Agenda packet, first session — Paradise City Council, March 8, 2022 (part 2 of 2)

sourcing due to the need to add six dispatcher positions, this approach offers the advantage of having internal control over service quality and service philosophies, potential operating efficiencies, better understanding of issues unique to the Town and its recovery, and improved support of other Town operations.  Hybrid Approach. This ultimately results in an in-house PSAP, but it does so over a fiveyear phase-in period. This option may be utilized if it takes longer to staff up to the six additional dispatchers. The overall cost is very close to the in-house PSAP option with six dispatchers.

In this report, we add two more options to provide additional perspective on potential costs.

The first new option is an in-house PSAP that adds eight dispatchers rather than six, which is a placeholder for additional costs that may be incurred in backfilling dispatchers absent due to vacations, illness, or other reasons. Such costs may include overtime, contracting with the county for coverage, or adding positions.

The second new option is a variation on the hybrid approach, where only four dispatchers are added and the Town continues to contract with the county for the remaining service during non-peak hours. Under this option it is assumed that the cost of the contract will continue with 3% growth from the FY 2026 level shown in the staff report.

There are several areas of the staff report that may require additional consideration as Town leaders proceed, as discussed below.
 Dispatch Center Staffing Coverage. The staff report assumes six full-time equivalent (FTE) dispatchers and one FTE supervisor to operate the dispatch center. Although this number is adequate to handle the historical and anticipated workload in the near term, if the Town elects to reassume all dispatch operations from Butte County at some point in the future, this staffing is unlikely to be sufficient to maintain the state-recommendation of two dispatchers on duty within a PSAP call center over a full 24 hours.

The staffing in the Police Department’s report would provide one to three dispatchers on duty at any given time, depending on scheduling (see Appendix A). To maintain two dispatchers on duty 24/7, a total of 17,520 hours would have to be staffed (24 hours x 365 days x 2 FTE), which is equivalent to 8.4 FTE. However, after accounting for sick and vacation leave, it would take approximately 9.3 FTE to cover two-person staffing 24/7.

Appendix A shows how Police Department staff proposes to optimize staffing of shifts if only six dispatchers are available, but these schedules do not account for absences.

Realistically, the Communications budget should incorporate increased expenditures for shift coverage and anticipated employee absences, in the form of additional overtime costs, extra training to provide cross-trained employees from other department operations, or additional part-time or full-time employees. If the Police Department elects to limit staffing to the six dispatchers and one supervisor, it may also want to 193

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consider a formal ongoing contract with Butte County for dispatch services when Town staffing falls below two on-duty personnel.
 Tower Station Upgrade. This line item ($188,470) is work that must be performed on existing equipment owned by the Town regardless of the policy decision being considered now. The only alternative to avoiding these costs would be to remove the existing tower. We have been told that removing the tower is not an option because this equipment serves other functions in addition to radio and dispatch operations. The cost is the same for all options.
 Microwave Link. This line item ($152,732) is only necessary if Town leader decide to reestablish a dispatch center. The microwave link will not be needed if contract dispatch services are continued and it is not necessary to connect the Town’s radios to the Butte Regional Interoperable Communications System (BRICS) network. All BRICS radio infrastructure costs are included in the BRICS agreement.  Butte Regional Interoperable Communications System Fees. The report calculates an annual fee paid to BRICS based on the current monthly costs of $46.20 per month, per radio. The existing contract stipulates that the fee will be monitored and periodically adjusted by the county. It is likely that the annual expense will increase in future years, and our projections include a 2% annual growth in these fees. The Town also has the ability to control these annual expenses by adjusting the number of radios it elects to have subscribed to the BRICS system.

Fiscal Impact of PSAP Options
The forecast model projects communications costs based on the assumptions detailed below.  Staffing Levels. The in-house option with six dispatchers assumes two dispatchers added per year in FY 2023, FY 2024, and FY 2025, while the version with eight dispatchers adds three positions in FY 2024 and FY 2025. The hybrid option assumes two dispatchers added per year in FY 2023, FY 2024, and FY 2027. Under both options we assume the records clerk position is eliminated in FY 2023, as the staff report indicates that until the Town population and workload demand additional assistance in this area, dispatch personnel would handle various records tasks, and the supervisor would continue responsibility for managing the flow of Public Records Act (PRA) requests and the Evidence Unit. Per discussion with staff, we assume the records clerk position would be restored when the Town reaches a population of 20,000, which is projected to occur in FY 2037. The records clerk position is retained with the outsource option.
 Personnel Costs. These costs are computed in our projection as described below. o The primary difference between our costs and those in the staff report is that we do not add pension unfunded accrued liability (UAL) payments for new employees, as 194

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these are billed as a fixed amount by CalPERS. Since this cost does not change with staffing levels, the existing UAL amounts would simply be spread over a larger number of employees. Normal pension costs, which are computed as a percent of payroll, are included.
o Salaries, incentives and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) amounts are based on current mid-range amounts per the Finance Department. Tthese amounts grow at 2% for annual COLAs, and at 5% for step increases the two years after being added.

Starting in the third year, these positions grow at COLAs plus 0.5% (the assumed net impact of step increases and employee turnover savings across the workforce as a whole).
o Health costs are based on the average per FTE with 6% growth. o Retiree medical costs are computed per the actuarial forecast. o Other personnel costs are computed consistent with such costs in the model. o Grant credits are continued at the $61,358 amount budgeted in FY 2022.  BRICS Annual Subscription and Dispatch Radio Annual Charges. Under all three options, initial year costs are provided by staff, and we inflate those costs annually by 2% to reflect future long-term inflation.

The forecast model is driven by the assumed rate of growth in housing units and population, which in turn drives most General Fund revenues. Figure 1 shows the assumed level of housing units and population in the current forecast model. Even after 25 years, it is assumed that Paradise will be below pre-fire population and housing unit levels.

Figure 1. Paradise Housing Unit and Population Level Forecast It is assumed that 90% of the $220 million PG&E Settlement is set aside to support General Fund operations, and the remaining 10% is available for capital projects and grant matching.

Settlement funds would be transferred to the General Fund to close the revenue gap and maintain an adequate fund balance. Revenues are down significantly due to a 63% reduction in assessed value and a 43% reduction in sales tax in the wake of the Camp Fire destruction. 195

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Since expenditures are being maintained at the level required by a population of 26,000, and the 2021 population was just over 6,000, expenditures continue to grow from pre-fire levels. The result is a current revenue gap of over $9 million that must be filled by Settlement funds. This gap will diminish over time as the population and revenue base grow.

In this analysis Management Partners has analyzed the cost of the three PSAP options in the staff report, plus the two alternate versions described previously. These options are as follows, in ascending order of cost:

1. Outsource to County (the status quo) – staff proposal

2. Hybrid Approach (five-year phase-in with six dispatchers) – staff proposal

3. Hybrid Approach (with four in–house dispatchers and an ongoing contract with County to provide non-peak coverage) – added by Management Partners

4. In-house PSAP (three-year phase-in with six dispatchers) – staff proposal

5. In-house PSAP (three-year phase-in with eight dispatchers) – added by Management Partners
Figure 2 shows that Options 2, 3 and 4 are very close in cost. Option 5 reflects the potential of a higher cost for an in-house PSAP to fully cover two-person staffing 24/7, as noted above. To the extent that “soft cost” alternatives can be employed, such as using the supervisor to cover certain absences, or cross training other police staff to temporarily fill in, then such additional costs may be lower than reflected in Option 5. Note that the county may increase contract costs in the future, which could drive up the costs of Options 1, 2 and 3.

Figure 2. Twenty-five-year Cost Comparison Among PSAP Options The following tables and figures show communications costs by type and staffing levels over the next ten years for each option, as well as the projected use of the PG&E Settlement Fund for each of the five PSAP options over the next 25 years. The forecast model has been updated to allow any of these options to be incorporated into the long-range projections. 196

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Option 1. The 10-year impact of the Outsource Option (current contract with the county) is shown in Table 1, This is the lowest cost approach. Only two positions (the current supervisor and records clerk) are retained by the Town. The county contract continues with an assumed growth rate of 3%.

Table 1. Option 1: Outsource to County; 10-Year Fiscal Impact Summary The key factor in evaluating each communications option is its impact on total expenditures, and thus the drawdown on PG&E Settlement funds. Figure 3 shows that Settlement Funds used to support operations decline slowly to $3.3 million over 25 years, and that by FY 2046, the balance would be $59 million. At this rate of drawdown, the Settlement is projected to last another 18 years beyond FY 2046.

Figure 3. Option 1: Outsource to County; 25-Year Settlement Fund Use ($ in millions) 197

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Option 2. The 10-year impact of the Hybrid Approach (with six dispatchers and a five-year phase-in) is shown in Table 2. Over 25 years, this option adds $7.5 million in cost compared with the Outsource Option (status quo), for an average of $300,000 per year. This is equivalent to a 1.39% increase in total General Fund expense over the same period.

Table 2. Option 2: Hybrid Approach/5-year phaseout; 10-Year Fiscal Impact Summary Figure 4 shows that under the Outsource Option (status quo) Settlement Funds used to support operations decline slowly to $3.8 million over 25 years, and that by FY 2046, the balance would be $51 million. At this rate of drawdown, the Settlement is projected to last another 14 years beyond FY 2046.

Figure 4. Option 2: Hybrid Approach/5-year phaseout; 25-year Settlement Use ($ in millions) 198

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Option 3. The impact of a Hybrid Approach (with four dispatchers and a contract with the county for non-peak coverage) is shown in Table 3. Over 25 years, this option adds $7.55 million in cost compared with the Outsource Option (status quo), for an average of $302,000 per year. This is equivalent to a 1.40% increase in total General Fund expense over this period.

Table 3. Option 3: Hybrid Approach/Ongoing Contract; 10-Year Fiscal Impact Summary The key factor in evaluating each communications option is its impact on total expenditures, and thus the drawdown on PG&E Settlement funds. Figure 5 shows that under the Outsource Option (status quo) Settlement Funds used to support operations decline slowly to $3.8 million over 25 years, and that by FY 2046, the balance would be $51 million. At this rate of drawdown, the Settlement is projected to last another 13 years beyond FY 2046.

Figure 5. Option 3: Hybrid Approach/Ongoing Contract; 25-Year Settlement Fund Use ($ in millions) 199

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Option 4. The 10-year impact of an In-house PSAP with six dispatchers is shown in Table 4.

This option is implemented over three years. The advantage is completing the transition over a shorter period. Over 25 years, this option adds $7.7 million in cost compared with the Outsource Option (status quo), for an average of $308,000 per year. This is equivalent to a 1.42% increase in total General Fund expense over the same period.

Table 4. Option 4: In-house PSAP with 6 Dispatchers; 10-Year Fiscal Impact Summary Figure 6 shows that under this option, Settlement Funds used to support operations decline slowly to $3.8 million over 25 years, and that by FY 2046, the balance would be $51 million. At this rate of drawdown, the Settlement is projected to last another 13 years beyond FY 2046.

Figure 6. Option 4: In-house PSAP with 6 Dispatchers; 25-year Settlement Use ($ in millions) 200

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Option 5. The 10-year impact of an In-house PSAP with eight dispatchers is shown in Table 5.

This option illustrates the high-end potential for costs associated with fully staffing a PSAP with two dispatchers 24/7. Over 25 years, this option adds $13.8 million in cost compared with the Outsource Option (status quo), for an average of $552,000 per year. This is equivalent to a 2.55% increase in total General Fund expense over the same period.

