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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 04252006 - C.68 ' TO: BOARD OF SUPERVContra •;•" _ FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE Costa DATE: APRIL 3, 2006 °asr -- - -_-_ County a c-- SUBJECT: TELEPHONE EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM- e MULTILINGUAL IMPLEMENTATION RECOMMENDATION b I ' SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: DIRECT the Sheriff and Health Services departments to: m Proceed with the installation of up to 300 public safety messaging devices to the Laotian pilot program community using the FSK(frequency shift key)technology,which does not require the Caller ID (Identification) service to dispatch emergency messages. a Continue to develop methods to provide multilingual emergency messaging utilizing cellular phones, and Internet and cable television broadcast. Report back to the Internal Operations Committee the results of the installation. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATU RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMEN A ON OF BOARD COMMITTEE `APPROVE OTHER 1-4 (ABSENT) SIGNATURE(S): GA E ,UIL C IR MARK DeSAULNIER ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED OT R VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE y AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN UNANIMOUS(ABSENT AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE AYES: NOES: SHOWN. ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTESTED: MAY 9,2006 CONTACT: JULIE ENEA(925)335-1077 JOHN CULLEN,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CC: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE STAFF SHERIFF'S EMERGENCY SERVICES DIVISION HEALTH SERVICES-HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PROGRAM MANAGER HEALTH SERVICES-HAZARDOUS MATERIALS OMBUDSMAN LAOTIAN ORGANIZING PROJECT BY EPUTY i A i Multilingual Emergency Notification System Implementation April 3,2006 Internal Operations Committee Page 3 FSK/TENS Testing Results 9900CW/Caller ID With Caller ID No Caller ID Audio Display Audio Display Phone Rings "All Clear" 925-335-9792 1 ALL CLEAR User Answers Call 925-335-9792 ALL CLEAR FSK Tones Played "All Clear" 925-335-9792 "All Clear" 925-335-9792 ALL CLEAR ALL CLEAR INDUSTRY ;t-..�'-".-•F' ,e: .:ice" CWS - —ACLVATION —------ I ❑ 1)Answer Phone ZONES TENS IDENTIFIED ACTIVATED 2)FSK Tone 2 I_ 3)Verbal AlertNon 4 English 3 4)English Message Case with Alert i 1)Answer Phone 2)FSK Tone 3)English Message Case Without Alert Device Data Flow from Telephone Notification to home. Multilingual Emergency Notification System Implementation April 3,2006 Internal Operations Committee Page 2 FISCAL IMPACT: Purchase and installation of the PSM devices, as proposed,will be covered by grants in the amounts of $100,000 from the California Air Resources Board and$40,000 from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board. Implementation costs beyond the 300 boxes covered under the pilot program would financed through a one-time charge to the consumer. BACKGROUND: On September 13, 2005,the Internal Operations Committee (IOC)provided the attached report to the Board of Supervisors regarding the status of efforts to implement a multilingual public safety messaging services to residents near chemical refineries. The Board, on September 13, directed that the public safety messaging device be implemented by January 2006 with a status report back to the IOC in Spring 2006. In its March 2006 status report to the iIOC,the project team advised that that despite exhaustive efforts by the Sheriffs Department,contracted outreach staff, and Supervisor Gioia(who attended several community meetings and made his conference room available for meetings)to obtain the public safety messaging(PSM)devices and program them in multiple languages, develop the messages, conduct outreach and training, only 29 of the 300 public safety messaging devices planned for distribution were actually accepted and installed, The primary obstacle was reported to be the $6 per month cost of the Caller Identification(ID) service, which is required for the PSM device to function. The Committee directed staff to continue to work with the ClassCo company, which manufactures the PSM devices,to develop a technology that does not rely on Caller ID. The project team reported to the IOC in April that the devices could be activated using a Frequency Shift Key(FSK)or fax-like tone, which was demonstrated for our committee (see Exhibit on Page 3). This methodology permits the devices to be activated without the need for Caller ID. It should be noted that this approach will cause the fax-like tone to be heard by all phones in the notification area regardless of the presence of a personal alert device. The new tone is not unlike the tone typically heard before an emergency broadcast on television. However, additional outreach may be required to educate system users of the significance of the new tone. Based on pilot program survey responses, it is expected that absent the monthly subscription cost for Caller ID, many non-English speaking residents would be willing to pay the one-time cost for the PSM device to receive the benefit of emergency messages in their primary languages. i Multilingual Emergency Notification System Implementation August 29,2005 Internal Operations Committee Page 4 Methodolosv. One Spanish languages leaking outreach worker was employed on contract by Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) organization to recruit 25 Spanish-speaking and 25 English- speaking households. This was accomplished via contact with the Richmond City Council, Richmond Office of Emergency Services, local community centers, churches and health centers, and by canvassing neighborhoods within the parameters of the inundation area. Pre-requisites required that all participants already have the Caller ID