Kitsap County Central Communications

2010 A2010 ANNUALNNUAL RREPORTEPORT

Business Phone Number (360)307-5800 Fax (360) 792-5982 www.kitsap911.org

CENCOM’s Mission “To serve the citizens of Kitsap County through professional, timely, and effective 9-1-1

communications and coordination of emergency services response.”

CENCOM values our community’s diversity and strives to reflect that diversity in our staff and respect that diversity in the delivery of our services.

Partner Agencies

Police Departments Fire Departments Bainbridge Island Police Department Bainbridge Island Fire & Rescue Bremerton Police Department Bremerton Fire Department Kitsap County Sheriffs Office Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue Port Gamble Police Department Fire District 18 (Poulsbo Fire) Port Orchard Police Department North Kitsap Fire & Rescue Poulsbo Police Department South Kitsap Fire & Rescue Suquamish Police Department

Kitsap County Other Community Development – Bainbridge Island Ambulance Assn. Code Enforcement & Fire Marshall Department of Corrections Coroners Office Humane Society Emergency Management United States Navy Juvenile Corrections Port Gamble Natural Resources

We wish to thank our employees, our partner agencies and our Boards for their hard work and dedication as this successful

partnership continues!  

History of CENCOM

Page 2

Page 3

History of CENCOM

G o v e r n a n c e & M a n a g e m e n t CENCOM is governed by a board of thirteen elected officials representing Kitsap County, the Cities of Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Port Orchard, & Poulsbo, and the Kitsap County Fire Commissioners Association. The CENCOM Policy Board provides fiscal, strategic, and managerial oversight for CENCOM. They adopt the budget and strategic plan, set the agency’s direction, and establish policies as necessary to ensure the residents and visitors of the Kitsap region are served by an effective and efficient 911 system.

The CENCOM Executive Committee (five Policy Board members) meets every other month. Working with the director, they draft the budget and long-range plan, study complex issues in order to make recommendations to the full board, and exercise such authority as the Board delegates.

CENCOM’s interlocal agreement also delegates some oversight responsibilities and duties to the Kitsap County Commissioners.

The Policy Board appoints the CENCOM Director, who is responsible for running the agency. Internally, CENCOM is divided into three primary divisions: Administrative (Admin), Operations (Ops), and Technical Systems (Tech).

The Strategic Advisory Board, a group of police and fire chiefs provide advice and input to the CENCOM Policy Board and the CENCOM Director on policy, technical, and operations issues as well as intra-agency coordination.

CENCOM was founded in 1973 as an effort to improve emergency medical dispatching within Kitsap County. In 1976 CENCOM went live as the first consolidated police, fire, and EMS dispatch center in Washington State. Callers dialed 911 but the system did not include any of the features associated with 911 today. In 1983 CENCOM became the 2nd dispatch center in Washington state to deploy "Enhanced 911" which included a display of the caller's address for the dispatcher. The initial intent was to provide: A single emergency reporting number (9-1-1) for all Kitsap County citizens Expanded emergency communications network for centralized coordination of police, fire, and medical A reduction of response time Elimination of 29 seven digit emergency numbers Consolidate 12 separate dispatch systems The ability for emergency response agencies to exchange information Enhancement of overall public safety functions The ability to meet increased demand for services The first staff included a director, supervisor, administrative staff, and 20 dispatchers to manage the 24-hour, 365-day operation. Site design, facility construction, formation of operational policy and procedures were completed by the end of 1976, as well as installation of the electronics system, which included implementation of a "geofile". By 1993 9-1-1 had expanded to provide coverage to the entire county and dispatch function for all public safety agencies. Ongoing funding came from the passage of the telephone tax initiative. Continued exploration into ever changing technology and broader funding mechanisms along with proactive long term planning continue to remain the mainstay of the organization.

