Escondido Fire Dispatch Moving to North County Dispatch JPA (NorthComm) - January 1st 2024

[Brian]

Escondido Fire Dispatch Moving to North County Dispatch JPA (North Comm) - January 1st 2024

Topic came up on the RR forum, but with lack of additional info, or files on that forum topic page...

Here are some informational files to review on the topic.

________________________________________________
North County Dispatch JPA
Board of Directors AGENDA
August 23, 2023 10:00 AM
Meeting Archives
https://ncdjpa.org/directordocs/

https://ncdjpa.granicus.com/AgendaViewe ... vent_id=74
https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/n ... 392636.pdf

https://docs.google.com/gview?url=https ... edded=true

_______________________________________________________________
North County Dispatch JPA
NCDJPA Board of Directors Agenda
Staff Report: NCDJPA Board of Directors ITEM NO. 23/13
Date: August 23, 2023
Subject: City of Escondido Agreement
Action Requested: Review and Approve

RECOMMENDATION: JPA Staff recommends the Board of Directors approve Resolution No.23-08.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: JPA Staff, the Board of Chiefs, and representatives from the City of Escondido have been working together since late 2022 in an attempt to facilitate the City joining NCDJPA as a member agency.
Details of those efforts are contained in Staff Reports 23/07, 23/05, and 23/02, attached here

BACKGROUND: On February 22, 2023, the Board of Directors provided direction to the Administrator and Board of Chiefs to negotiate financial terms with the City of Escondido regarding becoming a member agency of NCDJPA.
Terms were agreed upon in March and presented to the Board of Directors in May.

CURRENT SITUATION: The formal request to join NCDJPA as a member agency is on the Escondido City Council agenda for October 11, 2023.
FISCAL IMPACT: As previously noted, there is no direct impact to the NCDJPA operating budget other than staff time associated with the work on this project.
Deferring first year costs for the City of Escondido would not increase assessments for existing NCDJPA agencies and it is estimated that
when Escondido begins paying for service, other member and contract agencies will see their assessments reduced by an average of more than 12%.
The City of Escondido will be responsible for actual costs of the new FCD positions required to accommodate the workload they add to NCDJPA, as well as technology related costs (e.g. station alerting and mobile computers or tablets).
https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/n ... 473170.pdf
_______________________________________________________________

WHEREAS, it is expected that the City Council for Escondido (the “City Council”) will consider approval of the Escondido Agreement at one of its regular meetings in October of 2023 requesting that the Authority add Escondido as a Member Agency; and WHEREAS, the Authority desires to add Escondido as a Member Agency;
https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazo ... eement.pdf

_______________________________________________________________
SECTION 3. Term. This Agreement shall be effective upon approval of the Escondido City Council and the Board of Directors of the Authority but shall have an effective date of December 31, 2023 (the “Effective Date”). However, and subject to Section 5 (Start-Up Costs) and Section 6 (Additional Costs), the City’s annual assessments under Section 7 (Annual Assessments, Budget) of this Agreement and Section 6(C) of the Second Amended and Restated Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement for “North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority”, dated May 28, 2009, will not commence until December 31, 2024, or one (1) year after the Effective
Date of this Agreement, whichever is later.
https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazo ... ondido.pdf
_______________________________________________________________

10/11/2023 - 4:00pm Escondido Council Meeting
https://escondido-ca.municodemeetings.com/

_______________________________________________________________
NCDJPA was formed on June 11, 1984. The founding members were
the City of San Marcos, the City of Solana Beach, and Rancho Santa Fe
Fire Protection District. Additional member agencies were added:
1986 - City of Encinitas
1986 - City of Vista
2003 - City of Carlsbad
2005 - North County Fire Protection District
2006 - City of Oceanside
Several non-voting contract agencies have joined, including: City of
Del Mar in 2004, Pauma in 2011, Pala in 2012, and Rincon, San
Pasqual & Valley Center in 2014.
_______________________________________________________________

[orcotruck59]

Interesting, thank you, Brian. Great information, as usual!

[Brian]

Escondido Council Meeting - Wednesday, October 11, 2023 - 4:00pm
https://escondido-ca.municodemeetings.c ... meeting-61

PDF Agenda Packet
https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovclou ... 5a5d92.pdf

HTML Agenda Packet
https://meetings.municode.com/adaHtmlDo ... 92&ip=True

Meeting Minutes
https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovclou ... 5a5d92.pdf

Attached Files from the 3 links above.