Table 5. Option 5: In-house PSAP with 8 dispatchers; 10-Year Fiscal Impact Summary The revenue gap is greater with this option, so more Settlement Funds are required. Figure 7 shows that Settlement Funds used to support operations decline slowly to $4.2 million over 25 years, and that by FY 2046, the balance would be $45 million. At this rate of drawdown, the Settlement is projected to last another 11 years beyond FY 2046.

Figure 7. Option 5: In-house PSAP with 8 dispatchers; 25-year Settlement Use ($ in millions) 201

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Conclusion
The cost impact of going to an in-house PSAP depends on the staffing level. Adding six dispatch staff, as proposed in the Police Department staff report, ultimately increases communications costs by $7.7 million over 25 years, which is equivalent to an increase of 1.42% in the total projected expenditures over that period with the status quo (contracting with the county). However, if eight dispatch staff are ultimately needed to provide 24/7 dispatch coverage, then costs could increase by another $6.1 million over 25 years to a total of $13.8 million. This is equivalent to an increase of 2.55% in total projected expenditures over 25 years under the status quo. The actual net increase in expenditures will likely fall somewhere within this range depending on the means by which Town leaders ensure the required 24/7 coverage (e.g., “hard costs” like added staff, overtime, payments to the county, or “soft costs” like the use of the supervisor, mutual aid, or cross-trained staff).

It is difficult to put a dollar value on the advantages of the Town having its own dispatch staff.

They include maintaining internal control over quality of service and service philosophies, realizing some operating and recordkeeping efficiencies, having a better understanding of issues unique to the Town and its recovery, and improved support of other Town operations.

Town leaders are in the best position to weigh the extent to which the advantages may offset the increase in costs that results under the other PSAP options.

All five options evaluated leave the Town with a PG&E Settlement balance in the range of $45 to $59 million at the end of 25 years, given the projected growth of the community. The level of General Fund expenditures is a key factor in how long the PG&E Settlement Funds will last. At a given level of expenditure, if housing replacement and population growth is higher than the forecast projects, the resulting higher revenues will mean lower use of Settlement Funds than projected. Conversely, if growth is slower, there is a risk the Settlement Fund will be depleted sooner than projected. The goal for the Town is to manage its budget so that Settlement Funds last as long as possible..

The Town will have many opportunities over the next 25 years to adjust its expenditure levels if the Settlement drawdown is occurring at a faster pace than projected. The long-range forecast model should continue to be maintained, as it will be a valuable tool in the Town’s future financial planning.

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Appendix A

HISTORICAL AND PROPOSED DISPATCHER STAFFING LEVELS
(Excerpt from pages 12 and 13 of Police Department Staff Report)

7. PARADISE POLICE PSAP STAFFING
Prior to the Camp Fire, the Paradise Police Dispatch Center had three (3) Dispatch Consoles and was staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year (24 / 7 / 365) with one (1) to three (3) Dispatchers. This staffing model was accomplished with six (6) full-time Public Safety Dispatchers, and one (1) Dispatch & Records Supervisor.

Records functions were handled by two (2) part-time Records Clerks, who together worked a combined 36 hours per week. Dispatch was covered by three (3) shifts per day. Day Shift was 0600-1800, Swing Shift was 1100-2300, and the Graveyard Shift was 1800-0600. The Dispatch & Records Supervisor worked Monday – Thursday, 0700-1700 and was able to cover a Dispatch console as needed, in between performing supervisory and management duties.

Monday – Thursday, this provided for two (2) Dispatchers 0700-1100, three (3) Dispatchers 1100-1700, two (2) Dispatchers 1700-2300 and a solo Dispatcher 2300- 0700. This provided a total of 46 hours of Dispatch coverage each day. On Friday – Sunday, when the Dispatch & Records Supervisor was off-duty, this staffing level was reduced by one (1) Dispatcher available for the hours the Dispatch & Records Supervisor worked. This left two (2) Dispatchers working 1100-2300 and a solo Dispatcher 2300-1100. As Table 2 below shows, out of a 168-hour week, Dispatch was staffed with three (3) Dispatchers for 40 hours, two (2) Dispatchers for 76 hours and a solo Dispatcher for 68 hours. This provided a total of 36 hours of Dispatch coverage each of these days.

TABLE 2 – 3/4-12 DISPATCH STAFFING MATRIX – PRE-CAMP FIRE While it is ideal to have a minimum of 2 Dispatchers on-duty at any time, with the virtually consolidated approach that the Butte County PSAPs have taken, if an incident overwhelms one PSAP calls that don’t get answered overflow to another PSAP. With the addition of fully interoperable, Multi-Agency RIMS and radio systems, this backup Dispatch process will occur virtually seamlessly, allowing Dispatchers at other PSAPs to create CAD incidents when they answer phone calls for the overwhelmed center, or potentially even to assist with radio traffic.

MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN Supervisor 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 Dispatcher 1 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 Dispatcher 2 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 Dispatcher 3 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 Dispatcher 4 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800 Dispatcher 5 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300 Dispatcher 6 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600 Hours Staffed 46 46 46 46 36 36 36 46 46 46 46 36 36 36 203

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In the post-incident evaluation of the Camp Fire, a severely extreme event, we determined the phone network properly forwarded calls where it could. However, at the Paradise PSAP for example, off-duty Paradise Police Dispatchers self-deployed to the Station and were answering phones from all three Dispatch Consoles, as well as the records desk. Even with the phones being answered from every possible access point, there were more calls coming in than could humanly be answered. That triggered the Dispatch & Records Supervisor to begin forwarding all 911 calls to an alternate PSAP so Paradise Dispatchers could handle the calls coming in on the 10-digit lines. While it is desirable to have the maximum number of Dispatchers working during any significant calamity, it is indefensible to fund enough staffing to handle the most extreme events 24/7, when only handling regular, daily call volume. Maximizing the hours of staffing of more than one Dispatcher and having a virtually consolidated dispatch system in place to reroute 911 calls when a PSAP becomes overwhelmed with calls from a significant incident, provides a good balance of minimizing costs and maximizing PSAP services.

Different approaches maximize staffing hours per day with limited staffing. Ultimately, a hybrid schedule of 10-hour and 12-hour shifts provide the most hours of coverage requiring only 12-hours of scheduled overtime per pay period. Conversely, a 12-hour schedule for all Dispatchers, provides 6 additional hours of shift coverage each day, adding only 24 hours of scheduled overtime per pay period. It is likely that in the transition back to in-house Dispatch services, that all Dispatch staff would have to work 12-hour shifts in order to maximize the hours that Paradise could staff the PSAP.

TABLE 3 – 4/10, 3/12 DISPATCH SCHEDULE MATRIX
TABLE 4 – 3/4-12 DISPATCH SCHEDULE MATRIX – PATROL ALIGNED

MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
Supervisor 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700 07-1700
Dispatcher 1 10-2000 10-2000 10-2000 10-2000
Dispatcher 2 16-0200 16-0200 16-0200 16-0200
Dispatcher 3 20-0600 20-0600 20-0600 20-0600
Dispatcher 4 06-1800 06-1800 06-1800
Dispatcher 5 11-2300 11-2300 11-2300
Dispatcher 6 18-0600 18-0600 18-0600
Hours Staffed 40 40 40 40 36 36 36

PARADISE POLICE DEPARTMENT

PUBLIC SAFETY DISPATCH

SERVICES
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION Page 3

2. BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION Page 3

3. RADIO NETWORKS Page 4
3a. Radio Solution Cost Comparison Page 6

4. EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY PHONE SYSTEMS Page 7

5. CAD SYSTEMS Page 8

6. VIRTUALLY CONSOLIDATED DISPATCH Page 10

7. PARADISE POLICE PSAP STAFFING Page 12

8. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Page 13
8a. Population Page 14

9. EMERGENCY AND NON--EMERGENCY CALL VOLUME Page 15
9a. 10-Digit Call Volume Page 16

10. BCSO PSAP MOU Page 17

11. FISCAL ANALYSIS OF IN-HOUSE, EXTERNAL AND HYBRID
DISPATCH SERVICES Page 18
11a. Paradise Police PSAP Page 18
11b. Butte County Sheriff’s Dispatch Services Page 20
11c. Hybrid Dispatch Services Solution Page 21
11d. Paradise Police Department Radio Network Upgrades Page 22 11e. Final Cost Analysis Page 24

12. BASIC DISPATCH SERVICES IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK Page 27 12a. Paradise PSAP Restoration Plan Page 27
12b. Long-Term Outsourced Dispatch Services Plan Page 27 12c. Hybrid PSAP Transitioned to In-House Dispatch Services Plan Page 28

13. CONCLUSION Page 29
TABLES
TABLE 1 – REPLACEMENT RADIO EQUIPMENT COST COMPARISON Page 6 TABLE 2 – 3/4-12 DISPATCH STAFFING MATRIX – PRE-CAMP FIRE Page 12 TABLE 3 – 4/10, 3/12 DISPATCH SCHEDULE MATRIX Page 13
TABLE 4 – 3/4-12 DISPATCH SCHEDULE MATRIX – PATROL ALIGNED Page 13 TABLE 5 – PRE-CAMP FIRE POPULATION TRENDS Page 14
TABLE 6 – POST-CAMP FIRE POPULATION TRENDS THROUGH 2025 Page 15 TABLE 7 – POST-CAMP FIRE POPULATION TRENDS 2025 – 2045 Page 15 TABLE 8 – EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY CALL VOLUME Page 15 TABLE 9 – PARADISE PSAP PERSONNEL COSTS Page 19
TABLE 10 – PARADISE PSAP PROJECTED PERSONNEL COSTS Page 19 TABLE 11 – BCSO PSAP PROJECTED CONTRACT COSTS Page 20
TABLE 12 – PARADISE PSAP RADIO INFRASTRUCTURE Page 23
TABLE 13 – FIELD RADIO AND BRICS SUBSCRIPTION COSTS Page 24 TABLE 14 – TOTAL COST TO RESTORE PARADISE PSAP Page 25
TABLE 15 – TOTAL COST TO OUTSOURCE DISPATCH Page 25
TABLE 16 – TOTAL COST OF HYBRID DISPATCH APPROACH Page 26 206

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1. INTRODUCTION
As the Town of Paradise and its residents work to restore their lives and property in the wake of the devastating Camp Fire on November 8, 2018, the Paradise Police Department is working toward a long-term solution for Police Dispatch Services. There are multiple approaches available, and the Police Department has summarized the options into the following three categories:

1. Return full Dispatch Services to the Paradise Police Department Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), or Dispatch Center, solely utilizing Paradise Police Dispatch staff, dispatch equipment and radio networks.

2. Fully outsource Paradise Police Dispatch services to an outside agency, utilizing that agency’s PSAP, Dispatch staff, dispatch equipment and radio networks.

3. Hybridize with a combination of Paradise Police internal Dispatchers, equipment and radio networks with outside agency Dispatchers, equipment, or radio networks. This hybrid approach could be implemented for the long term or during a transition from the current contracted services to the full return of Paradise Dispatch services to the Paradise PSAP.

This report seeks to provide background information, evaluate the relevant data, describe each primary alternative, their cost, advantages, disadvantages, and provide a plan for the Police Department to follow to implement each of the alternatives.

2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Paradise Police Department opened on July 1, 1980. The first Paradise Police Dispatch Center was housed inside Paradise Fire Station 1, now known as Station 81, until the current Police Department building was completed. Leading up to the Camp Fire, Paradise Police Dispatch was staffed by six full-time Dispatchers and one to three parttime Dispatchers assisting with shift coverage as needed. Additionally, the Police Records unit was staffed by two half-time Records Clerks. A Dispatch/Records Supervisor was responsible for the unit, including Dispatch, Records and Evidence. The Services Division Lieutenant managed Dispatch and Records, and the technology and networks required to provide Dispatch services, among other tasks.

