CC Minutes - 06/25/07 City Council Meeting

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averred that whether the City pursued the COPS grant or not the fire communication system would have to be overhauled in the near future. Councilor Bettman asked if the infrastructure had been installed with the 2005 grant money. Mr. Rizzi affirmed that it was. Councilor Bettman asked why the current amount of money, ostensibly for radios only, was greater than the amount of money in the 2005 grant. Mr. Rizzi replied that there was more to it. He explained that at present the Fire Department utilized Very High Frequency (VHF) and the new system was Ultra-High Frequency (UHF), which provided the capacity to communicate from inside of buildings. He stated that the whole department was now utilizing VHF and the grant sought to switch them over to UHF. He added that the VHF system for the Fire Department was overloaded and could not be extended. Councilor Bettman asked if the money that the City of Eugene had contributed had only been allocated to the cost of the system upgrades to Eugene within its city limits. Mr. Rizzi responded that it had not been limited by the City’s boundaries. Councilor Bettman asserted that the City of Eugene was subsidizing other jurisdictions. Mr. Rizzi replied that he considered the amount of money the City of Eugene was contributing to be the “best deal in the whole system.” He explained that by extending out past the city limits it gave the City of Eugene interoperability between additional agencies, both police and fire, in surrounding communi- ties. Councilor Bettman said she was not talking about the match being proportional to the entire grant; rather she was talking about the City’s share of the match being proportional to the other jurisdictions’ shares of the match. Mr. Rizzi believed it was proportional. He reiterated that each agency contributed a certain amount of for the basic system and then the additional amount was for the actual subscriber units. He explained that the City of Springfield had about half of the number of units the City of Eugene had and was paying about half of the amount Eugene was paying. Councilor Bettman asked if when the grant was done the area would be completely interoperable. Mr. Rizzi replied that the interoperability would be vastly improved. He noted that they were also putting in additional towers. Councilor Bettman asked what other cities were benefiting from it. Mr. Rizzi replied that they were the same as the partners he had already listed. Councilor Bettman averred that she did not see any other cities listed aside from Springfield. Randy Groves, Fire Chief, elaborated, explaining that the fire districts that the City of Eugene was partnering with covered other cities and sometimes more than one. He reminded the Mayor and Council that the City of Eugene operated an Ambulance Service Area (ASA) that was larger than the City of Eugene and was also the regional state hazardous materials team responsible to all of Lane County, for which they did receive some state money. He noted that they provided regional search and rescue services as well. He underscored that the communication system for the Fire Department was aging. He said for every dollar they spent, they received three back in grant funding. He added that another leveraging point was that the department would be able to connect with the existing system and this would benefit the City. Councilor Bettman said she intended to support the grant. Councilor Pryor expressed appreciation for staff’s diligence for identifying a source of funding and leveraging partners. He thought the grant was a “great thing” and that the City would receive a lot for its investment. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 25, 2007 Page 11 Regular Meeting