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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Min 1996-05-20 5-13-96 /5-20-96 '" ADJOURNMENT The city Manager stated the.need for the Council to meet sometime before May 28th to discuss the consolidated police dispatch proposal as it relates to the 800 MHz system. After brief discussion, the Council determined to meet on Monday, May 20th at 6:30 p.m., also, that a resolution in support of a grant application for trees be included on that agenda. . It was the I order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to adjourn the meeting at 9:29 p.m. rk and ex-off1c1 Seal Beach of the Approved: Attest: Seal Beach, California May 20, 1996 I The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in special session at 6:05 p.m. with Mayor Hastings calling the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Hastings Councilmembers Brown, Forsythe, Laszlo Absent: Councilmember Fulton Brown moved, second by Forsythe, to excuse the absence of Councilman Fulton from this meeting, as he requested. AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Brown, Forsythe, Hastings, Laszlo None Fulton Motion carried Also present: Mr. Till, city Manager Mrs. Campbell, Councilmember-elect Mrs. Yeo, city Clerk Chief Stearns, Police Department Capt. Maiten, Police Department Mrs. Fraser, Supervisor, Police Department Chief WiCker, City of Cypress Capt. Weuve, City of Cypress Chief McCrary, Retired, City of Signal Hill Capt. Sellers, city of Los Alamitos' I ... Mayor Hastings read the Notice of Special Meeting for the' record as follows: I I I 5-20-96 "Marilyn Bruce Hastings, 121-12th street, Seal Beach Frank J. Laszlo, 4480 Candleberry Avenue, Seal Beach George Brown, 1710 Tam O'Shanter Road, 12-H, Seal Beach Gwen Forsythe, 523 Riviera Drive, Seal Beach Harry R. Fulton, 13250 Fairfield Lane, 173-E, Seal Beach NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Marilyn Bruce Hastings as presiding officer of the city council of the City of Seal Beach hereby calls and gives notice of a special meeting of the City Council to be held on Monday, May 20th, 1996 at 6:00 p.m. in the city Council Chambers, 211 - 8th Street, Seal Beach, California, for the purpose of: ** Considering a resolution in support of a grant application for community tree beautification; and ** Conducting a workshop with the City Council relating to a consolidated police dispatch system. DATED THIS 14th day of May, 1996. (signed) Marilyn Bruce Hastings, Mayor City of Seal Beach by (signed) Joanne Yeo, City Clerk City of Seal Beach" APPROVAL OF AGENDA Brown moved, second by Laszlo, to approve the order of the agenda as presented. AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Brown, Forsythe, Hastings, Laszlo None Fulton Motion carried RESOLUTION NUMBER 4461 - TREE REPLACEMENT PROGRAM Resolution Number 4461 was presented to Council entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH ESTABLISHING A CITYWIDE TREE REPLACEMENT PROGRAM." By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution Number 4461 was waived. Brown moved, second by Laszlo, to adopt Resolution Number 4461 as presented. AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Brown, Forsythe, Hastings, Laszlo None Fulton Motion carried WORKSHOP - POLICE DISPATCH CONSOLIDATION The City Manager explained that the purpose of the workshop was to discuss a proposal to consolidate police dispatch services among the cities of Seal Beach, Cypress and Los Alamitos. He commended the staffs of the subject Departments for their efforts in developing the analysis of this concept within a short time frame to meet the County deadline, May 30th, for participation in the 800 MHz program, to which he noted that the result of this workshop will have considerable impact on the configuration of the Countywide ~oo MHz program. The Manager expressed the belief that consolidation of police dispatch is . realistic as it relates to a cost efficient means of providing local government services, the savings can translate into 5-20-96 improved police services, improved technology, more police officers on the street, improved dispatch services and officer safety. He emphasized that this is not a first step towards dissolving or merging any police department or city government, not now or in the future, of which he felt there had been some confusion, rather a more efficient way to provide the services that are now provided by each department independently, I increasing cooperation, communication, mutual aid, etc. yet remain autonomous police departments and cities. He said the connection between consolidated police dispatch and the 800 MHz countywide dispatch system is that to have consolidated dispatch the cit~es must also be in the 800 MHz program in that all other Orange County cities will be participants in that system4, and in the case of Seal Beach in order to participate some means of cost savings must be implemented in order to pay the one time cost and the debt service in subsequent years. Chief Stearns introduced those persons present representing the cities of Cypress, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach, and the retired Chief of signal Hill, and briefly described their rolls in the consolidation evaluation process. The Chief provided a slide presentation setting forth the various advantages of a consolidated dispatch program, some of the points of information were: * Consideration of consolidated dispatch services began in 1993, a feasibility study was prepared; * Determined at that time that consolidation was not compatible due to that lack of automation of the three participating agencies; since then all three agencies have been automated for records and dispatch through the West Covina (Motorola) system; * The feasibility of consolidation was revisited as a result of the implementation of the 800 MHz system; I * * A regional_communications center will be advantageous, will provide a larger, professionally trained and certified dispatch staff on duty at all times; * Provide the latest state of the art communications equipment for an improved level of communication and safety for police officers and citizens of the communities; * The police communications functions will be under a Joint Powers Agency which will be overseen by a governance committee composed of representatives from and funded by the three cities; * The dispatchers and their supervisors will cease to be employees of the individual cities and will become employees of the Joint Powers Agency; * A regional staff will permit more supervision and free the. on-duty sergeant for field duties, as well as a cost saving in that overtime will not be paid for a sergeant to cover dispatch in the absence of dispatch personnel; I * will relieve the consequences of absences due to illness or a vacancy; * State of the art equipment will be standardized and be less costly; I I I ., .' ":' 5-20-96 * Allow more cooperative efforts in the event of emergency or disaster situations; * Inter-agency coordination will improve problem resolution, special event handling, etc.; Compatible records; Consolidation is the best move for all agencies in the areas of efficiency, cost savings, and better services to the communities; * All being small communities, will provide support for all occasions of mutual concern; * * * While each city is unique unto itself, the Chief's are joined in commitment and in agreement as to how services should be provided; * will provide mutually supportive administrations; * Regiona1ization is good public policy and good government, providing for the sharing of information and resources in response to crime; * The study concluded that the optimum location for the communications center would be the Seal Beach Police Department; * The cost for Seal Beach to stand alone would be $527,000.00; Costs are reduced through consolidation, $510,785.00; * * $113,719.00 represents the Dispatch Center equipment (800 MHz) and includes the Seal Beach share of the building costs; * Potential total salary savings are anticipated to be $69,000.00, $27,000.00 overtime paid to officers and $42,000.00 dispatcher salary savings; * Costs related to the transition are yet unknown for the payoff or credit of leave and compensatory time balances for the six employees who will fall under the Joint Powers Agency; * An additional cost will begin in 1998 for air time utilized by the mobile data terminals, the approximate $14,000.00 per year will become an operational expense within the police department budget, more than offset by the salary savings realized on an annual basis; * Projected first year costs - the Seal Beach share versus the total project cost, $302,000.00 for the 800 MHz system, Seal Beach share will be $82,000.00, total share will be $222,000.00; In determining the use of the Seal Beach site, on-site and off-site locations were looked at, determined that an area in the Seal Beach facility was unused, was more than adequate for the entire 800 MHz system, keeping in mind the potential for a future expansion, there is also an adjacent office area; * * The split of costs between the cities - the cost.of 800 MHz was determined by County GSA, city costs have been looked 5-20-96 at in terms of use, the dedication of frequencies, Los Alamitos and Seal Beach sharing one, Cypress using another~ Although details of the Joint Powers Agreement have yet to be finalized, it is envisioned that City Managers and Councilmembers will serve as the representatives to oversee the administering of the program by a supervisory person, dispatch personnel will work for the JPA, a budget will be developed to fund the JPA, salaries, benefits, etc.; * Additional savings will result through sharing the cost of providing finance, personnel and legal services; * * The JPA as envisioned mayor may not have an advantage in the event of employees cashing out their leave time, as an example, if an individual wishes to remain a dispatcher under the JPA it may be advantageous for the employee to transfer the leave hours into a leave bank that will exist under the JPA, however there must be a plan in place for the person who may not choose to become part of the JPA dispatch function, terminates their employment and is to be compensated for their hours; * As to a cap on the number of hours that can be built up, it was noted that the City of Cypress has a cap on the number of hours that can be accumulated for compensatory and vacation time, however there is no cap on the accrual of sick leave, that likely the greatest difference between the three cities, also, under the PERS contracts there are times when those hours can be converted to service credit; Employment policies of the three participating cities will be consolidated, and the employees will not realize a loss or gain with the consolidation; * The number of personnel is anticipated to be fifteen with two unfunded positions, personnel per shift is estimated at four to five or four plus a supervisor, that number based upon historical research of the three cities, of on-site visits, calls for service, radio traffic volume, regular and 911 incoming calls, also looked at from the standpoint of the combined population being served, about 84,000, with a realization that in actuality about 170,000 people are being served depending upon what activities are taking place in any of the three cities at any given time, therefore at this time staffing is actually a not to exceed number pending further evaluation~ * * The administrative