Paradise Police Dispatchers stayed busy handling emergency calls, non-emergency calls, supplemental Records tasks and many other collateral duties as needed. The Paradise Police Dispatch Center, though small in size, was efficient and the Paradise Police Department stayed at the forefront in adopting Public Safety technologies. This led to a 911 phone system interconnected with all other Butte County PSAPs, a robust VHF radio network with strong coverage throughout Town for mobiles and portables, and the adoption of an integrated computer aided dispatch (CAD) and records management system (RMS), that could communicate with four of the six other PSAPs in Butte County.

The Paradise Police Dispatch Center strove to work in a spirit of cooperation with the other PSAPs throughout Butte County. The Dispatch Supervisor and Services Division 207

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Lieutenant participated in regular meetings to collaborate with the other PSAPs on phone systems, radio systems, issues of interoperability of these systems, and policies and procedures to employ during disasters.

The Camp Fire, on November 8, 2018, exceeded the capacity of all the PSAPs throughout Butte County, and destroyed the networks that connected the Paradise Police Department’s phone and radio systems. The design of the phone system, however, allowed Paradise Police Dispatchers to immediately begin answering phones from the Chico Police Dispatch Center. With extensive assistance from the Town’s phone and Computer Aided Dispatch / Records Management System (CAD/RMS) vendors, as well as Butte County Information Systems personnel and Butte County Sheriff’s Information Systems personnel, the Paradise Police Department Dispatch function was up and running out of a temporary office within the Butte County Sheriff’s Dispatch Center in less than a week.

3. RADIO NETWORKS
Before the Camp Fire, the Town of Paradise had a robust, VHF radio network with multiple repeated and simplex frequencies for Police, Fire and Public Works. The system consisted of 5 receiver locations voted back to the transmitters via dedicated, copper wire phone circuits and 1 mountaintop receiver voted back via a UHF link. At the time of the fire, all the voter-receivers in the field were reaching the end of their useful life, and are no longer supported by the manufacturer for maintenance, parts or repairs. The fire burned the phone lines, disconnecting all 5 wire-line voters. It also shorted out the power to the remote, UHF voted site. Town Staff restored the remote voter site to be functional, however, we cannot reconnect the wire-line sites. The AT&T copper communications infrastructure in Town is being replaced with a fiber network, and the voters in place are incompatible with the fiber network.

Since the Camp Fire, the Paradise Police Department has been operating from a combination of what remains of the Paradise Police analog VHF radio network, the Butte County Sheriff’s analog VHF radio network, and the Butte Regional Interoperable Communications System (BRICS) 700 MHz digital, trunked network. With only one remaining voter, located on a remote mountaintop that is only accessible via private roads and completely inaccessible during periods of inclement weather, the Paradise Police analog VHF radio system cannot be relied upon as the sole means of daily radio communications between Dispatchers and Police Department personnel in the field. The Butte County Sheriff’s analog VHF network is now a secondary system for the Sheriff’s Office, and while the County continues to use it for many purposes, it provides poor quality service in many areas. For long-term planning, there is no guarantee of how long the County will continue to maintain it in usable condition for any period of time into the future.

The BRICS network is a modern, 700 MHz digital, trunked, P25 compliant radio network.

According to Butte County Communications, the network was designed and built for Butte County by Motorola. It has the capacity for all Butte County agencies, as well as the agencies of the local municipalities. The BRICS network can be configured to provide 208

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various talk-groups allowing the individual agencies to talk to each other within their own group, without interfering with the transmissions of other users in other talk groups. This would allow Paradise Police Officers, Paradise Public Works staff, Butte County Sheriff’s Deputies, or any other agency on the BRICS network, to talk to their respective coworkers, without members of the other agencies hearing what they are saying or having to wait for members of other groups to finish transmitting before talking to other members of their same group. In other words, Paradise Police Officers can be talking back and forth with each other in their talk group, while Paradise Public Works staff talk to each other in their talk group, all while Butte County Sheriff’s Deputies are talking to each other in their talk group, all simultaneously, without interfering with each other’s communications.

In the spring of 2019, the Town of Paradise commissioned Precision Wireless Service of Windsor, California, to evaluate the Town’s options for two-way radio communications.

Precision Wireless Service began by assessing the Town’s remaining radio infrastructure.

They then evaluated the options and general costs for the Town to rebuild a VHF system, for the Town to build its own 700 MHz network, or for the Town to join BRICS. They submitted their final report to the Town in April 2019.

The Precision Wireless Service report noted that reconnecting the Town’s remaining VHF system is not possible because the copper-wire network infrastructure connecting the voter receivers back to the comparator and transmitter was destroyed by the Camp Fire.

At the time of the report, the communications companies could not provide an estimate of when the new fiber optic phone or data networks would be completed. Additionally, cost estimates provided for communications service ranged into the thousands of dollars per month. This option was also disadvantageous in its reliance on wired networks to function, making it susceptible to damage and failure in any future wide-scale disaster.

The Precision Wireless Service report summarized an option to install a UHF radio network to backhaul signal from the voter-receivers to the comparator and transmitter.

However, this approach was not recommended because the voter-receivers and transmitters that would form the core of the network are no longer supported by the manufacturer and cannot be maintained or repaired by Motorola technicians.

The report adds the option to replace the obsolete VHF system components with a serviceable VHF radio network. This would, however, leave the Town on a VHF radio network that is not interoperable with the Butte County Sheriff’s communications on the new BRICS network. Since the long-term cost was similar to the cost of joining the BRICS network, the Town began working toward the Precision Wireless Service report’s third option of purchasing interoperable equipment to join the BRICS network.

Since the Precision Wireless Service report was completed, the Town has conducted significant research regarding what equipment would be required to join the BRICS network. Butte County requires equipment connecting to the BRICS network to be fully compatible with the network infrastructure and to work seamlessly with all other equipment on the network. The BRICS network is built on Motorola equipment and the 209

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best way to assure full compatibility and to minimize connectivity problems, is to utilize matching Motorola components.

The Town is moving to maximize Public Safety interoperability, both in the case of Law Enforcement and Fire personnel responding to Town to assist Paradise, and when Paradise Officers respond to neighboring jurisdictions to answer their calls for assistance.

To do this, radio consoles in Dispatch, mobile radios in Public Safety vehicles and portable radios assigned to Public Safety staff should be multi-band models that can operate within the BRICS network as well as on the conventional VHF and UHF networks of surrounding agencies. Public Works and other Town personnel who do not generally respond to public safety emergencies outside of Town, can be outfitted with single band mobile and portable radios that operate within the BRICS network only. This will provide interoperability with their Butte County counterparts, at a notable cost savings.

The County does charge a per-subscriber unit monthly fee to operate within the BRICS network. In the long-term, this cost will largely be offset by savings to the Town from not having to purchase, maintain and replace significant, costly, radio network infrastructure. 3a. Radio Solution Cost Comparison
The below table compares the total estimated cost for the three viable approaches to repairing or replacing the Town of Paradise radio networks including Dispatch radio equipment, as well as the projected total cumulative costs at 5-years and 10-years out.

There are advantages and disadvantages of each approach. The estimated costs for utilizing Town-owned VHF networks include the replacement of the obsolete Dispatch radio systems as well as the approximately 104 portable and mobile radios deployed throughout Town departments. These new radios would be multi-band or single-band radios, depending on the application, capable of accessing the BRICS network for mutual aid communications.

Table-1 – Replacement Radio Equipment Cost Comparison
To replace all the field VHF equipment and provide new VHF networks built on the existing Town of Paradise licensed frequencies, or a new 700 MHz network for the Town of Paradise, the Precision Wireless report provided a budgetary estimated cost of $2,100,000 for the network equipment. This cost is in addition to the cost to replace the Dispatch consoles and the mobile and portable radios. This leads to the budgetary estimated cost of $3,514897.57 to replace the current networks with new Town VHF or 700 MHz networks. This initial equipment cost is more than the initial cost of $1,667,629.57 to move to the Butte County owned BRICS network, as well as the 5-year and 10-year costs, including the BRICS licensing and subscription fees. However, this cost comparison does not include any maintenance costs for the new VHF system, or any RADIO SOLUTION INITIAL COST ANNUAL COST 5-YEAR COST 10-YEAR COST BRICS 700 MHz Trunked Network $1,667,629.57 $97,251.60 $2,153,887.57 $2,640,145.57 New Town VHF Networks $3,514,897.57 $39,594.00 $3,712,867.57 $3,910,837.57 New Town 700 MHz Trunked Network $3,514,897.57 $39,594.00 $3,712,867.57 $3,910,837.57 210

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future replacement costs budgeted to replace the equipment in the new VHF network as it ages.

This leads to one of the greatest advantages of moving to the BRICS network. In a time when radio technicians that can design, install, maintain, and repair radio networks are generally approaching retirement, new technicians are not coming into the field. This has led the Town to face challenges in finding competent technicians working for responsive companies who can maintain and repair the equipment and networks the Town owns.

Butte County maintains in-house radio technicians, that maintain and repair County owned radio equipment in the BRICS network. By moving to the BRICS network, the Town only needs to maintain or repair Town owned equipment. The Town will own all mobile and portable radios installed in Town vehicles or issued to Town personnel, and all Dispatch radio console equipment. However, if the Town commits to maintaining a fleet of equipment that is supported by the manufacturer, meaning generally less than about 10-years old, the equipment manufacturers will support this work through local or regional vendors. The maintenance and repair of the primary network equipment though, would be the responsibility of the County. Included in the licensing and network access fees the County is charging, are reserve funds designated to cover the cost of the future replacement of the network equipment. This takes a tremendous responsibility off the Town, and leaves it in the hands of dedicated, professional, radio technicians and network personnel, employed by the owner of the network, Butte County.

4. EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY PHONE SYSTEMS
All local Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP), or Dispatch Centers, in Butte County have interconnected phone systems. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office, California State University, Chico Police Department, Chico Police Department, Gridley Police Department, Oroville Police Department, the Paradise Police Department, and until recently the Cal-Fire Oroville ECC, all share the same networked phone system. All 911 emergency, 10-digit emergency and non-emergency calls come through duplicative servers within the network and are routed to the appropriate PSAP.

This shared network approach provides extensive PSAP interoperability. If a PSAP begins receiving more 911 calls than they can answer, calls that the PSAP of jurisdiction cannot answer are automatically forwarded to a pre-designated backup PSAP. This way, even in times of heavy call volume, 911 calls do not go unanswered. Additionally, the shared network approach allows the flexibility for a PSAP to be evacuated for whatever reason, such as during the Camp Fire or in 2017 when Lake Oroville began flowing over the top of the Oroville Dam and began to structurally undermine the dam, threatening to flood the PSAPs of the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, the Gridley Police Department, and the Oroville Police Department. The affected Dispatchers were able to move to any of the other networked PSAPs, log into the phone network from the host agency’s computers and access the evacuated PSAP’s phone system.

In the days, weeks, months, and now years after the Camp Fire, this interoperability of PSAPs has been beneficial beyond what had ever been imagined. When the Camp Fire 211

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began rapidly advancing into upper Concow on November 8, 2018, 911 calls placed in Concow that the Butte County Sheriff’s Office Dispatchers were not able to answer, were routed to the other networked PSAPs, including the Paradise Police Department. When the fire began spotting ahead into Town, the Paradise Police Dispatch Supervisor was able to contact the Chico Police Department and transfer all incoming 911 calls to the Chico Police PSAP. The 10-digit phone lines coming into Dispatch cannot as easily be transferred from within the system, so by forwarding all the 911 calls to Chico, the Paradise Dispatchers were able to answer the calls coming in on the 10-digit lines. This maximized the capacity of the system by distributing the calls more evenly to match the call volume to the Dispatchers available to answer them.

