Council briefed on ordinance to establish city Emergency Communication Center as PSAP

The committee heard an ordinance proposal to establish a city Emergency Communication Center (ECC) to serve as the city’s primary public-safety answering point (PSAP) following recent actions at the regional communications board. Maggie Yates, a city staff member, said the Shrek board voted to terminate the service-level agreement with Fire and required the city to establish its own primary PSAP. The proposed ordinance would create the Emergency Communication Center department, repeal outdated combined-communications language in code, and delineate PSAP duties and a special revenue fund to receive emergency-communications revenues. The nut graf: establishing a city PSAP is the legal and operational prerequisite to receiving 9-1-1 excise tax apportionments and sales/use tax revenues that pay for emergency communications. Administration said it is coordinating requirements and timelines with the state 9-1-1 office and with Shrek and that the state ultimately will decide when call transfers can be switched to a city PSAP. Committee members asked about timeline and funding flow. Yates said project teams including PMO, police and fire are collecting requirements and that the city will work with the county to route the 9-1-1 excise and any local emergency-communications sales tax to the new special fund once the PSAP is established. She said the state 9-1-1 office will not flip calls until it is confident the city setup is safe to receive them.