EscondidoCouncilMeeting-ITEM-Attachment-001-EscFire-NorthComm-Agreement.pdf

(1.46 MiB) Downloaded 97 times

EscondidoCouncilMeeting-ITEM-Attachment-002-Resolution.pdf

(188.14 KiB) Downloaded 79 times

EscondidoCouncilMeeting-ITEM-Attachment-003-StaffReport.pdf

(533.3 KiB) Downloaded 87 times

______________________________________________________________________________

14. APPROVAL OF THE CITY’S MEMBERSHIP TO THE NORTH COUNTY DISPATCH JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY AND EXECUTION OF THE JOINT EXERCISE OF POWERS AGREEMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHING SERVICES
Request the City Council adopt Resolution No. 2023-95 approving the City of Escondido (“City”) becoming a Member Agency of the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority (“NCDJPA”) and authorizing the Mayor, on behalf of the City, to execute the attached Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement with NCDJPA for the provision of Fire Department dispatching services. (File Number 0600-10; A-3479)
Staff Recommendation: Approval (Fire Department: John Tenger, Fire Chief)

Presenter: John Tenger, Fire Chief; Jeff Sargis, Deputy Fire Chief; Ed Varso, Police Chief
a) Resolution No. 2023-95
Motion: C. Garcia; Second: Morasco; Approved: 5-0

Voting:
YEA - Mayor White
YEA - Deputy Mayor Garcia
YEA - Councilmember Morasco
YEA - Councilmember Martinez
YEA - Councilmember Garcia

October 11, 2023
File Number 0600-10; A-3479
SUBJECT

APPROVAL OF THE CITY’S MEMBERSHIP TO THE NORTH COUNTY DISPATCH JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY AND EXECUTION OF THE JOINT EXERCISE OF POWERS AGREEMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHING SERVICES

DEPARTMENT: Fire

RECOMMENDATION

Request the City Council adopt Resolution No. 2023-95 approving the City of Escondido (“City”) becoming a Member Agency of the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority (“NCDJPA”) and authorizing the Mayor, on behalf of the City, to execute the attached Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement with NCDJPA for the provision of Fire Department dispatching services.

Staff Recommendation: Approval and File (Fire Department: John Tenger, Fire Chief)

Presenter: John Tenger, Fire Chief; Jeff Sargis, Deputy Fire Chief; Ed Varso, Police Chief

FISCAL ANALYSIS

As a result of membership, the City will receive 12 months of dispatching service at no cost and there will be no startup costs due to NCDJPA. However, the Fire Department will incur expenses of approximately
$50,000 to configure the fire station alerting systems and establish mobile data computer connectivity.
After the first 12 months of service, the annual ongoing cost for NCDJPA membership is expected to be $1,070,000 and will be encumbered by the Fire Department’s Maintenance and Operating Budget. Annual service costs are based on Escondido Fire call volume as a percentage of the total cost to operate the NCDJPA.

In addition, the City of Escondido will pay for NCDJPA to hire 3 additional Fire Communications Dispatchers as a result of the increase in calls directly related to the City of Escondido joining NCDJPA. Additionally, joining NCDJPA as a Member Agency is not anticipated to result in the elimination of any existing positions within the City’s Police Department.

At the end of the first 12 months, NCDJPA staff will perform an analysis to determine the actual cost incurred related to the 3 additional Fire Communications Dispatchers. The cost of this one-time expense
is expected to be $390,000 and will be encumbered by the Fire Department’s budget and payed over four years at $97,500 per year with no interest. The cost of the 3 positions beginning in year 2 would be included in NCDJPA’s general operating budget and assessed to all agencies.

_________________________________________________________________________________
It is anticipated the Fire Department will begin receiving actual dispatching services from the NCDJPA in January of 2024.

PREVIOUS ACTION: None.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The City of Escondido Fire Department currently receives dispatch services from the City of Escondido Police Department. When Escondido Fire requires additional resources in the form of mutual or automatic aid for large or multiple incidents, the City of Escondido Dispatch Center dispatches Escondido emergency personnel to the scene, then calls the NCDJPA Dispatch Center to request additional resources to be dispatched from surrounding communities.