position of the JPA will likely carry a title similar to Division Manager rather than CEO; * To five dispatch personnel being on duty at any given time and question as to realizing a cost saving - it was explained that the number of dispatch personnel would be four with one supervisor at any given time, one dispatch covering all radio traffic for Cypress, a second to handle all radio traffic for Los Alamitos and Seal Beach, however dispatch will not take the telephone calls as they do now, there will be a call taker backing up the operating dispatch persons, that due to the volume of calls with the combination of the three cities, the dispatchers will communicate with the officers in the field and take care of any community safety issues, the takers will receive citizen calls for help or assistance and move that information back and forth through the dispatch system, the supervisor will provide direction as well as relief for all personnel, and it was noted that during certain hours, I I I I I I . . ~~. 5-20-96 between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m. as an example, there will likely be only one call taker; As to networking with the City of Long Beach, concern with Seal Beach being a 800 MHz system and Long Beach remaining a 400 system, risk of safety and use of nearby emergency facilities only because of a county boundary line - it was explained that Seal Beach historically has very little to do with Long Beach via radio or with their officers, rather, ninety-nine percent of interaction is with Orange County agencies, in the event of the need for services from Long Beach contact would be made through 'control one' which would then be linked through 460 to Long Beach, that being the same method that is presently used in that the car radios do not have the capability to call Long Beach, although both cities have the 460 system, the frequencies are different, thus having the 800 MHz system will make no difference procedurally, and as is also done now, if necessary the 'red channel' is used, which is heard by every car and through every pac set in the county, to seek emergency response; * It was pointed out that the a response time from the City of Long Beach would be no faster than it would from Orange County cities in the general area of Seal Beach; * It was noted that while Chief in Signal Hill, which is surrounded by Long Beach, it was never possible to negotiate a shared frequency with Long Beach, contact had to be made by monitors or a ring down line, they would not allow the sharing of a frequency, also, the forty-eight municipal law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles County can not communicate amongst themselves as the cities in Orange County have the ability to do; * orange County will be converted to the 800 MHz system within the next two to three years, the cities will participate in the 800 system, and as that relates to Rossmoor, the County Sheriffs as well as other local agencies will have the ability to respond; * * The fire agencies are now on the 800 MHz system, with the county and cities entering that system direct communication with the fire agencies will then be possible, and some cities are including their public works divisions in the event of an emergency; * A suggestion was made that revenue generated from the usage of the jail facility be designated towards the financing of the 800 MHz system; Mention was made that consideration will be given at the next meeting to join with the other participating agencies that are in need of a financing mechanism in a certificate of participation for a combined $35 million bond for the 800 MHz and other capital projects, payable over an anticipated minimum fifteen year period at about $85,000 per year; * As to the cost of air time and anticipated increases - it was clarified that the cost is based on a period of two years with a future cap of five percent for time used. * * A point was made that even if the costs associated with the development of the consolidation plan were a wash in the first year, when the costs are projected over a period somewhere between five to ten years the cities will realize 5-20-96 I 5-21-96 considerable savings if for no other reason the fact that one communication center is being operated rather than three, the administrative costs are shared three ways rather than one, that being one of the conclusions of the 1993 study. The City Manager again noted that the concept of consolidated I dispatch was reinitiated just a couple of months ago, the next step will be to formalize the commitment of the cities to the 800 MHz program, the County will then be notified to design the system for one rather than three systems, the Joint Powers Agreement will require Council consideration once it is finalized, as well as finalization of staffing, etc. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS There were no Oral Communications. ADJOURNMENT It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to adjourn the meeting until TueSday, May 21st at 7:00 p..m. By unanimous consent, the meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m. rk and ex-off1C1 Seal Beach the Approved: I Attest: Seal Beach, California May 21, 1996 The City Council of the city of Seal Beach met in regular adjourned session at 7:06 p.m. with Mayor Hastings calling the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Hastings Councilmembers Brown, Forsythe, Laszlo Absent: Councilmember Fulton Brown moved, second by Hastings, to excuse the absence of Councilman Fulton from this meeting. I AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Brown, Forsythe, Hastings, Laszlo None Fulton Motion carried Also present: Mr. Till, City Manager Mr. Barrow, City Attorney Mrs. Yeo, city Clerk .. J ~ t. '"