Hamilton County Communications Center Business Plan
I. Department Overview
a.) Vision Statement
The Hamilton County Department of Communications is dedicated to providing the finest and most professional Public Safety Communications services. We provide the services in the most accurate, expeditious and technologically efficient manner possible. We are the first link in the chain between the public and emergency public safety services and willingly accept that responsibility.
We understand the uniqueness of the communities that we service and strive to meet the needs of each of them. We value diversity among our staff and encourage each employee to take responsibility and make contributions to improve our services. It is this commitment that drives us to serve with integrity, excellence, compassion, and professionalism.
b.) Who we are / What we do
The Hamilton County Department of Communications consists of two divisions. The Public Safety Communications Division is a consolidated E 9-1-1 center that serves the emergency communications needs of over 105 police, fire and EMS agencies in 42 political jurisdictions serving over 500,000 Hamilton County residents. The Telecommunications Division provides telephone and data technical infrastructure support to all County departments.
c.) Core Functions / Lines of Work
-
Receive and process emergency 9-1-1 telephone calls and non-emergency calls for Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Service
-
Dispatch and coordinate by radio delivery of Police, Fire & Emergency Medical Service
-
Maintain the 800Mhz Radio System and fire Mobile Data System Infrastructure
-
Maintain and manage the County Alpha Paging System and the Communicator for various alerts and notifications.
-
Receive and process work orders for Telecommunications services.
-
Monitor and support performance of County WAN
II. Performance Measures
Public Safety Communications Division
Two primary statistics are used to measure performance in the Public Safety Communications Division including the average call answering time and the average call handling time as compared to accepted national standards.
a). The American Society for Testing and Materials Standards (ASTM) has set a standard that all calls for emergency medical dispatch should be answered within 3 rings or approximately 18 seconds. The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) has set a standard that 90% of 9-1-1 calls should be answered within 10 seconds during the busiest hour of the day and 95% of all 9-1-1 calls should be answered within 20 seconds.
Hamilton County Communications has set an objective to answer all 9-1-1 calls in an average of 9 seconds. The data below shows that 9-1-1 calls are being consistently answered within an average of 1 to 2 seconds or in less than one ring. This is well below the maximum times established by national standards. (See Table #57)
b). Call handling time is measured as the time between when a call is answered until the time the first unit is dispatched. The Communication Center objective is to dispatch all EMS calls within a call handling time of 90 seconds or less. The data below shows that EMS calls are being dispatched consistently with a 2010 average call handling time of 62 seconds well within the stated objective of 90 seconds or less. (See Table #58)
Telecommunications Division
In order to provide efficient and quality service the Telecommunications Division has set an objective to process requests for service in 3 days. The data below shows the number of County phone lines and the per day number of requests completed. The Division is consistently 99.9% efficient in completion of service requests within the 3 day objective. (See Table #59)
Objective to Answer 9-1-1 calls within an average of 9 seconds
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Objective to dispatch EMS calls within 90 seconds or less of call answer time
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Objective to process requests for service in 3 days
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
III. Organizational Staffing Levels
The Public Safety Communications Division has an authorized staffing level of 82 employees. This includes 67 Communications Officers, 9 Communications Supervisors, and 6 Administrative staff. The Telecommunications Division has an authorized staffing level of 10 employees. The Telecommunications Division emplyees are General Fund FTEs.
Department of Communications
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IV. Financial Plan
Financial Description
The Public Safety Division of the Department of Communications is a restricted fund Division. Estimated 2011 funding percentages for the Department of Communications include the following sources; cities and villages (35%), townships (27%), Hamilton County Departments (13%), and County General Fund Supplement (25%).
User agencies contract with the County for various services including:
Full User - The Communication Center provides 9-1-1 and non-emergency call answering services as well as police, fire, and EMS dispatch services for these communities.
Valley User - These communities use the County 800 MHz radio system but provide their own dispatch services.
9-1-1 PSAP Associate - The Communication Center is the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for these communities. The 9-1-1 calls are answered and then transferred to the dispatch center in the local community.
The User agencies pay a minimum fee for the services. The monthly minimum fee is calculated by dividing the annual Communication Center Administrative costs by the number of users.