While Escondido’s current dispatch delivery system was common in the past, Escondido is now the only jurisdiction that uses this arrangement in San Diego County. All other fire departments in San Diego County are dispatched by one of four regional dispatch centers dedicated to fire and emergency medical services. Although maintaining dispatch services in-house in Escondido brings with it a sense of pride, it can fail to satisfy public expectations of modern-day emergency services that are better leveraged through a regional dispatch center. Furthermore, Escondido dispatchers are required to perform as both police and fire dispatchers, which are very different in nature, cadence, language, and scope.

NCDJPA, also known as North Comm, is a regional fire Dispatch Center that serves northern San Diego County, an area also referred to as the North Zone. The benefit of Escondido joining NCDJPA will be improved and enhanced service levels to the public and first responders. These changes would improve firefighter safety, improve response times both in areas of Escondido that are farther from our fire stations and for incidents that require significant mutual aid resources, provide opportunities to adjust our service delivery model within a robust system of care, and leverage the operational and technological advantages already being used by NCDJPA member agencies.

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[Brian]

BACKGROUND

NCDJPA was formed in July 1984 as a regional fire and emergency medical services dispatch center.
Current members include the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas, Oceanside, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Vista, plus the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District, and North County Fire Protection District (Fallbrook).
In addition, the NCDJPA provides contracted dispatch services to the CSA-17 Ambulance District, Rancho Santa Fe Security Patrol, and fire departments serving the communities of Del Mar, Pala, Pauma, Rincon, San Pasqual, and Valley Center. NCDJPA is financially stable (as are its member agencies), has significant reserves, and has been at or near 100% funding of their PERS liability for the past 4 years. The City of Escondido Fire Department remains the only non-participating agency in the northern San Diego County region.

Besides serving as the primary dispatch center for its member agencies, the NCDJPA dispatch center also serves as the San Diego County Operational Area dispatch center under the California Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid Plan. As the Operational Area dispatch center, NCDJPA coordinates the assignment of San
Diego County local government and California Office of Emergency Services (OES) resources to incidents throughout the region and the state as part of the California OES Mutual Aid system. These duties require NCDJPA dispatchers to provide daily reports on the status of all resources available in the Operational Area for mutual aid assignments, provision assignments based on availability, and continually track assigned resources. Member Agencies receiving dispatch services from NCDJPA benefit from the direct connection with the state when mutual aid resources are needed. In addition, the experience from being the Operational Area Dispatch Center gives North Comm dispatchers and support staff extensive experience in large scale emergency resource organization and mobilization.

The NCDJPA dispatch center is located next to Rancho Santa Fe Fire District Station 1. They employ 35 staff members, including 22 dispatchers and supervisors, plus administrative staff providing finance and human resources work, support staff providing data analytics, GIS, IT, and radio support, as well as a fourperson management team lead by the administrator. North Comm has been looking for several years at finding a new building somewhere in North San Diego County that is central in the North Zone.

The NCDJPA Board of Directors (BOD) is comprised of one elected official from each member agency, with each member having an equal vote. The Fire Chiefs of the respective agencies serve in an advisory capacity to the BOD and NCDJPA Administrator. Typically, the Fire Chiefs meet as a group once a month to discuss operational issues and develop recommendations for future agenda items. The NCDJPA Fire Chief meetings take place at various locations in the North Zone region. The Chiefs individually brief their
respective board members prior to the quarterly BOD meetings, which are held on the 4th Wednesday in February, May, August, and November at 10 a.m. at a Member Agency’s council chambers. BOD meetings in 2023 will be held at Oceanside City Hall.

Operational Advantages:

An immediate operational advantage of Escondido City joining the NCDJA will be the ability of NCDJPA to immediately dispatch the closest unit(s) to an emergency scene regardless of jurisdictional boundaries.
Under this scenario, the NCDJPA’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system will select for dispatch those available units that are closest to the scene of an emergency, using their automatic vehicle location (AVL)
and call routing systems. This will result in emergency personnel from another agency responding to an incident in our community or vice versa, reducing response times. This would most likely occur when the primary unit responding from our City is already on a call. Response time savings could range from thirty seconds to more than three minutes. In addition, utilizing the NCDJPA regional dispatch center will give the City the ability to analyze the effect boundary drops would have on future response areas and service levels.