Organizational Chart

Page 4

CENCOM’s 76 employees (including full time, regular part time, extra help, and contract staff) are divided into three divisions. The CENCOM Admin division, led by Office Supervisor Stephanie Browning, maintains CENCOM’s records, handles public disclosure requests, pays our bills, and processes our receivables. The Technical System division, led by Dean Heistand, performs troubleshooting, configuration, and routine maintenance of CENCOM’s technical systems including our 911 and office phone systems, log-ging recorder, radio system, tower sites, Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and other computer systems. CENCOM’s largest division, Operations, is led by Amy Warrior. The employees in this division include 911 Call Receivers (PCR), Emergency Telecommunicators (ET aka Dispatchers), Assistant Supervisors, and Supervisors.

Page 5

CENCOM Policy Board Members (2010)

Carol Arends Bremerton City Councilmember Executive Committee

Steve Bauer Kitsap County Commissioner

Steve Boyer Kitsap County Sheriff Executive Committee

Patty Lent Bremerton Mayor

Josh Brown Kitsap County Commissioner Executive Committee

Lary Coppola Port Orchard Mayor

Dave Ellingson Fire Commissioner

Greg Wheeler Bremerton City Council

Bill Knobloch Bainbridge Island Council Member CPB Vice Chair

Bob Muhleman Fire Commissioner CPB Chair Executive Committee

Becky Erickson Poulsbo Mayor

Dusty Wiley Fire Commissioner Executive Committee

Charlotte Garrido Kitsap County Commissioner

The CENCOM Policy Board meets in odd numbered months on the third Tuesday at the Norm Dicks Government Center in Bremerton. The Executive Committee meets in even months on the third Wednesday at CENCOM. All meetings are open to the public. For more information about CENCOM Policy Board and Executive Committee meetings call (360)307-5800.

Page 6

CENCOM’s Leadership

2010 was suppose to be a “catch up year” where CENCOM focused on wrapping up a few projects, getting caught up on maintenance issues, and improving some of our processes. As the following pages illustrate, it turned out to be quite an eventful year. These accomplishments would not be possible without a team of hard-working, dedicated professionals.

We are proud to be associated with the team here at CENCOM. We’re also proud to report that CENCOM was spotlighted at the 2010 Association of Public Communications Officials (APCO) Inter-national Conference for our change management practices. A short documentary produced by APCO can be viewed on our website www.kitsap911.org. Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen in 2010 is that we laid the groundwork for a major revamp of the 911 system, not only in Kitsap County, but across the state. The new

system called “Next Generation 911” is the first real redesign of the 911 technology since 1968. The technol-ogy used to display your location when you call 911 was added to the 911 system in the 80’s with a pretty simple upgrade that allowed 911 to decode your telephone number and retrieve your location from a data-base. Since phones were attached to wires and the phone company was involved when you moved this sim-ple solution was extremely accurate.

As cellular and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technologies were developed patches and “work around” solutions were created for the 911 system. While this kept the system operational it does not allow 911 to leverage the advantages modern technology offers. As a point of reference, imagine trying to run a modern business using first generation fax machines and dial up modems.

Next Generation 9111 will be based on modern internet and communication technology. The first step will be development of a statewide secure network. 911 centers across the state will then upgrade their telephone equipment, laying the foundation for CENCOM and other 911 agencies to eventually receive text messages, pictures and video.

We’re often asked why 911 would want to receive text messages. The simple answer is in most cases we don’t. Regular voice calls will remain the best method of requesting a police, fire, or Emergency Medical Services response. However, text messaging is a better alternative than the TDD technology used by the deaf and speech impaired communities. Text messaging could also be effectively used by crime victims when the suspect is still on location. In these limited situations the ability to send a text message to 911 may mean the difference between life and death. Regardless of the technology used CENCOM’s staff re-mains dedicated to providing the best possible 9-1-1 service.

We remain committed to our vision of CENCOM as a leader in public safety emergency communications and a self-sufficient and fiscally-stable agency known for good stewardship, strong partnerships, and inno-vation and look forward to serving our community in 2011 and for many years to come.

Thank You, Richard Kirton Maria Jameson-Owens Director Deputy Director

Page 7

2010 Major Accomplishments & 2011 Projects

2010 Major Accomplishments 1. Completion of the Mobile Computer Terminal (MCT) System Phase 2 implementation, which provided

new computer hardware for all of the front line Law Enforcement, Fire and EMS vehicles. 2. Implementation of the new radio tower facility at the Purdy landfill site, which provided much needed

improved radio coverage for all of Public Safety in the Olalla, Burley and South Hwy 16 corridor communities.