When the Camp Fire burned through the phone lines connecting the Paradise Police PSAP to the phone network at 10:20 AM, the Paradise PSAP was no longer able to receive any calls. Since the Paradise calls forwarded to Chico, Paradise Dispatchers were able to evacuate to the Chico Police PSAP, log into the phone network, and answer Paradise phone calls as soon as they could drive to the Chico Police PSAP.

These emergency and non-emergency phone systems are funded through the California Office of Emergency Services – 911 Branch (911 Branch). The funding is levels are set, based on the volume of calls received by the PSAP. In Butte County, since all the 911 calls come through the shared host servers, the PSAPs have broken up the network and server costs by dividing those costs by the 23 dispatch consoles in the PSAPs throughout the County. The agencies then use the remaining funds to purchase and maintain the phone equipment at their own sites. Under this formula, Paradise’s 911 funds are applied to cover 3/23 of the total network and server costs.

The last funding cycle ended in 2016. However, due to several issues with the California State vendor contracts that the agencies must use to purchase the equipment, the County-wide purchase and installation of the new equipment was delayed until the Fall of 2019. Based on the Paradise PD PSAP call volumes sampled by the 911 Branch, the Town received a funding allotment of $330,000. Of this, Paradise was responsible for a total of $214,179.95 in costs for network and call handling equipment purchase and installation. The remaining $115,820.05 of Paradise’s allotment was spent on local equipment to finish the project. One challenge with Paradise not restoring the full PSAP in a timely manner will be a potentially significant reduction in funding allotment, exposing the Town to the liability for a significant portion of the Town’s responsibility for these costs during the next upgrade in calendar year 2025.

5. CAD SYSTEMS
In early 2011, the Paradise Police Department transitioned the Department’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS), Training Management System (TMS), Evidence tracking, Department equipment inventory tracking systems to a consolidated system called RIMS from Sun Ridge Systems in nearby El Dorado Hills, California. The California State University, Chico Police Department, the Gridley Police Department, and the Oroville Police Department have all utilized RIMS for many years as 212

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well. In early 2018, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office joined the other local agencies and transitioned to RIMS. During the current 2021/2022 Fiscal Year, the Chico Police Department is also transitioning to RIMS.

RIMS has proven itself to be a very reliable system, with incredible flexibility in deployment and interoperability between other RIMS agencies. With the configuration that the Paradise Police Department and the other local agencies share, called Collaborative RIMS, each RIMS agency within Butte County can access basic information from the other agencies RIMS databases. For example, if the Paradise Police Department is checking for local history with a person or a vehicle, they could also direct RIMS to check one or all of the other RIMS agencies in Butte County to see if they have history with that person or vehicle.

This level of CAD interoperability was highly beneficial after the Camp Fire. In the initial days after the Camp Fire, Paradise Police Dispatchers were working from the Chico Police Dispatch Center. Unfortunately, the Chico Police utilized a different CAD system instead of RIMS. Chico provided Paradise Dispatchers with log-in credentials to their CAD system, allowing Paradise Dispatchers to enter information into incidents, however, these incidents were locked in the Chico Police CAD system.

Within a week after the fire swept through Town, technical support staff from the Town, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office and RIMS, and the Town’s emergency phone service contractor, were able to integrate Paradise PD RIMS into the Butte County Sheriff’s RIMS server and stand-up new Dispatching consoles, allowing Paradise Dispatchers to begin providing service from the Butte County Sheriff’s PSAP. Paradise Police and Butte County Sheriff’s Dispatchers were able to answer each other’s phone lines as needed and share CAD incidents between the Paradise PD and Butte County Sheriff’s RIMS systems. Once the phone network in Paradise had been restored to the phone company’s Paradise Central Office and extended to the Paradise Police Department, Paradise RIMS was able to be transferred back to the Paradise PD PSAP server, transferring all of the incidents created during the time Paradise worked out of the Sheriff’s PSAP with it.

In the months after the Camp Fire, the Paradise Police PSAP staffing fell to a critical level.

Initially the Butte County Sheriff’s Office worked with the Paradise Police Department to cover some Dispatch shifts as needed. However, beginning July 1, 2019, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office required the Paradise Police Department to begin transitioning to a full-time Dispatch contract with the Sheriff’s Office for the Town to continue to receive staffing assistance. As a result, between July 1, 2019, and January 1, 2020, the Paradise Police PSAP functions transitioned from being serviced by Paradise Police Department staff full-time, to being contracted to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office full-time. The interoperability of the Paradise Police and Butte County Sheriff’s RIMS systems became a critical piece of this transition.

Once the Butte County Sheriff’s Office began assisting the Paradise Police Department with the Dispatching functions, when Butte County Sheriff’s Dispatchers received Paradise Police calls, they created incidents in the Butte County Sheriff’s RIMS system, 213

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then transferred them to the Paradise Police RIMS system. Once the incidents were delivered to the Paradise RIMS system, Paradise staff was able to process them to create Case Reports for the incidents that required it and for further processing by the Officers.

Although convenient for general sharing of information, the constant sharing of incidents between the interconnected RIMS agencies became cumbersome over time. Town Technical Staff was able to establish Virtual Machines (VM) within the Paradise RIMS server and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to connect the Sheriff’s Office Dispatch consoles to the Paradise RIMS VMs. This allowed the Butte County Sheriff’s Dispatchers to create and edit incidents and case numbers, directly within the Paradise Police RIMS system. Paradise Records Staff still processes each incident to complete the incident information, attach the required documents and edit the incidents to properly fill the Paradise Police Department Public Log.

There are continuing issues with connectivity, maintenance and the ongoing upgrades to the Town and County RIMS systems. Subsequently, the Town sought to further refine these processes and determined that RIMS offers a second deployment architecture that provides a better platform for multiple agencies to share information, called Multi-Agency RIMS. Instead of each agency deploying their own RIMS system on their own server, Multi-Agency RIMS is a single RIMS solution installed on the host agency’s server. All other agencies sharing the Multi-Agency RIMS deployment securely connect to the host server to access RIMS and the ancillary programs such as the evidence, training, and inventory tracking modules. The underlying database is shared, so that if one agency checks for history with an individual, an address, a car, etc., the inquiry searches the shared database for all contacts, no matter what agency had the contact. It also allows for Dispatchers to create incidents for multiple agencies and transfer the incidents to the other agencies without sharing the information between separate systems and servers.

In February of 2020, RIMS estimated the Town’s cost to upgrade to Multi-Agency RIMS to be $40,000, with an additional $6,420 of work that would need to be done at the County’s servers. Beyond that there will be annual support and maintenance costs to the agency hosting the RIMS server, that the Town would likely be responsible for a prorated portion of. No matter which approach the Town takes for Dispatch services, the Town should move to a Multi-Agency RIMS configuration.

6. Virtually Consolidated Dispatch
Nationwide, there is a push to consolidate Dispatch Centers. All local PSAPs throughout Butte County have been moving from an individual agency approach to a virtually consolidated approach for years, by mutual cooperation and concentrating on improving interagency interoperability at every opportunity. All the local agencies, however, agree that continuing to run parallel PSAPs for each jurisdiction provides more benefits to each agency than consolidating some or all PSAPs into a single, consolidated PSAP site. For the smaller agencies, such as the Gridley Police Department, the Oroville Police Department and the Paradise Police Department, Dispatchers provide multiple additional services.
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When the Paradise Police Department outsourced Dispatch to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, two (2) full-time Records processing personnel were required to replace the two (2) part-time Records Clerks that handled all the Paradise Police Records functions prior to the Camp Fire. After the Camp Fire, when Paradise PSAP services were provided by Paradise Police Dispatchers, the on-duty Dispatchers were able to process the Records tasks while working in Dispatch. After returning the Paradise PSAP to the Paradise Police Department facility, Paradise Dispatchers were also able to assist people as they came into the Paradise Police lobby. With Dispatch outsourced, if there is not a CSO or VIP in the front Records office, people coming into the Paradise Police Station have to use a phone to call Dispatch at the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, for them to notify Paradise staff to assist them. The Town’s cost to maintain Records staff will be a cost that must be considered when outsourcing Dispatch services.

Maintaining separate but interoperable and virtually consolidated PSAPs in geographically diverse areas of the County, instead of physically consolidating PSAPs, allows the local Public Safety agencies to be better prepared for a greater variety of calamities. In the 2017 Oroville Dam failure for example, while the PSAPs physically located below Oroville Dam had to be evacuated, the PSAPs in Chico and Paradise remained fully operational. When the Camp Fire happened, the Paradise PSAP had to be evacuated but all the others remained operational. When the first PSPS happened, PG&E unexpectedly cut the Sheriff’s Office power. The generators for some of the Sheriff’s Office facilities failed, and had the Sheriff’s Dispatch Center needed to evacuate, they could have moved to any other of the interconnected PSAPs in the County. What the Town has learned from all these significant events of the past 5 years, is that geographical diversity of interconnected, virtually consolidated PSAPs, provides significant advantages over a single, consolidated PSAP location.

The Multi-Agency RIMS approach would not only simplify the current connections to allow the Sheriff’s Office to provide Dispatch services to the Town until the Town can restore Dispatch services in the Paradise PSAP, it also completes the interoperability of Dispatch services for all the participating agencies. With Multi-Agency RIMS, any Dispatcher, from any of the participating agencies, can log into their own RIMS from any PSAP connected to the multi-Agency host server. With this approach, if a PSAP must be evacuated for any reason, the evacuated Dispatchers can respond to any other PSAP in the network, log into Multi-Agency RIMS under their own agency, log into the phone network under their own agency, and, as long as the Dispatch radio consoles share this same level of interoperability, can perform all functions of dispatching from any of the inter-connected PSAPs. By moving to the BRICS radio network and Multi-Agency RIMS, the Paradise PSAP will complete the installation of networks and equipment needed for a virtually consolidated dispatch approach. Not only will Paradise Dispatchers be able to access Paradise PD RIMS and Paradise PSAP phones from any of the interconnected PSAPs, Paradise Police Dispatchers will also be able to log into the BRICS network from the Paradise PSAP Dispatch consoles, or Dispatch consoles at any of the other PSAP’s utilizing Multi-Agency RIMS and the BRICS network.
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Currently, the Gridley Police Department and the Oroville Police Department are working toward joining the BRICS network. Due to the size of the Chico Police Department radio fleet, the City of Chico is working in parallel to create their own 700 MHz radio network.

They are working with the County to enable their 700 MHz network to be interoperable with the BRICS network for mutual aid purposes. Chico is also currently evaluating the possibility of joining a county-wide Multi-Agency RIMS deployment. This means that if Paradise Police Dispatchers were to work from the Chico PSAP, just as with any other participating agencies, they could access all the networks and systems that they would need to fully function as a Paradise Police Dispatcher.

Records functions were handled by two (2) part-time Records Clerks, who together worked a combined 36-hours per week. Dispatch was covered by three (3) shifts per day.

Day Shift was 0600-1800, Swing Shift was 1100-2300, and the Graveyard Shift was 1800- 0600. The Dispatch & Records Supervisor worked Monday – Thursday, 0700-1700 and was able to cover a Dispatch console as needed, in between performing supervisory and management duties.