Reduced response times to incidents involving mutual aid and automatic aid will also be realized as a result of joining the NCDJPA (although proportionately, they are a small percentage of our total call
volume). Automatic aid is an agreement by adjoining Member Agencies to provide an emergency response into a neighboring jurisdiction for an incident that requires significant emergency response resources. The criteria for these automatic aid response agreements are then programmed into the
NCDJPA CAD system to automatically select the necessary compliment of emergency resources (from local and surrounding jurisdictions) to respond to a particular incident. Dispatching needed emergency
resources from multiple jurisdictions at the same time by the NCDJPA Dispatch Center will shave up to approximately two minutes off the dispatching time for units responding into certain location in our
community and an equivalent amount of time when Escondido is requested to respond to an incident in a certain area of a neighboring community. Currently, when Escondido requires assistance in the form
of mutual or automatic aid, our Dispatch Center first dispatches Escondido emergency personnel to the scene, then calls the NCDJPA Dispatch Center to request that additional resources be dispatched from surrounding communities resulting in longer dispatch times.

NCDJPA offers the ability to constantly monitor the command radio channel on significant incidents. Ideally, on a major incident, the Incident Commander (IC) establishes communication on both a command and a tactical channel separate from the dispatch channel, to avoid overwhelming the dispatch channel.
The command channel is used by the IC to organize resources on scene, contact the dispatcher to request additional resources, and by field personnel to contact the IC. By segregating communications by
operational purpose on the scene of an incident, safety and efficiency are improved. Due to call volume workloads associated with handling both fire and police calls at the Escondido Dispatch Center, the fire
dispatcher serves as backup to the 9-1-1 call taker and the police dispatcher. This does not allow time for the fire dispatcher to constantly monitor the command channel on significant incidents for resource
requests from the IC, log significant events into CAD or monitor changes in the severity of the incident.
Thereby requiring the incident commander to communicate with dispatch via the dispatch channel.
NCDJPA has a minimum of 4 dispatchers on-duty, daytime staffing of 6 and peak period staffing of 7. This allows dispatchers to be dedicated to command channels and even tactical channels during working
incidents. This provides for better communication between the dispatcher and the IC, as the dispatcher can listen to how the incident is progressing and anticipate the types of requests that will be made by the IC.

Concentrating all northern San Diego fire agencies onto a single Dispatch Center improves dispatcher confidence and performance. By routing fire, rescue, and medical emergencies to a single Dispatch
Center, the NCDJPA dispatchers are able to focus their efforts in maintaining their skills in the specialized field of fire dispatching. By contrast, due to the sheer volume of Escondido’s Police radio traffic (90%), as
compared to Escondido’s fire calls (10%), Escondido dispatchers spend the vast majority of their time responding to police related calls. This provides them with few opportunities to practice and exercise
their skills to be efficient and confident fire and emergency medical dispatchers. This is especially true when it comes to the high-risk low-frequency fires that exceed a first alarm response. The NCDJPA
dispatchers have a much greater opportunity to maintain their skills providing pre-arrival medical instructions and in dispatching mutual and automatic aid requests. Conversely, by eliminating the need
for training dispatchers in both police and fire dispatching protocols, Escondido Dispatch Center's personnel will be able to concentrate their efforts on their primary function as police dispatchers. This
will eliminate the need for fire-related training, continuing education, and medical dispatching quality improvement programs, greatly shortening the training time needed for Escondido’s dispatchers. This
will have a positive effect on recruitment and retention.

As the number of emergency calls that are medical in nature continues to rise each year, it has become obvious that the Escondido Fire Department should not continue to dispatch a Fire Engine and Paramedic
Rescue Ambulance to every call for help. Through the Fire Department Quality Assurance and Improvement Program it has become clear that 30 to 40 percent of requests for medical aid can be appropriately managed with fewer personnel and personnel with a lower level of medical licensure. The
logical solution is to match the required resources to each individual situation.

Tiered dispatch is the process by which call takers triage requests for medical aid with a series of questions designed to determine the level of response required to adequately manage the situation
described by the caller. Once the call taker arrives at a computer generated “Determinant Code” the call can be transmitted to the appropriate units for response. In the tiered dispatch model, high acuity calls
will continue to receive the current response (Fire Engine and Paramedic Rescue Ambulance). However, lower acuity requests would receive a response consisting of fewer personnel and/or Basic Life Support
ambulance staffed by Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), who have a lower level of medical licensure than Paramedics. The response level is based on the “Determinant Code” in order to send the right
resources to the right patient at the right time.