3. Completion of the second phase of the Site Alarm and Control system. This will allow greater remote monitoring and control capability of the sites for early detection and resolution of site issues.

4. Installation of a secondary UPS/battery system for essential backroom and dispatch floor console positions. This is a redundant backup DC system to the primary system that is already in place, which will provide for even greater reliability during power outage situations.

2011 Major Projects

1. Completion of the Simon Point Tower Project 2. Plan development for narrow banding of all radio channels, which will occur in 2012 3. Development of the Technical Interoperable Plan for Kitsap County 4. Implementation of Interoperable Patching System with King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties 5. Continued enhancement of the MCT System

Simon Point Tower

CENCOM Technical System Division

T E C H S y s t e m s D i v i s i o n M e r g e r In June of 2010, the I.T. Division and the Electronics Division merged to form the CENCOM Technical Systems Division under one supervisor, Dean Heistand. This allows for the more efficient use of technical staff resources and improved system maintenance. As part of the restructure, a monthly training pro-gram has been implemented to provide for a greater depth of technical skills as well as additional cross training to create a broader support base for the essential technical systems.

P u r d y T o w e r C O M P L E T E D Kitsap County CENCOM saw the need for extra radio coverage in the South end of Kitsap County after the completion of the Emergency Communications Plan (ECP). The site CENCOM was originally looking at was the solid waste site in Burly. At the same time Pierce Transit was looking for a site in the same area to get better coverage for them and for Pierce County 911. Pierce County contacted CENCOM about partnering on building a Tower at the Pierce County land fill site in Purdy. Pierce Transit, Pierce County Emergency Management, and CENCOM ultimately partnered to build this tower link it to CENCOM’s existing Gold Mountain tower site. This arrangement allowed each agency to place their equipment on the other’s tower rent-free which allows for better coverage as well as improved interoperability. CENCOM’s portion of the project was funded through CENCOM’s Operations fund without any user fee or tax increases. CENCOM’s work at the Purdy Site was completed by Wren construction. The project was completed under budget with the tower going online on March 23rd.

Page 8

Back Row-Dean Heistand, Terese Ungren, Tim Simonson, Terri Squires, Tom Powers. Seated-Phil Seratt and Ken Sala

Page 9

CENCOM Operations Division

In 2010 we conducted 1 Primary Call Receiver Academy (PCRA), 1 Law Enforcement Dispatch Academy (LEDA) and 1 abbreviated Fire Dispatch Academy (FDA). After receiving training in 2009 on interviewing skills, we conducted a two day multiple panel interview proc-ess for the Primary Call Receiver Academy. This was an efficient and effective use of personnel that we will continue to utilize. We hired 5 employees in 2010 for the Primary Call Receiver Academy. Two probationary employees did not complete probation. We promoted an Assistant Supervisor to Shift Supervisor at the beginning of the year due to the creation of a Professional Standards Supervisor position. We conducted an Assistant Supervisor as-sessment center and promoted all three applicants due to turnover throughout the year. As of year end all three are still in training. Due to promotions and other changes, we have had some change within our Acting Lead group that had resulted in some losses and some identified growth to occur in 2011. We are set to train 2 Acting Leads and 2 Communications Training Officers (CTOs). We continue to conduct quarterly training. Our topics in 2010 were: teambuilding, TTY, Ethics and Values, Rescue resources, and Changing Gears (our disaster response plan for fire dispatching). In March we had a sudden storm that caused us to implement Changing Gears. This event brought to light some improvements we needed to make to the changing gears plan. Working with the Kitsap County Fire Chiefs Association- Operations Chiefs Division and with Kitsap County Department of Emergency Manage-ment we were able to accomplish these changes before the fall storm season. On Nov 22nd Kitsap County re-ceived the brunt of a storm that brought high winders, snow and single digit temperatures. CENCOM experi-enced a peak in 911 calls on the 22nd at 5:00 PM where we had over 298 calls in one hour (We receive around 40 calls per hour on a typical November evening.