Monday – Thursday, this provided for two (2) Dispatchers 0700-1100, three (3) Dispatchers 1100-1700, two (2) Dispatchers 1700-2300 and a solo Dispatcher 2300- 0700. This provided a total of 46 hours of Dispatch coverage each day. On Friday – Sunday, when the Dispatch & Records Supervisor was off-duty, this staffing level was reduced by one (1) Dispatcher available for the hours the Dispatch & Records Supervisor worked. This left two (2) Dispatchers working 1100-2300 and a solo Dispatcher 2300- 1100. As Table 2 below shows, out of a 168-hour week, Dispatch was staffed with three (3) Dispatchers for 40 hours, two (2) Dispatchers for 76 hours and a solo Dispatcher for 68 hours. This provided a total of 36 hours of Dispatch coverage each of these days.

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create CAD incidents when they answer phone calls for the overwhelmed center, or potentially even to assist with radio traffic.

Even with the phones being answered from every possible access point, there were more calls coming in than could humanly be answered. That triggered the Dispatch & Records Supervisor to begin forwarding all 911 calls to an alternate PSAP so Paradise Dispatchers could handle the calls coming in on the 10-digit lines. While it is desirable to have the maximum number of Dispatchers working during any significant calamity, it is indefensible to fund enough staffing to handle the most extreme events 24/7, when only handling regular, daily call volume. Maximizing the hours of staffing of more than one Dispatcher and having a virtually consolidated dispatch system in place to reroute 911 calls when a PSAP becomes overwhelmed with calls from a significant incident, provides a good balance of minimizing costs and maximizing PSAP services.

TABLE 3 – 4/10, 3/12 DISPATCH SCHEDULE MATRIX
TABLE 4 – 3/4-12 DISPATCH SCHEDULE MATRIX – PATROL ALIGNED

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8. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
There are several interrelated factors that affect the staffing and equipment needs for a successful PSAP. The population of the jurisdiction and crime rates are primary drivers for emergency or non-emergency call volume and the resultant Law Enforcement activity.

The following analysis of this data for the Town of Paradise comparative to that of Butte County intends to provide insight into the Dispatch needs for the Town in the current circumstance of the Butte County Sheriff’s Office PSAP providing Dispatch services to the Town of Paradise.
8a. Population
There are unfortunately, some statistical challenges to understanding the actual volume of calls made to Paradise Police Dispatch and the Town’s population that will have to be overcome with predictive analytics and comparative analysis. The actual population of the Town from incorporation (1980) until the Camp Fire (2018) is listed in 5-year increments in the below table. While the Town population grew by approximately 17% in this time, this growth primarily occurred between incorporation and 1995. From 1995 until the Camp Fire, the Town population remained relatively steady at 26,000-26,500.

TABLE 5 – PRE-CAMP FIRE POPULATION TRENDS
Estimates of the future population growth of the Town vary widely, depending on the modeling and assumptions used. The population growth of the Town of Paradise since the Camp Fire is challenged by the State of California being tightly locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have constricted the growth due to supply chain gaps, materials costs and labor shortages that occurred as a direct result of the pandemic.

Conversely, growth may have been artificially high since the fire due to a variety of other variables. The greatest likely growth influence for this year was the timelines of people receiving insurance settlements for their Camp Fire losses, as well as the length of time required to work through the process of clearing lots of fire debris, cutting hazardous trees, restoring utilities, and designing, permitting, and building a replacement home.

These vast variables create significant challenges in predicting future Town population, and the resultant facilities and services the Town will need to provide to serve that population. To generate more reliable, long-term estimates, the Town contracted with consulting firm Management Partners to perform a thorough analysis and generate predictions of future growth in population and Town revenues for Town planning purposes. Management Partners, estimated the population of the Town within a range from conservative to more aggressive rates, depending on the evolution of multiple financial, social, and environmental variables. Within this range, they set the most likely growth rates and developed final estimates of future population. With the highest growth YEAR 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2018
POPULATION 22,571 23,300 25,401 26,132 26,408 26,403 26,188 26,170 26,423 CHANGE - 3.23% 9.02% 2.88% 1.06% -0.02% -0.81% -0.07% 0.97% 218

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rates of 33.71% in 2021, 24.77% in 2022, 19.50% in 2023, 16.02% in 2024 and 13.55% in 2025. They projected the Town of Paradise population will be 12,164 people in 2025.

TABLE 6 – POST-CAMP FIRE POPULATION TRENDS THROUGH 2025 After 2025, the projected growth rates reduce to single digits, with projected populations of 15,710 in 2030, 19,166 in 2035 and 21,365 by 2040.

TABLE 7 – POST-CAMP FIRE POPULATION TRENDS 2025 – 2045

9. EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY CALL VOLUME
Table 8 shows that in the 3 years prior to the Camp Fire, on average the Paradise Police Department received 14,005 emergency 911 calls, created 23,934 CAD incidents, and initiated 3,739 criminal reports per year. After the Camp Fire, for the years of 2019, 2020, and 2021, these average annual statistics significantly reduced to 3,301 emergency 911 calls, 11,372 CAD incidents, and 1,482 criminal reports per year. Of note, the number of emergency 911 calls increased from 2,353 in 2019 to 3,597 in 2020, a 75% increase. In 2021, 911 calls increased to 4,171, a 15% increase over 2020 and a 100% increase over 2019. Conversely, CAD Incidents decreased from 12,385 in 2019 to 10,758 in 2020, a 15% decrease, and only rebounded slightly to 10,946 in 2021 a 2% increase from 2020.

Reports also decreased from 1,566 in 2019 to 1,538 in 2020, a 2% decrease, and to 1,341 in 2021, a 13% decrease from 2020. While difficult to identify the specific cause of this inverse relationship between increasing 911 calls and decreasing CAD incidents and reports, with a population increase of only 3% 2019 to 2020, it suggests that more people may be actively calling to report the same incidents.

TABLE 8 – EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY CALL VOLUME
Note: Yellow highlighted cells are estimates, Green highlighted cells are statistical outliers and Gray highlighted cells have no data available.

YEAR 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
POPULATION 4,590 4,631 6,192 7,726 9,233 10,712 12,164
CHANGE - 0.89% 33.71% 24.77% 19.50% 16.02% 13.55%
YEAR 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045
POPULATION 12,164 15,710 19,166 21,365 23,563
CHANGE - 29.16% 22.00% 11.47% 10.29%
911 10-DIGIT AVG/HR CAD 911 10-DIGIT AVG/HR CAD
2016 15,214 59,663 8.55 22,540 31,199 94,542 14.35
2017 13,977 54,812 7.85 25,591 30,014 90,952 13.81
2018 12,825 50,294 7.21 23,672 30,412 92,158 13.99 50,876 2019 2,088 8,188 1.17 12,385 27,776 84,170 12.78 50,860 2020 3,643 14,833 2.11 10,785 32,881 99,639 15.13 54,673 2021 4,171 16,056 2.31 10,946 28,476 85,944 13.06 64,939

PARADISE BUTTE COUNTY YEAR
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The California Office of Emergency Services, 911 Branch (Cal-OES 911), sets the regulations and standards for PSAP’s in California. One of the standards set by Cal-OES 911 is that California PSAP’s must answer 95% incoming 911 calls within 15 seconds.

According to data provided by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriff’s PSAP falls short of this standard, answering an average of only 92% of 911 calls within the required 15 seconds. While this is close to achieving standards, adding additional responsibilities to the BCSO Dispatchers will negatively affect answer times, and therefore negatively affect the level of customer service provided to Paradise residents. Before the Camp Fire, Sheriff’s dispatch handled on average 3.48 9-1-1 calls per hour. Beginning in 2020 after the Camp Fire, call volume rose slightly to 3.75 9-1-1 calls per hour. If BCSO Dispatchers are unable to answer less than 95% of less than four (4) 911 calls per hour within 15 seconds, one must assume there are many other responsibilities impeding their 911 answer times.
9a. 10-Digit Call Volume
There are many factors that play into a PSAP’s ability to meet Cal-OES 911 call answer time standards. These include handling radio traffic, researching information and providing information to Officers in the field, handling a variety of routine Records Department tasks and answering non-emergency calls. The non-emergency calls take a significant amount of a Dispatchers time. These calls come from people reporting nonemergency crimes, needing general information, requesting to speak to Police Officers, or who need to be referred to other personnel or outside agencies. In these calls, the Dispatchers have the greatest opportunity to assist the general population, with the Town’s philosophy of service to the public. However, when the volume of calls and other work performed by Dispatchers is so great that they are unable to answer 95% of an average of four (4) incoming 911 calls per hour within 15 seconds, the quality of service provided to non-emergency callers can degrade significantly.

Solid statistics of calls to the Paradise Police Department’s 10-digit numbers are not available for the considered period of time prior to the Camp Fire due to technical shortcomings in the phone network. The equipment to track non-emergency calls was installed in Fall 2019, allowing the Paradise Police Department to more accurately track this data for calendar years 2020 and 2021. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office was also unable to provide reliable numbers of non-emergency calls into their PSAP prior to 2021.

To estimate the number of non-emergency calls that would come into the Paradise PSAP, the available data will establish an estimated ratio of emergency to non-emergency calls processed by the Paradise PSAP and the Butte County Sheriff’s Office PSAP will be examined.

In general, approximately 15-25% of calls into PSAPs are emergency calls, while the rest come in on 10-digit lines. The limited data available suggests that in 2019 the 911 calls consisted of only about 10% of phone calls handled by the Paradise PSAP. In 2020, the data shows that approximately 25% of calls handled by the Paradise PSAP were 911 calls, and in 2021 approximately 26% of Paradise PSAP calls were 911 calls. Due to the 220

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limited data from 2019 being so divergent from 2020, we will consider the 25.5% average of calls into the Paradise PSAP being 911 calls from 2020 to 2021 as the average percentage to estimate 911 calls for 2016 through 2018.

For the same period of time, the only 10-digit call data available for the BCSO PSAP is from 2021, when their 911 calls consisted of only 33% of total calls handled by BCSO Dispatchers. This 33% ratio of 911 calls was applied to the actual reported number of 911 calls for 2016-2020, for the estimated 10-digit call volumes noted in Table 8 above.

10.BCSO PSAP MOU
The Dispatch services provided to the Town by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, and the cost of those services, are defined by the “Memorandum of Understanding Between the County of Butte, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, the Town of Paradise and the Paradise Police Department,” (MOU) valid through July 7, 2024. The MOU provides that “BCSO shall provide public safety dispatch services to the TOWN per the Schedule in Exhibit A.” The MOU excepts BCSO from providing Paradise PD Records functions, and states that “Once BCSO PSAP staff are handling TOWN PSAP functions 100% of the time, BCSO will communicate with TOWN personnel on a separate radio frequency, designated for the TOWN. Exceptions to this can be made on a case-by-case basis upon agreement by TOWN and BCSO supervisory personnel to accommodate BCSO PSAP staffing shortages, such as during an unfilled sick-call shift.” BCSO began providing dispatch services to the Town full time on January 1, 2020. There have been several challenges with this solution since implementation. Many of the challenges have been technical problems with equipment, software, and communications connections, that have largely been resolved as they arose. Unfortunately, this approach of solving problems as they arise has created a situation where the Town of Paradise has a “unique RIMS deployment.” This unique deployment has created another set of challenges, requiring custom edits of RIMS software each year when we upgrade to the newest version. Other problems that have come up along the way have been personnel related, whether it be procedural in CAD / RMS, or customer service related. Police Department Supervisory and Management Staff have brought some of these issues to the attention of BCSO PSAP Supervisory and Management personnel. As personnel issues go, the Town is not privy to the outcome of these specific incidents. However, based on the continuing incidents of BCSO PSAP staff not meeting the customer service standards that the Paradise Police Department expects of our staff, and Town residents expect of their public servants, it appears that the issues continue to not be sufficiently addressed within the BCSO.