While the Escondido Police and Fire Communication Center personnel have proven very capable of arriving at proper “Determinant Codes” (98% accuracy rate), the time demand placed on call takers is
significant. With high call volumes and increased attention required for each request for medical aid, our short-staffed Communication Center is taxed by the demands of this complex system of resource allocation. Additionally, requests for medical aids are less than 10% of the Communication Centers overall workload. This requires call takers and dispatcher to constantly switch from one mode of operation to another. Medical aids are handled differently than fires, both are handled differently than police calls.

NCDJPA implemented their tiered dispatch call handling in July 2021, including auto-voice (similar to Escondido) and auto-dispatch functionality. The latter functionality is programmed into the CAD system,
so that as soon as a call taker enters an incident into the system it is dispatched without dispatcher intervention. NCDJPA analysis showed this saved an average of 12 seconds per incident, reducing the
overall response time to emergencies. Part of the NCDJPA tiered dispatch system includes quality assurance reviews of random and targeted incidents by a dedicated staff member with certification in such analysis.

NCDJPA Member Agencies also enjoy several enhanced levels of service and technology that the combined power of the JPA brings versus agencies trying to do so on their own. NCDJPA provides IT staff, GIS staff, a data analyst, and a radio technician who all directly support their Member Agencies.
This group performs maintenance on MDCs, coordinates the station alerting system, maintains mapping data, creates pre-plans, assists executive staff with reporting for city councils or city managers, as well as
LAFCO reporting and standards of cover analysis, and maintains VHF radio sites. This will also drastically reduce the workload on Escondido’s IS department.


NCDJPA Member Agencies have access to Tablet Command, an app that shows both list and map views of active incidents throughout the region. Member Agencies have used this program to provide real-time
situational awareness not only to fire department staff but to executive city management staff, including city managers and finance directors. They also have access to LiveMUM Mobile, a real-time tool that is
available to chief officers’ mobile devices to show unit availability across the North Zone. NCDJPA dispatchers also use LiveMUM, a sophisticated program that uses two years of incident data and forecasting to recommend when and where to move fire units from one station to another in order to
provide better coverage when major incidents or activity levels require it, improving resource management.

An additional advantage of Escondido joining NCDJPA will be in the increased opportunities for regional coordination. Escondido already participates in North Zone committee meetings, including operations,
training, and EMS. However, we are not included in some executive level meetings that only NCDJPA Member Agencies attend. Collaboration at this level has often been the birthplace of efforts that ultimately improve efficiencies, eliminate redundancy, and improve specialization.

Finally, as previously mentioned, Escondido Fire is the only North County City not participating in the NCDJPA. This conversion would result in a single, regional fire Dispatch Center for the North Zone serving
all of north San Diego County (such as the Heartland Dispatch JPA does in the east county). This will allow the NCDJPA to allocate all the North Zone resources in a timely and coordinated manner in the event of
a major disaster or significant incident requiring resources from multiple agencies. It will also provide for better communications at the scene of major incidents by providing a single command center that can
quickly be staffed with a chief officer to coordinate the utilization of North Zone agency resources. A rotating on-call list for a fire operation chief from a NCDJPA member agency is in place. Whenever a major incident occurs, including working 2-alarm fires or greater, the duty chief is assigned to the NCDJPA Dispatch Center to provide additional management level oversight of incident coordination, as well as to act as a liaison to all fire departments in the North Zone. This is in contrast to a simple communications
center that only facilitates requests by field personnel, whereas a "command center'' (such as the NCDJPA) has the ability to manage regional resource deployments to major incidents.

Alternatives:
The only viable alternative is to continue to be dispatched through the Escondido Dispatch Center. With the increase in call volume from both police and fire/EMS calls this would necessitate the hiring of two
additional dispatchers in order to maintain a minimum of four dispatchers (one call taker, one police dispatcher, one fire dispatcher and one supervisor to an already taxed system) on a 24-hour basis. In addition, one full-time Emergency Medical Dispatch Quality Assurance supervisor (EMDQA supervisor)
would need to be added to assist with the comprehensive development of the “Tiered Dispatch” model.
Lastly, improvement in orientation, training, and emergency medical dispatch quality improvement programs would need to be enhanced.

In theory, with the addition of personnel and training, the level of service provided by Escondido’s Dispatch Center could approach that provided by the NCDJPA. However, the mentioned operational advantages of consolidating the North County region into one fire Dispatch Center cannot be achieved by continuing to maintain our own Dispatch Center separate from the regions.