Amy Warrior Training and Operations Manager

CENCOM Employees during a training session

Page 10

CENCOM Budget

Sales Tax, 3,328,070, 

46%

Customer Fees, 

2,029,804, 28%

Other, 282,384, 4%

Telephone Tax, 

1,639,675, 22%

Regular RevenuesSixty-Eight Percent (68%) of CENCOM’s regular funding comes from dedicated 911 taxes (the 1/10th of 1% sales tax and 911 excise tax on wireless and wireline telephone services). We also receive revenues from our customer agencies, contract partners, grants, and other miscellaneous sources. Our 2010 budget included $758,115 in one time grant revenues from the Department of Commerce for technology upgrades.

Personnel61%

Supplies1%

Services8%Interfund*

4%

Tech*26%

Expenditure CatagoriesCENCOM’s 2010 operations budget and debt service payments total $7,397,881. Our technology budget totals $2,221,491, most of which is for grant funded projects and to complete in progress projects previously funded. CENCOM’s staff of 74 FTE constitutes the bulk (61%) of our expenditures. The supplies (1%) and services (8%) categories contain our day to day operating costs. The Interfund category, roughly 4% of our budget, represents the charges CENCOM pays to Kitsap County for providing support services such as payroll, contract review, etc. If CENCOM did not receive these services from Kitsap County we would have to contract with another agency or perform these functions internally.

Page 11

CENCOM Budget

Cost Per 911 Call

0

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

3000000

3500000

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Customer Agency Fees (1999 to 2010)

County Other Agencies

Customer Agency Fees are paid by the county, cities, tribes, and fire districts from their general funds. The portion of CENCOM’s budget that is covered by customer agency fees was reduced in 2003, 2004, 2007, & 2008, and remained static in 2005, 2009, 2010.

The chart to the right compares the cost of providing 911 services. We used data compiled by the State 911 Office to develop this “apples to apples” comparison and included the statewide average $65.04, similarly sized 911 centers, and our closest neighbors in the illustration. As you can see CENCOM’s cost per call falls well below the statewide average, is lower than any of our neighboring counties, and is the second lowest of similar agencies.

Page 12

Statistics & Performance Measures

Dispatched Events

Measure 2008 Actual 2009 Actual 2010 Actual 2011 Projected

Answer 95% of all 911 calls within 15

seconds or less (NFPA 1221)

97.25% 98.56% 98.97% 98%

Answer 90% of all 911 calls within 10

seconds or less (Internal goal)

87.79% 93.34% 95.85% 95%

90% of all fire and medical emergency calls processed in 60 seconds or less

(NFPA 1221)

76% 62%

67.44% 70%

95% of all fire and medical emergency calls processed in 75 seconds or less

(NFPA 1221)

88% 78.33% 80.11% 80%

Priority 1 law enforcement calls dispatched within

30 seconds (Internal goal)

28.14 Seconds 28.10 Seconds 32 Seconds 28 Seconds

Page 13

Employee Spotlight

Each quarter CENCOM supervisors and managers select an employee whose performance exemplifies CENCOM’s high standards. Employees are nominated by their co-workers, by our public safety partners, and by members of the public who have used CENCOM’s services. To provide feedback about a 911 call or other CENCOM service go to our web site at http://www.kitsap911.org and click the “general question” link.

C E N C O M E m p l o y e e o f t h e Q u a r t e r A w a r d R e c i p i e n t s

1 s t Q u a r t e r a n d E M P L O Y E E O F T H E Y E A R !

