Program Manager Update

Ben Breier, E-911 Program Manager

With Spring almost upon us, it feels as if we are emerging from a cocoon. After spending the past several months hunkered down, evaluating and scoring RFP responses, coordinating and participating in vendor demonstrations, the long Platform Modernization RFP selection process finally wrapped up in March. The evaluation team spent countless hours reading, digesting, and collaboratively scoring the finer details of the proposals and I am confident they made the proper selection for the future of King County 9-1-1 technology services.

My most heartfelt thanks to the team and to the agencies for allowing them the time to do this important work. Now we transition to the contracting and implementation phases.  There is much more to come!

The RFP selection activity was not our only accomplishment for this first quarter. In cooperation with RAGB, new Strategic Plan Objectives were developed. Many are based on the experiences we have collectively gathered over the past year, with an emphasis on expanding the “walls” of the PSAP and caring for our most important resource – the Public Safety Telecommunicators. Additionally, the PSAP ILA was approved by County Council, solidifying the operating agreements between the County and PSAPs for the next several years.

Like the spring blooms, the new 9-1-1 system is emerging and taking form and we look forward to seeing what is in store ahead.

The Art of Rebuilding 

                        Guest Contributor, Bob Potts King County Regional Services Manager

I can hardly believe it, I’m now four years into my government service journey after more than 30 years in banking. I ask myself "Why didn’t I move to public service sooner?" 

Every day, I work with dedicated service professionals. Although I had a great IT career in banking, I discovered I love being part of something bigger than myself and King County has become the greatest opportunity of my lifetime. Let me share a bit of my perspective of E911 and why I believe even better things are yet to come.  

One of my first jobs when I arrived in King county was to transition the E911 Program Office into the King County Information Technology Department. What I experienced, during the early development of the E911 Strategic Plan, was a fractured relationship with our 12 Emergency Communications Centers (ECC) and I had an overwhelming sense we had a long road ahead to rebuild trust with this important community. Everyone worked hard to rebuild those relationships and at the same time, worked to improve and create our technology. What I have seen over the last four years has encouraged hope. We united as one team and continue to move forward in a new era of cooperation and trust .     

Today, the E911 Program Office and the ECC community are in a much better place. They continue to tackle the fast pace of digital transformation in local governments and modernizing the E911 technology. With COVID 19 hopefully behind us and as many teammates receive their vaccinations, our engagement will become even stronger.

Local government is changing quickly, adopting cloud services to support offsite workers and connect with residents in the digital world. The hybrid working model may be the new standard of the future as the home office becomes an integral part of the work place. However, I believe we still need to connect and regularly build our culture in person, but we have learned we can spend most of our time productively working from home.     

The LIFT America Act has dollars set aside to modernize E911 that will speed the pace of adoption like we have never seen. Technology is advancing quickly and with the central architecture of the new NG911 telephony platform, we will all be better positioned for this pace of change. Other new digital technologies like PSERN’s radio infrastructure, 5G, smart cities, telematics, cloud solutions and many more are developing possibilities to improve equitable 911 access for all.  This will also ultimately improve the lives of the first responder community with broader access to information. 

This almost feels like the 1990’s when we saw internet technologies and business models being developed at whirlwind speeds. I don't know about you, but I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Financial 

The finance team is happy to report all their continued efforts and hard work to create a sustainable financial situation for the 911 Program Office is paying off. As mentioned in the previous newsletter, they now have a new and implemented PSAP Funding Policy which went into effect January 1^st, 2021. The implementation and adherence to the new policy has been well received and successful. The team thanks the PSAP community for their continued partnership and collaboration to make this happen.

The quick and easy opportunities for cost savings inside the E-911 budget are dwindling. However, efforts continue to reduce operating costs by eliminating unnecessary network and circuit costs as new technology and processes become available. Supply costs have also been reduced due to re-imagining the way we do business. The situation COVID-19 presented caused a re-evaluation of internal processes. An example, teams have gone from maintaining paper records of all their accounting and business-related documents to being fully digital!

These cost saving opportunities, along with an increase in excise tax revenue over and above budget and forecast, have enabled an increase to the fund balance. This increase puts the Program Office in a better financial position to fund the upcoming new technology platform as well as continue to provide revenue support for the PSAP community.

Finance Quote: “When prosperity comes, do not use all of it.” – Confucius

Public Education & Outreach

The Public Education and Outreach team welcomes Melissa Walker as the new 911 Education Coordinator.  Melissa moved from her administrative assistant position in the Program Office to this new position and is a great asset.   

The team has been hard at work producing videos to distribute to schools, Facebook, YouTube, the King County E-911 website and other venues. The first video, which introduces all 12 PSAPs in King County and Emery the Emergency Penguin, can be found at https://youtu.be/qRBdbY1SgvQ. The team had a great time working with all of the PSAP personnel to make this video happen. Thank you!

Three more videos are making their way through post production and will be distributed as they are ready. Also in production are two Google Classroom sites that will be posted to the King County E911 website.  This will allow children and adults to access 911 learning from anywhere with an internet connection.

The team is hard at work scheduling training opportunities for PSAP personnel. The Program Office will host five classes in 2021 and are free to attend for PSAP staff with some limitations. 

• Sept 20^th – “Keeping the Super Heroes Super” 
• Oct 11-13^th – APCO lead CTO training
• Oct 14^th – APCO lead “Surviving Stress”
• Nov 9^th – “Defeating Drama in Dispatch”
• Nov 10^th – “Complacency, Cannibalism & Critical Thinking”

Contact KCE911Outreach@kingcounty.gov if you have personnel that would like to attend or you have suggestions for training.

         Spring Cleaning

It has been a long winter of RFP scoring and now it is time for Spring Cleaning.  The storerooms are full of old computers, adapters and equipment that have been saved “just in case”.  The time has come to purge the analog to digital adapters, the training laptops with the XP Operating System, and the collection of early flat screen monitors (which are 2 inches thick).  The beige, the silver, and finally the black.  Server and workstation housings have changed color as the technology has progressed from the days of 5.25-inch floppy disks to the 3.5 inch “hard” disks.  Now even optical drives are obsolete.

As we say farewell to the technology of yester-year, we pause to acknowledge it was once cutting-edge.  Silicon and plastic that served us well.  Let us take a moment to think of the calls in its lifespan.  Remember the call takers and the dispatchers who spent long shifts using this equipment to answer calls for help.  With every old machine that is hauled away to be responsibly recycled, the way is cleared to bring in the next generation of 911 equipment.