RESOLUTIONS

a. Resolution No. 2023-95
ATTACHMENTS
a. Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement between the North County Dispatch Joint Powers
Authority and the City of Escondido
b. Board of Directors of the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority Resolution 23-08


RESOLUTION NO. 2023-95
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
ESCONDIDO, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING THE CITY’S
MEMBERSHIP TO THE NORTH COUNTY DISPATCH JOINT
POWERS AUTHORITY AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR
TO EXECUTE, ON BEHALF OF THE CITY, THE JOINT
EXERCISE OF POWERS AGREEMENT FOR THE PROVISION OF FIRE DEPARTMENT DISPATCHING SERVICES
WHEREAS, the City of Escondido (“City”) and the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority (“NCDJPA”) are public agencies organized and existing under the laws of the State of California; and WHEREAS, the NCDJPA was created in July 1984 and currently has eight members who exercise
certain powers jointly by providing fire communications; by equipping, maintaining, operating and staffing a regional public safety services communications facility; and, by providing emergency call receiving
services to member agencies; and WHEREAS, the City desires to join the Authority as a member agency. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Escondido, California, as follows:
1. That the above recitations are true.
2. That the City Council approves the City of Escondido becoming a Member Agency of the NCDJPA.
3. The Mayor, on behalf of the City, is authorized to execute the Joint Exercise of Powers
Agreement with NCDJPA for the provision of Fire Department dispatching services, which is attached hereto as Exhibit “A” and incorporated by this reference, subject to final approval as to form by the City Attorney.

JOINT EXERCISE OF POWERS AGREEMENT
Between the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority
and the City of Escondido
THIS AGREEMENT is made and entered this day of , 2023, and is effective beginning
the Effective Date (as defined in Section 3), is by and between the City of Escondido, a California municipal corporation (hereinafter referred to as the “City”) and the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority (the “Authority”), a joint exercise of powers authority organized and
existing under the laws of the State of California.

WHEREAS, the Authority was created in July 1984 and currently has eight members, including the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District, North County Fire Protection District,
and the cities of Encinitas, San Marcos, Solana Beach, Carlsbad, Vista, and Oceanside (the “Member Agencies”); and

WHEREAS, the Authority is authorized to solicit and add additional members; and

WHEREAS, on October 11, 2023, the Escondido City Council adopted its Resolution No. 2023-95, approving the City’s addition to the Authority as a member agency; and

WHEREAS, the Authority desires to add the City as a member agency; and

WHEREAS, the Authority and the City desire to provide fire communications and related services and equip, staff, operate a regional public safety services communications facility, and to provide a vehicle for the accomplishment thereof; and

WHEREAS, the Authority and the City desire to accomplish the aforesaid purpose by jointly exercising their common powers in the manner set forth in this Agreement; and

WHEREAS, the Authority and the City are authorized to jointly exercise their powers
pursuant to the provisions of Article 2, Chapter 4, Part 2, Division 2, Title 5, sections 55631 through 55634, and Article 1, Chapter 5, Division 7, Title 1, sections 6500 through 6530, of the Government Code of the State of California.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Authority and the City for and in consideration of mutual benefits promise and agree as follows:

SECTION 1. Purpose. The purpose of this Agreement is to add the City to the Authority as a “Member Agency” as defined in Section 2(J) of the Second Amended and Restated Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement for “North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority”, dated May
28, 2009. This Agreement is made pursuant to Section 15 of the Second Amended and Restated Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement for “North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority”, dated


May 28, 2009, and the First Amendment to theSecond Amended and Restated Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement for “North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority”, dated March 4, 2015
The Authority Agreement is attached to this Agreement as Exhibit A and is incorporated by reference.

SECTION 2. Adoption of JPA. On October 11, 2023, the City Council of the City of Escondido approved this Agreement, together with its attachments or other documents described or incorporated herein. To the extent that they are not in conflict with this Agreement, all of the rights and obligations conferred on Member Agencies pursuant to the Authority Agreement shall apply to the City as of the Effective Date of thisAgreement.

SECTION 3. Term. This Agreement shall be effective upon approval of the Escondido City Council and the Board of Directors of the Authority but shall have an effective date of December 31, 2023 (the “Effective Date”). However, and subject to Section 5 (Start-Up Costs) and Section
6 (Additional Costs), the City’s annual assessments under Section 7 (Annual Assessments, Budget) of this Agreement and Section 6(C) of the Second Amended and Restated Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement for “North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority”, dated May 28, 2009,
will not commence until December 31, 2024, or one (1) year after the Effective Date of this Agreement, whichever is later.