Nancy LeMay is an Emergency Telecommunicator (dispatcher), Communica-tions Training Officer (CTO) and Acting Lead Dispatcher at CENCOM. During the first quarter of 2010 she also worked as CENCOM’s MCT training coordinator. In this role she led a group of techs, trainers, and partner agency representatives who developed curriculum and provided the MCT training. Nancy personally coordi-nated the scheduling of approximately 40 different training sessions, with many of the sessions occurring during night shift and on weekends. Nancy delivered the training for many of these sessions, often teaching a class right after finishing a 10-hour dispatch shift. Nancy made many personal sacrifices that were above and beyond the call of duty to make this training happen. Her hard work was appreci-

ated by the departments she was training, as well as CENCOM as an organization. 2 n d Q u a r t e r

Louise Russell, one of CENCOM’s supervisors, received the 2nd quarter award be-cause she took a vested interested in working with an employee whose performance needed improvement. She took the time to explore the issues that altered the em-ployee’s ability to remain calm and effective when dealing with out of control callers and offered suggestions to improve the employee’s performance. The employee acknowl-edged Louise’s assistance and notified Louise’s supervisor that she felt Louise was in-strumental with helping her grow and improve her performance.

3 r d Q u a r t e r

Terese Ungren is one of CENCOM”s Operations Support Technicians. Her primary responsibilities include answering our technical help desk line and pro-viding technical support for the Mobile Computer Terminal (MCT) system. Since the MCT system’s deployment users had been plagued with intermittent system slow downs and failures. Despite a concentrated effort by both CEN-COM staff and our hardware and software vendors the cause of the problem had not been identified. Terese became convinced the problem was software related and made a call to Intergraph’s help desk and insisted they review the software configuration line by line. Eventhough no obvious problems were discovered Terese insisted the vendor remain on the phone and search again. After four

hours Intergraph discovered the problem (a line of code that had been set incorrectly when they initially con-figured the system). Without Terese’s tenacious insistence that Integraph remain on the phone and focused on our problem countless additional hours of troubleshooting would undoubtedly have been wasted.

Page 14

Employee Spotlight

4 t h Q u a r t e r

Emily Garner was the Shift Supervisor during a HELP (Officer Involved Shooting) call. She was able to see to the needs of the floor, especially the dispatchers immediately involved and made sure all the proper notifications were made. She demonstrated her ability to think outside the box when she con-ferred with the KCSO Sgt and agreed to split the North frequency; leaving the units involved in the HELP call on North and switching the available units to LE4 for normal operations. She closely monitored the employees working the pri-ority call and provided guidance as necessary. She documented the sequence of events and created a summary of each employee's actions. As a new Assistant Supervisor, this was the first time she had overseen the shift during an event of this nature and she did an exceptional job.

Employee of the Year Nancy LeMay and Director Richard Kirton

Page 15

Employee Spotlight

2 0 1 0 N o v e m b e r S t o r m H i t s K i t s a p C o u n t y

The November winter storm was described as the worst in at least 20 years. In addition to the general impact on the region CENCOM’s staff and infrastructure were significantly challenged by this event. To give you an idea of the activity at our 911 center, from 9:30 am to 11:30 pm on Monday November 22nd CENCOM answered 1,719 separate 911 calls and entered 1,258 events. During the same period last year we entered 438 events. Most of that activity occurred after 3:00 pm when the storm peaked, causing power outages and major transportation problems. While most people were struggling to get home, many CENCOM employees were struggling to get to work. As the roads became impassable parking lots, the usual 30-minute commute took some of our employees four hours. Particularly problematic was the final half mile as there were so many abandoned vehicles on the hill leading to our facility that sand trucks couldn’t do their job. As the storm progressed most of our employees worked long hours only to find that they could not get home. Many had to spend the night with some staying at CENCOM and others staying at the nearby Comfort Inn, which was without power most of the night.

Unfortunately, our Gold Mountain Tower also lost power and its generator failed to start. Meanwhile, the road to our tower was littered with trees and conditions too unsafe for our technicians to respond that night. CENCOM’s equipment is backed up with 30-hour battery system so out coverage was not immediately degraded. Early Tuesday morning two of our technicians armed with chain saws and cold weather gear along with crews from Kitsap Transit, City of Bremerton Forestry unit, and North Kitsap Fire and Rescue set to clear the road and repair the generator. It quickly became apparent that there was no way the crew would reach the tower in time as the road looked like a lumber yard. Fortunately two loggers from Allen Logging and Hood Canal Logging were in the area and stepped in to assist. Seven hours later the crew was still about a mile out with only a few hours of battery left so one of our techs (Tim Simonson) hiked the last mile to begin the troubleshoot

