Department will have fiscal impacts requiring approval by the City Council. OPTIONS: The City Council has the following options to consider on this matter: SAN RAFAEL CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT / Page: 3 1. Accept the informational report. 2. Do not accept the informational report and provide direction to staff for additional information. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Staff recommends that the City Council accepts this informational update. ATTACHMENTS: None