The City & County Information Technology Departments wish to work cooperatively on the “IT Conduit to 911 Center” project that was recently bid. The City of Billings proposes to contract with the winning bidder for the service and to share the cost and ownership with Yellowstone County through a memorandum of understanding (MOU). A MOU has been signed by Yellowstone County pledging to provide financial support in exchange for 50% ownership in the 4” conduit that will allow for fiber optic cable to be run from the Yellowstone County Courthouse and from City Hall to the 911 Center.  Staff is requesting that the City Council consider and approve the MOU.

The new fiber runs  are mission critical to sustained reliability of communications between the 911 Center and all City Offices, including all communications to and from the public safety mobile computers in the field, all E-mails in/out of the city, internet access to all City offices, CJIN/NCIC access to all authorized police personnel, disaster/recovery backups, access to high availability backup CAD/dispatch system, and more. The existing communications link is over 20 years old and will remain in service as a backup to the new fiber proposed in this project. 

Council may:

• Approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yellowstone County.  IT reserves will be used to fund the City's portion of the project.  The County would have 50% ownership in the conduit.
• Not approve the MOU.  IT reserves will be used for the entire project cost and the city will own 100% of the conduit & fiber.  The City could choose to lease or sell conduit to the County in the future. 

The “IT Conduit to 911 Center” low bid is $165,486. The City of Billings & Yellowstone County have agreed to share equally in the total cost of the bid, minus a short 2” conduit run to the Parks & Rec offices valued at $5,020. In addition, the City and County have agreed to share in the cost of the Public Works project engineering costs of $9,000.  The projected total of the conduit project and above mentioned services is $174,486. Yellowstone County has agreed through the MOU to pay $84,733 with the City using IT reserve funds to pay for the remaining $ 89,753.

Note: A fourth quarter budget amendment will be necessary for IT to have budget authority to fund this project from its reserve funds.

Staff recommends that Council approve the Memorandum of Understanding with Yellowstone County that will share the cost and ownership of the "IT Conduit to 911 Center" project.