Full Users pay the minimum fee plus additional fees for incidents processed beyond a predetermined number of incidents per month. The cost per incident is calculated on an annual basis by dividing the Communication Center Operations Budget, plus a 3% contingency fund, minus any non-user revenue by the total incident count for all Users in the previous year. The minimum user fee is then divided by the cost per incident. The resulting number of incidents establishes a baseline. The cost per incident is applied to all incidents for the user over the baseline. The cost per detail rate for 2011 is $17.05.
Users also pay minimal fees for use of the County alpha paging system and non-public safety use of the 800 MHz radio system. The paging system is used by police and fire agencies. The majority of non-public safety use of the radio system is the Metropolitan Sewer District and local public service departments. Total revenues collected remain flat with little or no increase or decrease.
The Telecommunications Division is a General Fund Division funded on the basis of need. An annual assessment of the Divisions projects is analyzed by the Budget Department to develop the budget. Restricted fund departments are invoiced for work performed in those departments by the Telecommunications Division.
Current Budget and Trends - Public Safety Division
The 2011 operations budget for the Department of Communications Public Safety Division is $7,032,622. The budget is projected to increase at a rate of 5 to 7 percent annually. Phase II wireless legislation has created additional revenue that will be in place until the end of 2012 under current law. The funding source resulted in additional revenue of $719,590 in 2010 reducing the need for the general fund supplement. Projected 2011 wireless revenue is $750,000. In future years, approximately $1.3 to $1.6 million in General Fund money will be necessary to supplement the operations budget annually. With the loss of wireless revenue this supplement will be approximately $2 to $2.5 million.
Current Budget and Trends - Telecommunications Division
The 2011 Telecommunications Division budget is $1,339,322. This is a slight increase over the 2010 budget. However, the Telecommunications Division budget has generally been decreasing since 2005. This trend is a result of implementation of new technologies and other cost reductions resulting in overall cost savings.
Budgetary Issues
Two major issues impacting the budget have been identified as factors in decreasing expenditures.
Wage costs will remain flat in 2011. The Communications Officer Collective Bargaining Agreement approved in 2009 provides no wage increase in 2011.
Utility costs are decreasing due to a rate agreement between Duke Energy and the County. Electricity is obviously an essential element in keeping the Communication Center and 14 additional radio tower sites in service on a 24/7 basis.
The Telecommunications Divison has several maintenance contracts that must be renewed in 2012. The cost to renew these contracts will be approximately $250.000.
V. Critical Issues and Key Initiatives Facing Department in 2008 & Beyond
A). Staffing
In support of the Board of County Commissioners stated goal of encouraging consolidation of services, the Hamilton County Communication Center has made great strides over years by attracting new communities and agencies to utilize the Centers communication services. The Communication Center now provides emergency public safety communication services to all but two of 48 political jurisdictions in Hamilton County. Every community that has joined this system has had to fully weigh that decision against the recognition that they are entrusting the County with the health and safety of the residents in their community. The Center has become the primary 9-1-1 answering point for 47 entities serving a residential population of over 500,000 people. The Center also provides dispatching services to 105 police, fire, and EMS agencies. This department fully understands the immense responsibilities that we assume and the associated life threatening consequences of our mistakes. It is with the recognition that inherent in the nature of the work and responsibilities that are performed by this department, there is an uncompromising expectation that above average performance is always the expected norm. Through this commitment to outstanding service, we have endeavored to provide the finest public safety communications services possible and earned a national reputation as one of the finest communication systems in the country.
B). Next Generation 9-1-1 Voice over IP Technology (VOIP)
Trends in telecommunications mobility and convergence have put the 9-1-1 system at a crossroads. The growing use of both cellular and Voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) telephony underscore the limitations of the current 9-1-1 infrastructure. Our current 9-1-1 infrastructure cannot handle the text, data, images, and video that are increasingly common in personal communications devices. The growing consensus in the 9-1-1 community is the need for a new, more capable system surrounding emergency call delivery and response. In 2009 the Communication Center began testing infrastructure and software that will, among other functions, allow the Center to receive 9-1-1 calls via text messaging. A new IP based telephone system will be purchased in early 2011 as a first step in introducing these new technologies.
C). Voice Tone Alerting System - Replacement
Voice tone alerting equipment is the primary pager signaling equipment used to alert and dispatch fire and EMS personnel. The Communication Center will begin replacement of this system in early 2011 with construction completed by late 2011.
Attached Documents
