TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Mark Danaj, City Manager
FROM:
Robert Espinosa, Fire Chief
Eve Irvine, Chief of Police
Bruce Moe, Finance Director
SUBJECT:Title
Joint Funding Agreement Between the Cities of Manhattan Beach, Gardena and Hawthorne to Provide Advanced Funding to the South Bay Regional Public Communications Authority (RCC) for a Department of Homeland Security, Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) Reimbursable Grant for Construction of Interagency Communications Interoperability Systems; Temporary Use of a Portion of General Fund Reserves (Finance Director Moe).
APPROVE; APPROPRIATE
Line
_________________________________________________________
Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council: a) authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a joint funding agreement on behalf of the City between the cities of Manhattan Beach, Gardena and Hawthorne, and b) appropriate $2.25 million from General Fund Financial Policy Reserves which will be reimbursed by grant funds after project completion.
Body
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Grant funds are available to the RCC and its member agencies which provide an opportunity to purchase and install communications equipment that will greatly enhance public safety for the community and the region. In addition, these grant funds, totaling $5 million, allow for more rapid deployment of the technologies that were being planned for the future, but for which resources are not currently available. Obtaining those resources would require long range financial planning and direct funding by RCC member agencies. It would also necessitate increased member assessments. As a result of this grant, the City and the RCC will save significant money, as well as achieve an important public safety goal of interoperable communications sooner than expected.
Fully functional, Interoperable communications will provide the RCC and its member agencies with the ability to communicate with other public agencies across the region in the Los Angeles County area. This is especially important for small communities such as Manhattan Beach, which will rely on external resources from other public agencies in the event of a large-scale disaster.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
This Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant opportunity was unanticipated, and the RCC and its member agencies have a very narrow timeline in which to commit reimbursable resources in order to secure the grant funds.
Because the RCC does not have sufficient reserves to fund such a large expenditure, the member agencies (owners) must provide the resources in order to take advantage of this limited time grant opportunity. Each of the cities are advancing a portion of the total to the RCC: Manhattan Beach and Gardena $2.25 million each, and Hawthorne $500,000. The grant requires pre-funding by the lead agency (RCC on behalf of its member agencies) which DHS will reimburse the RCC (and the RCC will reimburse the contributing agencies) within six months once the expenditures have been completed (April 2016 deadline for spending, October 2016 expected reimbursement).
In order for the City to fund its commitment of $2.25 million, staff recommends appropriating and utilizing a portion of the General Fund policy reserve (20% of General Fund expenditures) which totals $12.7 million. The use of these funds is temporary. The City expects to receive reimbursement within six months of final expenditures (October 2016).
BACKGROUND:
One of the greatest challenges the public safety sector has is communications between varying radio and wireless networks. The creation of a national interoperable communication system was one of the many 9/11 Commission recommendations. First-responders from different jurisdictions, including law enforcement and fire, are unable to communicate due to the various communication platforms in use.
Today, first responders converging on major emergency incidents or incidents that cross jurisdictional boundaries lack the communication tools and infrastructure to coordinate response and intelligence gathering efforts. The major hurdle has not been the technology, but the cost to purchase and maintain communication systems that allow different and proprietary systems to “talk” to each other. Replacing legacy software and equipment with newer versions or models can be very expensive.
Locally, the Interagency Communications Interoperability System (ICIS) was formed in order to develop a regional communications platform for agencies in the Los Angeles region. In order for the RCC and its member agencies to take advantage of the ICIS radio system and its interoperability, the RCC-based systems must be upgraded to be compatible with the ICIS systems. Additionally, each city must also join ICIS.
Manhattan Beach’s Police and Fire communications are provided through the South Bay Regional Public Communications Authority (RCC) and a series of radio frequencies that operate on several transmitters and receivers placed throughout the South Bay. This system provides interoperability among the five agencies utilizing the RCC system (El Segundo and Hermosa Beach are subscribers to the RCC systems), as well as other Area G South Bay cities. However, once those Area “G” agencies travel outside the South Bay, communications back to home base are not possible. Further, Area G units may not be able to communicate with the local jurisdiction in which they are located outside the South Bay. This is particularly problematic when participating in a multi-agency incident regardless of the location.
In order to remedy this situation, two things must occur: 1) RCC must upgrade its communications facilities to be complaint with the ICIS standards, and 2) each agency in the RCC must join ICIS. The cost to accomplish the RCC upgrades is estimated to be $5 million. This capital cost includes new equipment to be added at five South Bay communications sites, as well as the addition of software and associated hardware.
DISCUSSION:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides grants to local public agencies under its Urban Areas Security Initiative Approval Authority (UASI). The UASI program addresses the unique risk-driven and capabilities-based planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercise needs of high-threat, high-density urban areas, and assists in building an enhanced and sustainable capacity to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism.
On November 10th, Los Angeles/Long Beach UASI voted to repurpose unspent grant funds that had been previously approved for other agencies, for interoperable communications. As a result, RCC and its member agencies will be able to purchase $5 million of communications infrastructure and equipment needed to connect Manhattan Beach and the rest of the South Bay to first-responders in the Los Angeles County area. Without this grant, the RCC will have to develop a funding strategy to secure our future interoperability communications. As a result, obtaining the grant funds saves the RCC and its member agencies $5 million. There is an aggressive performance period, as the funds must be used by April 2016.
Because the performance timelines for reimbursement are tight, RCC has included terms in the agreement with the supplier that obligates reimbursement to the RCC (and therefore the member agencies) in the event the timelines are not met. If that were to occur, the equipment would be returned to the supplier and refunds issued to the RCC and its owners.
A substantive draft of the Joint Funding agreement between the RCC ownership is included in this report (Attachment #1). Because the final version (which is being drafted by Gardena legal counsel) is not in final form, staff recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute the final agreement for the City, after review and approval by the Manhattan Beach City Attorney.
In order to fund the City’s $2.25 million temporary loan, staff is recommending the temporary use of City Council policy reserves. The total reserve is 20% of General Fund expenditures, or $12.7 million for FY 2015-2016. While the reserve is established by policy to be used “in the event of significant financial emergency,” this opportunity to obtain grant funds that will ultimately save the City an estimated $1.15 million in RCC assessments is important and a worthy temporary use of funds.
CONCLUSION:
The unexpected availability of UASI grant funds for communications interoperability presents an opportunity to obtain outside funding for a high-priority project. While the terms of the grant require upfront expenditure, and therefore a loan from RCC member agencies to the RCC to pre-fund the project, the grant will reimburse all costs within six months of completion. Ultimately, this saves the RCC and its members $5 million. This also results in lower assessments in the future since the project capital costs, if paid by the RCC, would have been charged to the membership.
Staff recommends that the City Council: a) authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a joint funding agreement on behalf of the City between the cities of Manhattan Beach, Gardena and Hawthorne, and b) appropriate $2.25 million from General Fund Financial Policy Reserves which will be reimbursed by grant funds after project completion.
Attachment:
1. Draft Joint Funding Agreement