This Agreement is binding on the Parties and will remain in effect until the total number of Member Agencies falls below two (2) or the City withdraws from the Authority under Section 12 (Withdrawal) of the Authority Agreement, or the Member Agencies agree to terminate the Authority under Section 13 (Dissolution and Disposition of Assets) of the
Authority Agreement.

SECTION 4. Buy-In Fee/Disposition of Assets. As incentive for joining the Authority, the City shall not pay a buy-in fee for the first year of this Agreement as could be required under Section 15(C) of the Authority Agreement if, and only if, the City becomes a Member Agency on
or before December 31, 2023. If the City becomes a Member Agency after December 31, 2023, the Parties agree to enter into good faith negotiations to determine what, if any, buy-in fee shall be imposed, which shall take into consideration the financial impact that the delay in joining
the Authority has on the Authority that are not included in the Start-Up Costs (as hereinafter defined).

Notwithstanding its immediate status as a “voting member” of the Authority as of the Effective Date of this Agreement, the City shall not be eligible to share in the distribution of funds or property as may be authorized under the Authority Agreement for a period of 10 years following the Effective Date of this Agreement or prior to January 1, 2034 (the “10-Year
Distribution Waiver”), whichever is earlier, on the basis that City is paying no buy-in fee as a share ofthe Authority’s assets. Therefore, the City will not receive, and hereby expressly waives any rights to proceeds in accordance with Sections 13(G) and 13(H) ofthe Authority Agreement
for the 10-Year Distribution Waiver period. Following the expiration of the 10-Year Distribution Waiver period, the City shall share in any distribution of the Authority’s funds, property, and/or assets in the same manner as any other Member Agency in accordance with the terms of the Authority Agreement, including any amendment or restatementthereto.

SECTION 5. Start-Up Costs. “Start-Up Costs” are defined as costs incurred by the Authority that are directly related to the City becoming a Member Agency of the Authority. The City will pay such Start-Up Costs incurred by the Authority to hire three (3) additional dispatchers, including, but not limited to, actual salaries and benefits paid during the first year
of this Agreement. As of the Effective Date of this Agreement, the Parties estimate Start-Up Costs to be in an amount of $130,000 for each new dispatcher, for a total estimated cost of $390,000. The Parties understand and agree that such amount is an estimate and that the actual
amount may be more or less than the total estimated cost. However, the total amount of StartUp Costs resulting from the first year of the City’s membership to the Authority shall not exceed $400,000. The City agrees to reimburse the Authority of the actual and reasonable Start-Up
Costs, which shall not exceed $400,000, without additional approval from its City Council. Any amounts in excess of $400,000 shall require the approval of the Escondido City Council. At the conclusion of the first year of this Agreement, the Authority will perform an analysis of the
specific actual costs incurred and will provide the City with a summary. The Authority will invoice 25% of the Start-Up Costs to the City as part of regular Q1 billing in years two (2) through five (5) of this Agreement.

SECTION 6. Additional Costs. The City may incur additional costs in the process of obtaining dispatch services from the Authority. Costs such as any purchase or modification of software licenses, station alerting, computer workstations, printers, power supplies, wiring and any other appurtenance which may reside at a facility owned or operated by either the
Authority or the City will not be covered as a Start-Up Cost as outlined in Section 5 (Start-Up Costs). The City is responsible for such additional costs described in this Section 6 (Additional Costs).

SECTION 7. Annual Assessments, Budget. The City’s assessment for the period of January 1, 2025 through June 30, 2025 shall be determined pursuant to Section 6(C) of the Authority Agreement, and based upon anticipated operating expenses of the Authority with the City as a
Member Agency.

SECTION 8. Severability. Should any provision of this Agreement be unenforceable for any reason, the remaining provisions are deemed severable and will remain valid and enforceable.

SECTION 9. Amendments. This Agreement represents the entire understanding between the Parties regarding the City’s acceptance as a member in the Authority and supersedes all previous understandings and agreements. Following the full and complete 10-Year Distribution
Waiver period, the terms of the Authority Agreement will survive this Agreement and control the relationship between the Authority and the City. This Agreement may be amended only through a written document that is executed by both Parties.

SECTION 10. Successors. This Agreement is binding upon and inures to the benefit of the successors of the Parties.