service and reside in or near the immediate area of the San Pablo Dam inundation area. During the month preceding the test,the outreach worker installed the ClassCo PSM boxes in participants' homes and provided instruction on the boxes used during the test. After installation and prior to the test date, a community meeting was held to give the participants an opportunity to meet the Project Team, ask questions, and obtain clarification, as needed. Participant's phone numbers, addresses and language spoken were provided by the contract worker to the Sheriff s Community Warning System staff who, in turn, programmed that data into a predefined notification area(San Pablo Dam inundation zone)within the Staff Automated Notification Device (SAND). In this way, staff was able to effectively simulate an evacuation order utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS)-generated maps targeting only test participants. The day of the test, Wednesday March 2, 2005, the PSM system was activated twice -- once at 11:00 a.m. and once at 7:00 p.m. --to enable maximum opportunity for participation in the test. The 11:00 a.m. test coincided with the monthly testing of the siren system. After the test was complete,the outreach worker collected the boxes from the participants and asked them to complete a written evaluation of the test. Test Results and Evaluations. Twenty Ifour(24) Spanish-speaking and thirteen (13) English-speaking residents signed up to participate. The outreach workers found it difficult to enlist English speaking participants. The following table is a breakdown of the participants,their ethnic makeup and the results of their participation. i Multilingual Emergency Notification System Implementation August 29,2005 Internal Operations Committee Page 5 Language Number of Number Number of Number of Homes Homes responding Homes homes that homes that homes that responding to the to the survey that with PSA participated participated participated survey that felt feel having a boxes in the 11 am iin the 7pm in both the having a system system to provide installed test test. l lam and to provide audible a follow-up 7pm test. alerts in their message in their native language native language would be would be beneficial beneficial Spanish 24 13 8 2 23 22 English 13 4 8 0 12 12 Total 37 17 16 2 35 33 TABLE A : * This pilot did not contain the option to push a button to be connected to a recorded message. It was explained to the participants what the function would do if available. Secondary survey A secondary survey was conducted randomly to non-participants. The outreach worker explained the function of the box to them and asked them to respond to the questions in Table B. Language Do you have Would you If you do not already have Caller Caller ID? purchase a PSM ID, would you purchase both Emergency box? Caller ID and Emergency Box? Spanish Yes 20 28 8 No 8 0 English Yes 8 3 1 No 3 8 Bi-lingual Yes 4 4 No 1 1 1 TABLE B Conclusions. All of the pilot participants responding to the survey reported that the boxes that spoke in Spanish were a good idea. Also, results of the secondary survey indicated that people who speak Spanish would purchase both the PSM device and the Caller ID function that would be needed to send emergency messages. In the secondary survey, English-speaking residents were less likely to want to purchase an English-only PSM device. Comments indicated satisfaction with the current public emergency notification methods and concerns with cost of the PSM device and related services. i Multilingual Emergency Notification System Implementation August 29,2005 Internal Operations Committee Page 6 APPENDIX A Telephone Emergency Notification System Pilot Implementation entation Task List and Timeline ELEMENT* ASSIGNED TO** DUE DATE PROJECT KICKOFF METING SO, HS, CAER, FRF, DCC MAY 2005 Locate Caller-ID subscribers SO, SBC JULY 1, 2005 Identify number of boxes needed SO, CAER, HS JUNE 1, 2005 Secure funding SO, CAER, FRN MAY 15, 2005 Order boxes SO, CAER JUNE 2, 2005 Staff Contracting CAER JUNE 1, 2005 Set up all DCC Servers for TENS to PSM SO, DCC JULY 2005 devices Coordinate w/DCC on call costs for call- SO, DCC, CAER, HS JUNE 1, 2005 back service if used) Call-Back Set up with Frontwave (if used) SO, HS, DCC JULY 1, 2005 Frontwave Recordings SO, Contractors AUGUST 2005 if used Set up Technical Support Plan I SO, CAER, HS, Contractors JUNE 2005 Develop Marketing Materials J CAER, SO, HS ONGOING Write Instructions SO, Contractors AUGUST 1, 2005 Translate Instructions SO, Contractors SEPTEMBER 2005 Build Verbal Messages SO, Contractor JULY 1, 2005 Shelter in Place/All Clear) Program Boxes SO, CAER, Contractors SEPTEMBER 2005 Place stickers for call back, support and Contractors with partnership SEPTEMBER 2005 partnership on boxes support Train Installers SO, Contractors SEPTEMBER 2005 Install Boxes Contractors with partnership SEPTEMBER 2005 support Test Communications DCC, SO, C1assCo SEPTEMBER/OCT 2005 i Multilingual Emergency Notification System Implementation August 29,2005 Internal Operations Committee Page 7 Field check with public on benefits/issues SO DECEMBER 2005 Report after implementation completion SO MARCH 2006 * TENS refers to the County's Telephone Emergency Notification System. ** SO denotes Sheriffs Office; CAER denotes the Community Awareness and Emergency Response organization;HS denotes the Health Services Department;SBC denotes SBC,Inc., telephone company;DCC denotes Dialogic Communications Corporation, the County's telephone emergence notification system provider;FRF denotes First Responder Foundation, a nonprofit group whose mission it is to support first responder and alert and warning projects throughout the Bay Area; Contractors denote those hired from the Laotian Community to translate, install equipment,perform community coordination and find participants for the project; ClassCo denotes the PSM device supplier.