The greatest challenge faced by the Town so far, however, is that BCSO has failed to fulfill the clause that states “BCSO will communicate with TOWN personnel on a separate radio frequency, designated for the TOWN.” Initially, it was understood that BCSO’s lack of sufficient staffing was being addressed and the separate communications would be provided soon after taking over Dispatch services on a fulltime basis. However, at the time of this report over one and one-half years later, it is a rare exception that BCSO 221

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provides this separate communications channel. This leads to numerous problems, especially for the safety of Paradise Police Officers, Animal Control Officers, Town Code Enforcement and Public Works staff, and Police volunteers.

There is a large amount of radio traffic on BCSO’s primary talk group, which causes radio traffic to be missed or Civilian Staff to hesitate to use the radio. When Police Officers do use the radio, they have frequently been left to feel like “second class” priorities by Dispatchers who have directed them to wait to transmit then never coming back to them, by failing to hold traffic until the Officers have advised that they are “Code 4,” or failing to provide information on the license, parole, probation, or warrant status of subjects the Officers are out with. In the worst cases, BCSO Dispatchers have provided incorrect information to Officers that led Officers to take unwarranted enforcement actions or to overlook enforcement opportunities that should have been acted upon. At times these errors were quickly found by PPD personnel, however, at other times the problem wasn’t detected until found by Records staff days later. There is no clause in the MOU to enforce the roles the BCSO PSAP is contracted to provide, and the Town has grown weary of advising BCSO Supervisory and Management personnel of the many shortcomings only to have the same issues continue.

11.FISCAL ANALYSIS OF IN-HOUSE, EXTERNAL AND HYBRID DISPATCH

SERVICES
Every level of government service provided has a financial component. Here, Town of Paradise and Butte County Sheriff’s PSAP staffing costs will be broken down for comparison and consideration. This report will consider the Butte County Sheriff’s PSAP costs to provide a relative cost comparison between the cost of in-house PSAP services and out-sourced PSAP services, since the Town currently has an MOU with BCSO and the BCSO costs have already been identified. The wages and benefits of the Paradise Dispatchers are defined under the Town of Paradise Memorandum of Understanding with the Paradise Police Officers Association. To simplify the analysis, the cost of a middle step Dispatcher will account for average costs of new and experienced Dispatchers. In multi-year analysis, this report will only account for 5% step raises for Paradise PSAP personnel. It will not attempt to factor in future employee cost increases. One-time costs to purchase the equipment necessary to begin Dispatching on the BRICS 700 MHz network, along with annual costs for subscriptions and maintenance, will also be provided for consideration of the long-term costs.
11a. Paradise Police PSAP
A fully staffed Paradise PSAP following the model set by pre-Camp Fire operations, would employ 6 full-time Dispatchers working 12-hour shifts, providing coverage 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The current Support Services Supervisor position would supervise the PSAP and Dispatchers. Under this model, the Police Department would not employ Records Clerks until population and workload demand additional assistance in this area.

Instead, Dispatch personnel would handle various Records tasks, and the Support Services Supervisor would continue responsibility for managing the flow of Public 222

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Records Act (PRA) requests and the Evidence unit. This staffing approach is predicted to be sufficient for the workload through the ten (10) years considered here. As shown in Table 9 below, the pre-Camp Fire cost to staff Dispatch in FY 2014-15 was $397,350, FY2015-16 was $447,703, FY 2016-17 was $483,714 and FY 2017-18 was $463,182.

These figures do not include the cost of the Dispatch Supervisor and Records personnel, as the cost to supervise the Dispatch and Records processes, and to process the records will be required whether Dispatch Services are internal or external to the Town.

TABLE 9 – PARADISE PSAP PERSONNEL COSTS FY2015-18
The current average annual cost of a mid-step Paradise Police Dispatcher is $103,854.

It is not realistic to expect the Police Department to recruit and train six (6) full-time Public Safety Dispatchers to start on a specific cut-over date when PPD would reopen it’s PSAP.

Instead, PPD will hire and train Dispatchers one at a time, and phase-in the return of its PSAP over as many as 4 years.

The Communications Training Program (CTP) consists of a scheduled 20-week training program, followed by on-going supervision and training for the remainder of the 18-month probationary period. While PPD hopes to hire some lateral Dispatchers, who would have a shortened CTP as they can demonstrate competence to PPD standards, for this analysis we will consider the standard 20-week training period. In this case, it would take a total of 120 weeks of training to completely train six (6) new Dispatchers. Considering that the only current PPD staff member who can work as the CTO for these 120 weeks of training, is the current Support Services Supervisor, it is important to consider the stress of working as a CTO, and that this CTO will need to take time off throughout this period.

To accommodate this need, we will add six (6) additional weeks to the total training time for a total of 126 weeks. Considering the time requirements of the hiring process, we will consider the costs of fully implementing the PPD PSAP spread over a three (3) year period, phasing in two (2) new Dispatchers per year. To account for step increases, an additional 5% is added to the Dispatch personnel costs per year for the first three years, accounting for the initial annual cost being based on the mid-step salary costs, and allowing for the Dispatchers to advance to top step.

TABLE 10 – PARADISE PSAP PROJECTED PERSONNEL COSTS
There are many advantages to Paradise PD returning Dispatch services to an internal PSAP. The most obvious is the internal control over quality of service and service FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18
Salary $214,696.33 $239,699.67 $274,320.27 $242,039.83
Overtime $26,941.90 $33,261.48 $33,314.38 $39,624.83
Benefits & Deductions $85,869.32 $110,164.97 $116,861.28 $114,303.11 PERS Unfunded Liability $0.00 $5,603.59 $7,410.96 $9,586.75 Retiree Costs Medical Insurance $69,842.91 $58,982.88 $51,807.56 $57,627.19 TOTAL $397,350.46 $447,712.60 $483,714.45 $463,181.71
PSAP FY 2022/23 FY 2023/24 FY 2024/25
Paradise PD Dispatch $207,708.00 $425,801.40 $654,799.47 223

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philosophies. With internal Dispatch services and employees, Dispatchers can be trained to process calls to PPD standards, to enter CAD data in the ways that are most beneficial to PPD statistical tracking and information retrieval, to provide relevant local information to non-emergency callers, maintain close ties with Paradise Police Officers, Animal Control Officers, Community Service Officers and other Town employees, and to be aware of the community and arising or ongoing problems. Dispatchers can also be emboldened to work from the perspective of the community building and enforcement philosophies of the Department and the Town.

The primary disadvantages to internal services, however, cannot be ignored. Internal Dispatchers will not be exposed to the volume of calls coming in or the variety of situations being reported. Internal Dispatch services must also staff the PSAP 24/7 without the benefit of a larger pool of employees to draw upon to cover these shifts. While the portable and mobile radios will need to be replaced whether the Town returns to an internal Dispatch center or outsources Dispatch services, committing to fully outsourcing Dispatch services does reduce the one-time cost of replacing the Dispatch radio consoles. 11b. Butte County Sheriff’s Dispatch Services
By contrast the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding for BCSO to provide Dispatch Service to the PPD sets an annual cost for these services through June 30, 2024. It accelerates by approximately 3% each year, beginning at $335,472.25 for FY2019-2020, then $346,000.91 for FY 2020-2021, $357,454.89 for FY2021-2022, $369,020.83 for FY2022-2023 and ending at $380,151.50 for FY2023-2024. There are additional charges possible for overtime costs, however, to this point BCSO has not fulfilled their commitment to dedicate staffing to the PPD, so there should not be any overtime costs accrued to date. Due to the minimal likelihood of this cost occurring under the remaining term of the MOU, it will not be considered here.

While outsourcing Dispatch services under any scenario, PPD must cover additional internal personnel costs to fulfill the necessary functions on the backend to provide Records services and conform CAD records created by BCSO to PPD standards. PPD is currently having a CSO work fulltime in the Records Unit, under the Support Services Supervisor. To compare the costs of our current outsourcing contract to the cost of restoring an in-house PSAP, this additional Records Unit cost will be added. The Support Services Supervisor is required for either approach, so will not be included for the comparison.

TABLE 11 – BCSO PSAP PROJECTED CONTRACT COSTS
As mentioned above, there are advantages to committing to outsourcing Paradise Dispatch services for the long-term. The most significant short and long-term negative PSAP FY 2022/23 FY 2023/24 FY 2024/25
External Contractor $369,020.83 $380,151.50 $391,617.90 Paradise PD Records $83,320.00 $87,486.00 $91,860.30
External Total $452,340.83 $467,637.50 $483,478.20
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impact of committing to fully outsourcing Dispatch services, is the significant hurdles the Town will have to overcome to reopen a Dispatch center in the future. The Cal-OES 911 Branch requires an emergency call volume of 1200 911-calls per month to consider funding a new PSAP. The Town was running right around this threshold prior to the Camp Fire, and it is predicted to take well beyond 10-years to return to this level of service. This means that to commit to outsourcing Dispatch services for even the coming few years, would likely commit the Town to fully outsourcing Dispatch services for the coming two decades or more. Additionally, California standards require PSAP’s to answer 95% of all 911 calls within 15 seconds. BCSO Dispatch has failed to meet this metric over the past five years, even prior to adding Paradise call volume.

The current MOU to outsource Dispatch services to BCSO lacks any ability for the Town to set a minimal level of service quality. Service failures by BCSO Dispatchers can be reported to BCSO Dispatch Supervisory and Management personnel, however, there is no requirement that BCSO takes any action to remedy the problem and improve future service. The Town has reported multiple issues to BCSO Dispatch management personnel, even recurring issues with the same Dispatchers, and have not noted an enduring improvement in the quality of service to Paradise callers. Some of the Dispatchers are well known to Sheriff’s Office field personnel to repeatedly demonstrate the same or similar shortcomings in service to County residents and BCSO staff over the many years of their service, with no real change or improvement in their performance.

The strongest recommendation is to include quality control checks, balances, benchmarks, and requirements in any future contract to outsource Dispatch services. 11c. Hybrid Dispatch Services Solution
There are other opportunities to solve the current PPD PSAP situation to consider. While difficult to provide an extensive analysis of multiple other possibilities, for the purposes of this report we will acknowledge that the primary additional alternative would be to take a hybrid approach that would entail working cooperatively with another local PSAP, with each PSAP augmenting each other’s service and staffing. The most likely approach to this would be to have each PSAP cover their own PSAPs during peak call times and working with each other to cover PSAP staffing during off-peak hours, or periods of short staffing.

When the BCSO MOU was implemented, BCSO was the only agency that met all the requirements to implement the contract on the short timeline that PPD required. At the time, no other local PSAP could communicate with PPD Officers in the field from the agency’s Dispatch consoles and share full PPD CAD/RMS access. PPD did not need fulltime coverage assistance, however, BCSO was not willing to negotiate a part-time contract. It is not known if BCSO has changed their position and would now be willing to consider a part-time hybrid model contract. However, there is a strong probability that either Gridley PD or Oroville PD would consider cooperating with PPD on this type of hybrid approach.
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For the simplification of this analysis, we will utilize the costs of the current MOU with BCSO to consider outsourcing with any other agency, either on a full-time or part-time hybrid basis. For the Hybrid Dispatch Services solution, we considered bringing back Dispatch staffing to cover Dispatch ½ to 2/3 of the time and contracting out the rest for a longer period. It is important to note that the Hybrid solution could be implemented in a variety of ways, depending on the terms agreed upon with the contracted agency. This makes the cost estimate subject to significant variability.

