Article Source: City of San Bruno CA
DATE: August 22, 2017
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
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FROM: Dave Cresta, Interim Fire Chief
SUBJECT: Adopt Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Execute a Contract with Telecommunications Engineering Associates (TEA) in an Amount Not to Exceed $60,000 for Fire Station Alerting System Hardware, Software and Service
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BACKGROUND:
Each fire station in San Mateo County, including San Bruno's two fire stations, has a fire station alerting system (FSA) that notifies emergency responders of an incident. The origination of these alerts is the County's Public Safety Communications Dispatch (PSC) Center in Redwood City. The existing Fire Station Alerting System currently in use by San Bruno Fire was manufactured by Zetron Inc. (Redmond Washington) back in the late 1990s. The current system, though very reliable, is no longer manufactured by Zetron and they no longer provide technical support or repair services nor do they provide replacement parts for it. There are very few spare parts available for this system and due their age may not be trustworthy.
San Mateo County Public Safety Communications determines the appropriate agency and where a Fire emergency call is received, resource that needs to respond and then uses the FSA to notify that resource. When the FSA receives the alert signal from the county dispatch center, The FSA activates by providing multiple alarm indicators in the fire station including an audible alarm and automatic light illumination. The FSA also activates speakers in the station so the dispatcher can be heard announcing the incident and provides a paper print out with the type of emergency, location and other reference information. Once notified, personnel at each station use the FSA control panel to acknowledge receipt of the alarm. This action lets the County dispatch center know that the appropriate resource is responding and starts the clock on the response time.
DISCUSSION:
In 2009 the San Mateo County Fire Chiefs Association initiated a Request for Proposal for a replacement Alerting System. Several vendors' proposals were evaluated for their ability to interface to the County's Dispatch system, as well as, the Fire Stations' infrastructure (Public Address Speaker Systems, Station Lights control, Stove Gas and Electric Shutoff etc). The FSAlert System was designed specifically with San Mateo County Fire's needs in mind. The primary concern was that it must interface to PSC's computer aided dispatch system, while at the same time interface cleanly to the Fire Station infrastructure without requiring significant modification. The cost of the new components was also a factor under consideration, as was being NFPA1 221 Compliant (to maintain current ISO Fire Insurance ratings for the Fire Dept, s/Districts)
The San Mateo Fire Chiefs Association made the determination that the FSAlert System designed/offered by Telecommunications Engineering Associates located in San Carlos was the system of choice. Installation of the new system began in limited fashion in 2012. As of July of 2017, 25 stations have installed the new system and have been completely cut over. Additional departments are planned for the balance of this fiscal year and on into next. The remaining stations in the county will cut over as funding is procured and installation schedules permit.
If approved, the new FSA hardware and software will provide significant advantages and upgrades compared to the current outdated system. The FSAlert system complies with NFPA's 1221 recommendation for alerting systems as used by Emergency Response Facilities, which is important in maintaining the city's ISO rating. It is compliant with San Mateo County's Fire Dispatch current and future alerting requirements, as PSC is in the process of updating its Computer Aided Dispatch system. Also, San Mateo County's PSC Dispatch Center will be eliminating support for the existing system in the future, as they do not plan to support both systems in parallel indefinitely.
From a technical standpoint, the design of the system allows for seamless software updates and functional improvements and changes in display functionality in the future; for example, least-driving-time routing display could be supplied on the station's wall mounted display panel at the time of alert. The AlT Specialized Telephone Circuits that are required to operate the existing system are expensive and very poorly maintained by AU and have been proven to be very unreliable of late. The FSAIert does not use this transmission technology but rather uses cable internet data transmission methods. Thus it enjoys a higher system reliability and much quicker repair restoral times that is now measured in hours/minutes, rather than days. FSAlert has been designed to fully function even when the station is without PGE power and the generator has not started for periods of between I to 8 hours depending on fire station design. The system can also turn off kitchen cooking appliances and will be interoperable with pre-seismic event alerting systems currently under development.
Public Contracts Code section 3400(c) authorizes the City to select a particular vendor or brand of equipment "to match other products in use on a particular public improvement either completed or in the course of completion," or to "obtain a necessary item that is only available from one source." San Bruno Municipal Code section 2.44,030 authorizes the City to dispense with formal bidding when the product is only available from one vendor, or when another government agency has requested proposals in accordance with state law. In this situation, the product is only available from one vendor, and the county-wide proposal for the hardware and software were in compliance with the Public Contracts Code, as there is a compelling reason for all county agencies to use the same product.
For these reasons, staff recommends awarding the proposed agreement for fire station alerting system hardware and software to TEA in an amount not to exceed $60,000.00.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This project was included in the FY 16-17 Fire Equipment Reserve Fund Budget.
$60,000 has been carried over to 2017-18 and is available to cover the cost the project.
Total Project Costs are as follows:
Fire Station alerting system hardware & software $ 38,835.90
Replace Station 51 & 52 radios antennas and power 17,945.31
Total Project Cost $ 56,781.21
ALTERNATIVES:
1. Direct staff to reject the bid and develop a request for proposals
RECOMMENDATION:
Adopt Resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a contract with Telecommunications Engineering Associates (TEA) in an amount not to exceed $60,000 for Fire Station alerting system hardware, software and service
FULL Council Agenda Packet WITH Staff Reports can be viewed and downloaded from:
https://sanbruno.ca.gov/gov/elected_officials/city_council_minutes_n_agendas.htm
This document should be available late Friday before the Tuesday Council Meeting
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Robert Riechel
E=Mail: SanBrunoPatch.Robert@Yahoo.com
My Posts: http://patch.com/users/robert-riechel
Photo Credit: San Bruno CA Patch Archives
Source Credit: San Bruno CA City Council
Web Site: https://sanbruno.ca.gov
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