process, leaving his partner (Ken Sala) to finish working with the logging crew. The crew estimates they removed 150 trees from the road. These are just a couple of examples of the challenges our employees overcame so that they could continue providing 911 and emergency dispatching services to the residents and visitors of Kitsap County and our public safety partners. From our newest trainee to our most tenured employees their response to this storm was nothing short of phenomenal. Too many people contributed to this effort to list them all, but a few deserve special recognition for their contributions: Amy Warrior, CENCOM’s Training and Operations Manager kept things running with help from George Hazard, our Professional Standards Supervisor. They did an outstanding job of juggling the demands of the moment, planning for the next phase, and insuring everyone was properly taken care of. Dean Heistand, CENCOM’s Technical Systems Supervisor, with help from Technician Terri Squires not only directed the technical response but helped make sure everyone got to and from our facility safe. Ken Sala and Tim Simonson, two of our Technicians risked life and limb to restore power to Gold Mountain Tower. Stephanie Trueblood, was the 911 Supervisor on duty for the first 8 hours of the storm. Her calm and proactive performance set the tone for CENCOM’s entire response. As always CENCOM could not have done our jobs without the assistance of Kitsap County Emergency Management, the City of Bremerton (particularly their Forest Unit and Fire Chief Al Duke), Kitsap Transit and our public Safety partners.

One of the 150 trees blocking the road to CENCOM’s Gold Mountain Site.

CENCOM’s Call Volume in 2010 compared to 2009

Page 16

Public Education

CENCOM’s Public Education Committee (PEC) consists of fifteen employees who have volunteered their time to develop and present information about 911 to the public. PEC Members attend several community events and give presenta-tions to various public and civic groups when requested. In 2010, our members donated over 200 hours to the commit-tee’s activities. In 2009 The Washington State 9-1-1 Public Education Subcommittee identified a problem: many callers do not know where they are when they dial 9-1-1 and are not aware that their location is not always accurately transmitted to 9-1-1 by their telephone provider. This committee developed a “Know Your Location” campaign to educate citizens on why it’s important to know their location and how this saves lives. Delivery of this message was our primary focus in 2010, a challenge that will continue for many year’s to come as the importance of this message will only grow as new communi-cations technologies and methods of contacting 9-1-1 are deployed. CENCOM’s public education committee will expand our campaign to include how today’s technologies work (or don’t work) with 911. PEC Committee chairs conducted a 10-hour training session for all committee members in July. Members were trained on the new Know Your Location campaign, fundamentals of public education, standards, and other topics. 2010 Annual Events Attended:

Sedgwick Jr High Career Fair – March 19th SKFR Safety Fair – May 22nd CKFR Kid’s Day – June 5th Kitsap County Fair – August 25th to 29th East Port Orchard Elementary Read with a Hero – September 10th

Cedar Heights Career Fair – November 17th Shop with a Cop – December 4th 2010 Presentations:

Olympic High School – Special Education – January 20th Port Orchard Public Library – February 25th Olympic College – Intro to Criminal Justice – May 4th Christ the Rock Preschool – May 7th National Night Out – August 3rd 2010 Goals achieved:

*Training day for existing and new PEC members, including information on expectations, public speaking, and creation of new presentation boards.

*Uniform shirts with PEC logo purchased for committee members. *Implementation of the new evaluation forms for presentations. *Presented the “Know Your Location” theme for the year at several events. *Participated in at least 1 event 10 of the 12 months

2011 Goals and Projects:

*Continuation of the “Know Your Location” theme, while developing other secondary themes such as technology currently avail-able to 9-1-1 (texting technology not yet available), ICE, VOIP (how 9-1-1 service is affected)

*Participate in two events or presentations per month for 2011. *Develop annual training for all PEC members, to include public speaking and presentation of standard 911 public education

power point. *Funding for volunteers to be paid for PEC activities and/or meetings. *Develop a county wide plan to educate 2nd graders during the school year *Utilize feedback from presentations to enhance PEC Program.

Public Education Committee’s Display Board

Page 17

CENCOM

Always Here…. Already Ready. ..