DATE: June 16, 2025
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Stefan Chatwin, City Manager
FROM: Diane Pitman, Administrative Services Director
Rob Lasky, IT Manager
DEPARTMENT: Administrative Services
SUBJECT: AGREEMENT FOR FOSTER CITY IT DIVISION TO PROVIDE IT
SERVICES TO SAN MATEO CONSOLIDATED (SMC) FIRE
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council approve the attached resolution authorizing the City Manager to sign an agreement which contracts the City of Foster City (hereinafter referred to as "Foster City") Information Technology (IT) Division to provide IT Services to the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department (hereinafter referred to as "SMC Fire") in FY 2025-2026, and authorizing the City Manager to sign extensions of the agreement in future years.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SMC Fire has the need of various IT services including support of their IT systems (desktops, laptops, tablets, servers, network switches, internet circuits, SD-WAN equipment, telephones, printers, copiers, and software). Although this need has lessened since SMC Fire hired a dedicated IT Support person, Foster City IT still provides GIS development services, as well as supplemental day-to-day support when needed. The Foster City IT Division has the bandwidth to support SMC Fire for these functions, and the offset provided by the revenue helps to keep costs manageable for the other City departments.
This agreement will result in revenues of $35,101 to the IT Internal Services Fund (ISF) that will help lower the reallocation chargebacks that the IT Division applies to the other City departments, which is an indirect benefit to the General Fund.
BACKGROUND/ANALYSIS
Prior to SMC Fire officially becoming their own entity in 2019, each of the joining Fire Departments were tied into their parent city’s IT infrastructure. SMC Fire was aware that they would eventually have to find a way to remove those ties to their parent cities and run a separate network of their own. In early 2019, SMC Fire reached out to the Foster City IT Division to ask for advice. The Foster City IT Manager offered to help, with approval from the City Manager. The Foster City IT Division also offered to migrate some of SMC Fire’s virtual servers from San Mateo and Belmont to Foster City’s server infrastructure. The Foster City IT Manager assisted an SMC Fire contracted project manager throughout the network migration during 2019, helping to choose the vendor for their managed WAN and phone system, as well as a vendor to help refresh the PCs that were transferred from San Mateo, Belmont, and Foster City’s inventories.
In 2023, SMC Fire hired a full-time Systems Analyst of their own. This has reduced the overall impact on Foster City IT, however, there are some areas that Foster City IT has still been helping with. Specifically, Foster City IT has continued to help SMC Fire with GIS development, as this is a somewhat specialized skillset. The Foster City IT Division has the bandwidth to support SMC Fire for these functions, and the offset provided by the revenue helps to keep costs manageable for the other City departments.
The agreement is structured to allow extensions, so staff has added language to the resolution this year to allow future extensions to be signed by the City Manager without needing to bring them back to City Council. The extensions would only extend the dates and update the amount charged in upcoming years.
California Environmental Quality Act
Not Applicable
FISCAL IMPACT
The proposed charge to SMC Fire for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 is based on these line items:
Proposed Charges to SMC Fire in
Fiscal Year 2025-2026
Cost
10% of Sr System Analyst
(overhead included)
$ 20,251
6 virtual servers
@ $600/year/server
$ 3,600
Ninja RMM licensing $ 5,250
Paid by Foster City for both orgs for ease of
administration, then billed back to SMC Fire for
their portion
Data Circuit Usage
Fractional usage of the data circuit between City
Hall and the Corporation Yard to connect SMC
Fire’s Training Trailer to their Admin offices
$ 6,000
TOTAL $ 35,101
By offering these services to SMC Fire, the Foster City IT Division has been able to lessen the impact to Foster City’s General Fund by offsetting IT ISF charges to the City’s other departments. The Foster City IT Division's project workload has not been impacted by supporting SMC Fire, in part because staff had already been supporting the Foster City Fire Department prior to the formation of SMC Fire. If the City Council chooses not to approve the resolution, IT ISF charges to Foster City’s other departments for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 would need to be increased to cover the loss of the fees that would have been charged to SMC Fire. Additionally, SMC Fire would need to find alternative IT Support Services, potentially at higher costs. Those costs would likely need to be recouped through SMC Fire’s charges to member agencies, which would impact Foster City’s General Fund as well.
CITY COUNCIL VISION, MISSION, AND VALUE/PRIORITY AREA
Innovation
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1 – Resolution
Attachment 2 – Agreement