Additionally, to maintain funding and support from the 911 Branch, the Town would likely need to commit to a specific timeframe for this type of hybrid approach, with a deadline to return to full-time internal Dispatch services. To consider a hybrid approach as a longterm or permanent solution, the 911 Branch would likely suspend support and funding for both the Town of Paradise PSAP as well as the cooperating hybrid agency. Once this support and funding is pulled, both the Town and the cooperating hybrid agency would be required to meet the 1200 911 calls per month metric to restore full funding and support from the 911 Branch. For this reason, the below fiscal analysis only proposes this approach for five (5) years before restoring full-time Paradise PSAP services. 11d. Paradise Police Department Radio Network Upgrades
To restore internal Dispatch services full- or part-time, in addition to the personnel needed to restore the Paradise PSAP, PPD will need to replace the radio consoles and backroom radio equipment. The current Dispatch radio consoles are obsolete, analog, VHF systems from ModUCom. The consoles are approximately 10 years old and are beginning to fail.

In September 2018, ModUCom went out of business, so replacement parts are unavailable. PPD has a small supply of some used parts previously removed from another local PSAP. Since ModUCom closed, PPD has had to hire outside radio technicians to repair the installed ModUCom equipment by swapping parts from the used units.

Obviously, regardless of whether the Town moves to the BRICS network or rebuilds its own radio system, the PPD Dispatch radio consoles require replacement. Since this cost would not be necessary if PPD abandons its PSAP to outsource Dispatch services fulltime, it will be provided for consideration of the total PSAP restoration costs.

The BRICS network is built on Motorola equipment and Butte County requires compatible equipment be used to connect to their network. While there are other brands that can be made to be compatible with the Motorola based BRICS network, for the best long-term compatibility with minimal maintenance and service requirements, PPD will implement Motorola equipment to connect with the BRICS network. PPD received a quote from Motorola through Delta Wireless, a Sacramento based Motorola dealership, to provide and install all equipment necessary for three (3) PPD Dispatch consoles to tie into the BRICS network, at a total cost of $440,656. This quote was provided in April 2020, and it is currently estimated that the total cost will increase by an average of 5% per year until the Town finally purchases and installs the equipment. However, with an unknown timeline to installation, this inflationary factor will not be considered to simplify this analysis. The quote also provided the cost of up to ten (10) years of warranty and service from Motorola. The maintenance contract costs will be factored into the long-term cost 226

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estimates for the PPD PSAP. There is additional microwave network equipment to tie-in to the BRICS Network, and extensive upgrades to the grounding of the radio tower at Station 81 that must be done. These costs together are estimated to be approximately $341,202. This leaves a 10-year, all-in estimated cost of $1,195,906.82 for the radio infrastructure necessary to update the PPD PSAP radio systems to facilitate reestablishing internal Dispatch services. Notably, of this amount, the $188,470.00 to upgrade the current radio tower grounding is recommended to be done whether Dispatch is returned to the PPD PSAP or not for the safety of the Fire Department personnel occupying Station 81, where the tower and remaining required radio equipment is located.

TABLE 12 – PARADISE PSAP RADIO INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS
Whether the Town returns to in-house Dispatch services, continues to outsource Dispatch services, or works under a hybrid of the approaches, the recommended approach for replacing the Town’s radio networks destroyed by the Camp Fire, is to join the BRICS network, using a strategic combination of multi-band and 700 MHz radios. This provides the widest area of coverage at the lowest cost for the coming years, with the maximum level of interoperability amongst all local and regional Public Safety Agencies.

While this cost remains the same no matter which approach to Dispatch the Town takes, it is a significant cost. The Town is working toward numerous different funding sources to cover the initial cost to purchase the mobile and portable radio equipment. The below table shows the cost to purchase the remaining mobile and portable radios needed, vehicle cradle adapters that allow for portable radios being purchased and assigned to staff to be installed in a vehicle to reduce the number of mobile radios and their licenses required, as well as BRICS access costs. The BRICS access costs include the purchase and activation of the first 15 subscriber units in FY2021/22 and the purchase and EQUIPMENT INITIAL COST ANNUAL COST YEAR 1-5 COST YEAR 5-10 COST (3) Compatible Dispatch Radio Console transmit equipment $391,608.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 (1) Spare Console equipment $43,470.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 KVL 4000 PDA Snap-On $2,424.38 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
ASTRO 25 Mode $242.44 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
AES Encryption software $727.31 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
A/C Line Cord $10.67 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Keyload cable - console $81.46 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
KVL 4000 Sleeve Cover $72.73 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
MCC7500 Secure VPM Algorithm upgrade for KVL 4000 $215.50 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 AES Algorithm (1 per console) $1,939.50 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Secure Operation - Field Add License (1 per console) $8,404.50 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Additional back-room base station $9,568.33 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Annual service years 1-5 $0.00 $39,589.00 $197,945.00 $0.00 Annual service years 6-10 $0.00 $39,599.00 $0.00 $197,995.00 DISPATCH ROOM IMPROVEMENTS TOTAL $458,764.82 N/A $197,945.00 $197,995.00 EQUIPMENT INITIAL COST ANNUAL COST YEAR 1-5 COST YEAR 5-10 COST Microwave link to County Network $152,732.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Upgrade all station & tower equipment to R56 grounding standards $188,470.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 TOWER & NETWORK IMPROVEMENTS TOTAL $341,202.00
EQUIPMENT INITIAL COST ANNUAL COST YEAR 1-5 COST YEAR 5-10 COST $799,966.82 $0.00 $197,945.00 $197,995.00

TOTAL RADIO COSTS

DISPATCH ROOM IMPROVEMENTS

TOWER & NETWORK IMPROVEMENTS
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activation of the remaining 89 subscriber units to the complete Town-wide fleet of 104 subscriber units in FY 2022/23. The cost to purchase the radios and subscribe them to the BRICS Network for 10 years is $1,494,897.16.

TABLE 13 – FIELD RADIO AND BRICS SUBSCRIPTION COSTS
11e. Final Cost Analysis
The following tables show the estimated costs of fully restoring the Paradise PSAP, implementing a hybrid Dispatch model with another local agency, or fully outsourcing all PPD Dispatch services. For simplicity, it is assumed that the necessary equipment will be purchased and installed during the current fiscal year, FY 2021/22, then personnel would begin to be hired in FY 2022/23. Due to the length of time that it takes to test, background, hire and train new Dispatchers, it will take multiple years to fully staff the Paradise PSAP.

The actual and estimated costs are then examined over ten years to provide a picture of the long-term costs of each scenario.

As previously noted, it is ambitious to assume that two Dispatchers will be hired and fully trained per year. To estimate costs for this, the cost of 2 Dispatchers is added per year for the first three (3) years of the transition from fully out-sourced Dispatch services to fully in-house Dispatch services. Consequently, the cost of contract services will be phased out assuming that the year that Paradise begins staffing Dispatch, the contract Dispatch services will cost basically full-price due to the hours the contract services will need to be used. During the second year, the contract Dispatch services cost is estimated to be half of the contract cost, to factor in the decreased number of hours that the contract services will be used. During the third year of the Paradise PSAP being re-staffed, the contract personnel costs are eliminated by having enough Dispatch staff to cover shifts while the final 2 Dispatchers are hired and trained.
(Tables begin on the next page.)
EQUIPMENT PURCHASE COST ANNUAL COST YEAR 1 COST YEAR 2-10 COST Multi-band portable radios $244,003.39 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Multi-band mobile radios $290,426.72 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Single-band portable radios $128,590.27 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 Single-band mobile radios $60,148.81 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Vehicle Cradle Adapters $44,285.94 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
Encryption equipment $207.63 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
BRICS Participation Fee $100,000.00 $0.00 $15,000.00 $85,000.00 BRICS Monthly Fee $0.00 $554.40 $8,316.00 $518,918.40
TOTAL $867,662.76 $23,316.00 $603,918.40
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TABLE 14 – TOTAL COST TO PHASE-IN PARADISE PSAP
TABLE 15 – TOTAL COST TO OUTSOURCE DISPATCH
ITEM Field Radios BRICS Access BRICS Annual Dispatch Radios Tower Equipment PSAP Staffing PSAP Contracts ANNUAL COST CUMMULATIVE FY 2021/22 $767,662.76 $15,000.00 $8,316.00 $440,656.00 $341,202.00 $0.00 $357,454.89 $1,930,291.65 $1,930,291.65 FY 2022/23 $0.00 $85,000.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $207,708.00 $369,020.83 $758,975.43 $2,689,267.08 FY 2023/24 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $425,801.40 $190,075.75 $713,123.75 $3,402,390.83 FY 2024/25 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $654,799.47 $0.00 $752,046.07 $4,154,436.90 FY 2025/26 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $687,539.44 $0.00 $784,786.04 $4,939,222.94 FY 2026/27 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $708,165.63 $0.00 $805,422.23 $5,744,645.17 FY 2027/28 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $729,410.60 $0.00 $826,667.20 $6,571,312.37 FY 2028/29 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $751,292.91 $0.00 $848,549.51 $7,419,861.88 FY 2029/30 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $773,831.70 $0.00 $871,088.30 $8,290,950.18 FY 2030/31 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $797,046.65 $0.00 $894,303.25 $9,185,253.43 ITEM Field Radios BRICS Access BRICS Annual PPD Records PSAP Contract ANNUAL COST CUMMULATIVE FY 2021/22 $767,662.76 $15,000.00 $8,316.00 $83,320.00 $357,454.89 $1,231,753.65 $1,231,753.65 FY 2022/23 $0.00 $85,000.00 $57,657.60 $87,486.00 $369,020.83 $599,164.43 $1,830,918.08 FY 2023/24 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $91,860.30 $380,151.50 $529,669.40 $2,360,587.48 FY 2024/25 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $94,616.11 $391,556.05 $543,829.75 $2,904,417.23 FY 2025/26 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $97,454.59 $403,302.73 $558,414.92 $3,462,832.15 FY 2026/27 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $100,378.23 $415,401.81 $573,437.64 $4,036,269.79 FY 2027/28 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $103,389.58 $427,863.86 $588,911.04 $4,625,180.83 FY 2028/29 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $106,491.26 $440,699.78 $604,848.64 $5,230,029.47 FY 2029/30 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $109,686.00 $453,920.77 $621,264.37 $5,851,293.85 FY 2030/31 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $112,976.58 $467,538.39 $638,172.58 $6,489,466.42 229

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TABLE 16 – TOTAL COST OF HYBRID DISPATCH APPROACH
ITEM Field Radios BRICS Access BRICS Annual Dispatch Radios Tower Equipment PSAP Staffing PSAP Contracts ANNUAL COST CUMMULATIVE FY 2021/22 $767,662.76 $15,000.00 $8,316.00 $440,656.00 $341,202.00 $0.00 $357,454.89 $1,930,291.65 $1,930,291.65 FY 2022/23 $0.00 $85,000.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $207,708.00 $369,020.83 $758,975.43 $2,689,267.08 FY 2023/24 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $425,801.40 $190,075.75 $713,123.75 $3,402,390.83 FY 2024/25 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $447,091.47 $195,778.02 $740,116.09 $4,142,506.92 FY 2025/26 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,589.00 $0.00 $469,446.04 $201,651.36 $768,344.01 $4,910,850.93 FY 2026/27 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $492,918.35 $0.00 $590,174.95 $5,501,025.87 FY 2027/28 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $700,626.35 $0.00 $797,882.95 $6,298,908.82 FY 2028/29 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $711,011.75 $0.00 $808,268.35 $7,107,177.17 FY 2029/30 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $721,397.15 $0.00 $818,653.75 $7,925,830.91 FY 2030/31 $0.00 $0.00 $57,657.60 $39,599.00 $0.00 $731,782.55 $0.00 $829,039.15 $8,754,870.06 230

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12.BASIC DISPATCH SERVICES IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK
No matter which approach the Town takes to provide Dispatch services for the long term, there are some equipment and staffing needs that must be met, that will incur costs to the Town. To provide radio communications with field units, whether with the Paradise PSAP or an external contract provider, the Town must provide field personnel with robust, reliable, interoperable radio communications capabilities. The best approach to accomplishing this is to purchase new multi-band radios, join the BRICS network and utilize Town of Paradise talk groups. Additionally, whether Dispatch services are provided in-house or externally, the Town must provide for Police Records services. To provide the highest level of interoperability within the Paradise RIMS CAD/RMS system, the Town should also move to join other PSAP’s within Butte County to move from the current Collaborative RIMS system to a Multi-Agency RIMS deployment. When Dispatch services are being provided internally, this approach, combined with the BRICS radio network and the current phone network, provide full interoperability with all other participating agencies and allow for the full “virtual consolidation” of Dispatch services. 12a. Paradise PSAP Restoration Plan
To restore PSAP services to an internal Paradise PSAP, whether full- or part-time, in addition to replacing the field mobile and portable radios, the Town will need to replace all Dispatch radio equipment. Paradise will then need to implement a restaffing plan within the confines of contracted external services to bridge staffing gaps until such time as Paradise has sufficient staffing to provide 24/7 Dispatch services. The Town will need to approve any recruitment incentives and embark on a rigorous course of testing and hiring.

