Title
AN ORDINANCE authorizing the King County executive to enter into and implement a memorandum of agreement with the cities of Auburn, Bellevue, Federal Way, Issaquah, Kent, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Redmond, Renton, Seattle and Tukwila, relating to the ownership, governance and management of the Puget Sound emergency radio network after construction.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. King County currently has a countywide emergency public safety radio network. The King County Emergency Radio Communication System ("the KCERCS") that supports over sixteen thousand radios and over one hundred separate police, fire, emergency medical and other government agencies.
2. The KCERCS was funded by a countywide ballot measure placed on the ballot by the council's adoption of Ordinance 10464, and approved by the voters of King County in September 1992.
3. Portions of the KCERCS are separately owned by the Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency, the Valley Communications Center, Seattle, and King County (collectively "the coowners") with a jointly owned switch controlling the entire network.
4. The KCERCS is approaching twenty years old, and is increasingly requiring repairs.
5. The KCERCS 's vendor has stated that it will stop supplying replacement parts and repairing used parts for the network by December 31, 2018. King County must replace the network or risk performance degradation.
6. The council previously established a capital improvement project to plan for the network's replacement.
7. Executive staff has been working with the KCERC's users and the coowners to plan its replacement with a new network to be called the Puget Sound emergency radio network ("the PSERN"), and to plan PSERN's ownership, governance and management after it is constructed.
8. If the council adopts an ordinance placing a funding measure on the ballot and the voters approve such a measure, the project would deploy a new PSERN infrastructure and replace the subscriber units...
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