REPORT TO SHASTA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

BOARD MEETING DATE:  June  20, 2017
CATEGORY:  Consent - Law and Justice-17.

SUBJECT:

Repeater Site License

Supervisorial District No. :  All

DEPARTMENT CONTACT:  Anthony Bertain, Lieutenant (530) 245-6095

STAFF REPORT APPROVED BY:  Mike Lindsey, Chief Fiscal Officer

RECOMMENDATION

Approve and authorize: (1) The Chairman to sign a License Agreement with Redding MSA Partnership d.b.a. Verizon Wireless (Licensor) in the amount of $700 per month, with annual increases of three percent on the base amount of rent on the anniversary of the commencement date, for licensing the right to use approximately four square feet of space inside Licensor’s concrete building and the non-exclusive right to install one antenna on Licensor’s tower at Shasta Bally, Shasta Mountain, beginning on the first day of the month after the agreement is executed for an initial period of five years with the option to extend the license for two additional five-year terms with written notice; and (2) approve and authorize the County Executive Officer, or his/her designee, to sign a Verizon Notice To Proceed or license amendment as applicable allowing County to install the equipment prior to July 1, 2017.

SUMMARY

N/A

DISCUSSION

The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office utilizes various repeater site locations in and around Shasta County to facilitate two-way radio communications for dispatching and officer safety. The proposed license agreement provides space to allow for installation of a repeater on Shasta Bally which will improve radio propagation in underserved areas thereby increasing radio coverage and increasing the ability to better communicate by radio in certain geographic areas of the county.

The Sheriff’s Office has continued to work to improve radio coverage since the Federal Communications Commission mandated the conversion from wide-band to narrow-band which reduced the ability for radio systems to propagate from the wide-band levels.

This repeater is recommended to be installed to improve the Sheriff’s Office radio coverage in Shasta County. Coverage of the existing repeaters is limited by the topography of areas covered by existing repeaters. Shasta Bally’s coverage, because it is double the height of any of our existing repeater sites, will improve along the south western portion of the county in the vicinity of Igo, Ono, and out towards the southeastern areas of the county East of Shingletown out to Viola.

Rent for the license begins July 1, 2017 if the license is signed in June 2017.  The Sheriff's Office has a grant to cover equipment installation if it is completed by June 30, 2017.  If Verizon agrees to allow the Sheriff's Office to install the equipment prior to July 1, it will be most efficient to authorize the County Executive Officer or his/her designee to sign either a license amendment or Verizon Notice To Proceed as applicable so the equipment can be installed right away.

ALTERNATIVES

The Board may choose to not approve this license agreement or may request additional information from staff.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT

The County Administrative Office has worked on negotiating this agreement. The agreement has been reviewed and approved by Risk Management and has been approved as to form by County Counsel.

FINANCING

The annual rent for the first year is $700 per month and will increase three percent annually thereafter until termination. The cost of this licensing is included in the requested budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18. Should this license agreement be approved, the maximum amount payable during the initial five-year term and two additional five-year renewals with three percent annual increases would be $156,231. First year maintenance costs are estimated to be $1,660 and are also included in the requested budget for Fiscal Year 2017-18. Future year maintenance costs will be included in each respective requested budget. There is no additional General Fund impact with approval of this recommendation.