As the number of trained Paradise Dispatchers increases, the amount of time that Dispatch is covered by external agencies will decrease, until the Paradise PSAP has 24/7 staffing.
12b. Long-Term Outsourced Dispatch Services Plan
Should the Town choose instead to enact a long-term plan to externalize Dispatch Services, staff will need to continue the process of replacing the mobile and portable radios used by all Town staff. Staff will then need to research and craft a Request for Proposals (RFP) to implement a long-term Dispatch contract. The process to establish a new contract will need to include measurable metrics and standards for performance and service. It will need to provide for feedback channels between Paradise Police management and identified personnel at the contracted agency. It will also need to establish processes to address citizen and employee complaints regarding performance and deficiencies in the handling of specific incidents. These processes, of course, will also need to provide channels for communicating positive feedback. By moving to the BRICS network and implementing Multi-Agency RIMS, there may be agencies besides BCSO who would be able to provide these services. However, it is unknown if any agencies in Butte County besides BCSO or Chico Police would be able to commit to permanently staffing Dispatch, 24/7, for the long-term. 231

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Most significantly, if the Town were to take this approach to outsource Dispatch services for the long-term or permanently, the Town will need to work with the Cal-OES 911 Branch to surrender the status of a full-time PSAP. The 911 Branch would then likely cease support for the network infrastructure and services provided to the Paradise PSAP location. These resources would likely be devoted to the agency that is taking over PSAP services for the Town. Once the Paradise PSAP is officially terminated with the 911 Branch, it will require a significant investment of time, money, and resources to restore this physical infrastructure before Dispatch services could return to the Paradise PSAP.

It would likely not be possible to reestablish the Paradise PSAP until 1200 calls to the Paradise 911 lines occur on average per month. This is a very high bar based on past statistics and is not likely to occur until the Town of Paradise has at least 25,000 to 30,000 residents.
12c. Hybrid PSAP Transitioned to In-House Dispatch Services Plan Returning Dispatch services to the Paradise PSAP on a full-time or part-time basis, would require a hybrid approach to begin the process. In other words, it will not be possible for the Town to hire and train all the new Dispatchers that would be needed to take over full Dispatch services on a specific date and time. Instead, the Town would need to follow the hybrid model of contracting outside Dispatch services for the times that the Town cannot staff Dispatch, decreasing the use of outside services until enough Dispatchers are hired and trained to cover Dispatch 24/7. For the hybrid approach, the restaffing of the Paradise PSAP would be spread over a longer time. In the beginning, Paradise would continue to outsource Dispatch services for the shifts that Paradise does not have enough Dispatchers to cover. However, instead of this being a temporary condition, the part-time outside contracted Dispatch would be stretched over additional years.

In order for this hybrid approach to work, the Town would need to purchase all of the equipment required to return to full-time in-house Dispatching. Then the Town would need to initiate an RFP process, with all of the metrics and performance guarantees that would be included in the full-time contract and initiate a contract with a cooperating agency. The contract would need to establish responsibilities and timelines for the duration of the partnership, and the responsibilities and amount of time each agency would cover.

With the hybrid approach the Town would also need to notify the 911 Branch of the interagency cooperation. As long as the Town has identified a specific period of time, or statistical metrics that would trigger moving away from the hybrid model and returning Paradise and any cooperating agencies to full-time PSAPs, the 911 Branch might consider supporting Paradise for the identified period of time. However, based on the current regulations in place, part-time PSAPs are not supported. Therefore, it is likely that the 911 Branch would cease to support the infrastructure and equipment needed to operate the Paradise PSAP, as well as the PSAP of any cooperating agency not staffed 24/7, if the plan is to follow a hybrid model as a long-term or permanent solution. 232

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13.CONCLUSION
To move forward with continuing to provide Public Safety Services, the Town must provide PSAP services. While the Town may contract out those services, there are advantages, disadvantages and potential long-term consequences to each approach discussed in this report. The Police Department looks forward to answering the question of what Paradise Dispatch services will look like in the coming months and years and is ready to take on the challenge of transitioning to the long-term solution identified by the Town for the Police Department to serve the community that is the Town of Paradise. 233

Town of Paradise
Council Agenda Summary
Date: March 8, 2022
Agenda Item: 6(i)
ORIGINATED BY: Ross Gilb, Finance Director / Town Treasurer REVIEWED BY: Kevin Phillips, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Goal Setting – FY 2022-23 Operating and Capital Budgets

LONG TERM
RECOVERY PLAN:

Yes
COUNCIL ACTION REQUESTED:

1. Provide direction and feedback regarding goals for the FY 2022-23 Operating and Capital Budgets
Background:

The FY 2021-22 operating and capital budgets were adopted July 13, 2021. The General Fund was adopted with a balanced budget, which was achieved through a transfer from the PG&E Settlement funds to compensate for revenue shortfalls resulting from the 2018 Camp Fire. Overall, the FY 2021-22 actual revenues and expenditures have trended largely within budgeted expectations for the first seven months of the fiscal year, with relatively minor adjustments to the originally adopted budgets adopted by Council during the November 9, 2021, and February 8, 2022, regularly scheduled Council meetings, based on recommendations resulting from detailed analysis of financial activity occurring during the first two quarters of the fiscal year.

The Town has made great strides towards solidifying the annual budget. Specifically, during the FY 2021-22 budget cycle, the Town developed a plan to invest in the future of Paradise. This included identifying long-term staffing needs and investing in personnel to ensure personnel capacity is adequate to meet operational needs moving forward. This resulted in the approval and hiring of 16 additional in-house employees during the fiscal year. This commitment to the future of Paradise also extended to the development of a comprehensive Capital Improvement and Disaster Recovery Plan to invest in the infrastructure of the Town and support recovery back to or above pre-Camp Fire levels. Additionally, the FY 2021-22 budget cycle introduced the development of a long-term financial sustainability model, which projects the annual draw down needed from the PG&E Settlement Funds to balance the General Fund budget and ensure operational and capital funding needs are met for the foreseeable future. This continues to be an important tool to ensure the Town is maintaining long-term financial health.

While great progress has been made during the previous budget cycle, the Town’s financial situation is still very dynamic as the Town and community continue through the recovery process.

Staff continue to closely monitor costs and analyze actual activity against original projections included in the adopted budgets and fiscal sustainability model. Staff will continue to regularly 234
keep the Town Council and community apprised of any significant variances and recommended budget changes.

Analysis:

This goal setting session is designed to introduce the budget development cycle for FY 2022-23 by identifying key dates within the budget cycle, providing a high-level outline of staff-identified goals for the coming fiscal year, and accepting direction from Town Council for evaluation and consideration during budget development for the upcoming fiscal year.

Budget Calendar
A summary of the proposed key Council and Committee dates and deadlines is included below.

This schedule has been developed to ensure that adequate time is set aside for budget development, with the goal of budget adoption before the end of the current fiscal year (06/30/2022).

Information Gathering and Goal Setting
 March 8, 2022: Town Council Goal Setting
 March 22, 2022: Measure V Oversight Board Committee Budget Discussions Draft Budget Development
 April and May 2022: Staff Budget Discussions and Development Staff Update to Long Term Fiscal Sustainability Model
Review and Adoption
 May 24, 2022: Measure V Oversight Board Committee FY 2022-23 Measure V Draft Budget Review
 May 31, 2022: Draft FY 2022-23 Operating and Capital Budget - Finance Committee Review
 June 14, 2022: Draft FY 2022-23 Operating and Capital Budget - Town Council Review
 June 28, 2022: FY 2022-23 Operating and Capital Budget - Town Council Adoption
Staff Identified Goals
 Financial Sustainability: Ensure that the budget is balanced and that the annually budgeted transfers from the PG&E Settlement Funds are in line with the Town’s long term operational sustainability model projections to continually ensure long-term financial health is maintained, operational needs are met, and capital projects continue along budgeted schedules.
 Personnel: Maintain staffing levels achieved through the FY 2021-22 budget levels to further solidify the Town’s personnel structure and ensure that employee capacity is sufficient to cover operational and capital needs.
 Disaster Recovery and Capital Improvement Projects: Continue to properly manage Disaster Recovery and Capital Improvement projects to promote the rebuild of the Town’s infrastructure and overall community in line with the Disaster Recovery and Capital Improvement Plan. This comprehensive plan was originally adopted with the FY 2021-22 budget and will continue to be monitored and updated during the FY 2022-23 budget cycle. 235
 Manage Employee Retirement Costs: Take action to prudently manage Town-wide Unfunded Accrued Pension Liability (UAL) and Other Post-Employment Benefit Obligations (OPEB). The Town’s total UAL per the latest CalPERS Annual Valuation Report as of June 30, 2020 was $27,128,133. The Town’s total OPEB liability per the latest actuarial calculation as of June 30, 2020 was $10,164,506. The Town has previously set aside funds in an IRC Section 115 Trust account toward offsetting this OPEB liability.

The balance of this trust fund as of the OPEB valuation date was $218,859. As such, the Town’s net OPEB liability is currently valued at $9,945,647. o UAL and OPEB management options to be investigated include full or partial pay down of the Town’s outstanding UAL, and additional funding of the Town’s IRC Section 115 Trust to maximize investment return and set aside funds specifically related to long term UAL and OPEB costs.

Council Identified Goals
While every effort has been made by staff to identify initial key goals to work towards during the budget cycle for the upcoming fiscal year, any additional goals specifically brought forward by Council will be further evaluated during budget development. Staff will analyze any additional goals identified by Council and will report back on any information requested during future meeting dates for further Council consideration.

Financial Impact:

Further financial analysis of the impacts to the Town’s long term financial health will be evaluated during the development of the Operating and Capital Budgets for FY 2022-23. At this time, it is expected that the FY 2022-23 budgets will be developed to promote long term financial sustainability as originally projected based on the latest updates to the Town’s Long Term Fiscal Sustainability Model, as presented during the FY 2021-22 budget development and mid-year review. The financial projections included in the Fiscal Sustainability Model will continue to be updated and monitored during the FY 2022-23 budget development. 236

Paradise City CouncilMarch 8, 2022

Paradise City Council
March 8, 2022