City staff is proposing to upgrade the New World Public Safety software, including a 10-year maintenance contract and to share the cost with Yellowstone County through a memorandum of understanding (MOU).  A MOU has been signed by Yellowstone County pledging to provide financial support for their portion of the software upgrade, the related travel expenses, and the on-going annual maintenance.  Staff is requesting that the City Council consider and approve the MOU.

The City of Billings and Yellowstone County have cooperatively used the New World Public Safety software for over 20 years.  Both entities have worked together for the past 8 months on the proposal for this upgrade and will both benefit greatly from the software upgrade and from the cost savings of signing the 10-year maintenance contract.  Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Law Enforcement Records, Corrections, Mug Shot module, Mobile Interface, and Decision Analysis & Reporting are a representation of the mission critical software modules that are proposed to be updated over a 12 - 18 month conversion process.

City Council may:

• Approve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yellowstone County.
• Not approve the MOU with Yellowstone County. The City would have to revisit the roadmap for how to upgrade the public safety modules without cooperative assistance from Yellowstone County.

The proposed New World MSP upgrade cost is $741,000.  The City of Billings proposes to pay $599,904 with Yellowstone County paying the remaining $141,096.  The City and County will share the annual maintenance costs which are projected at $223,929 annually for the 1st 5 years (City $183,412 & County $ 40,517) and $ 244,714 annually for years 6 - 10 (City $200,276  & County $44,438).  New World's installation and training travel costs will be billed as incurred over the 12 - 18 month conversion timeframe.  The MOU contains a list of the projected number of trips and the estimated cost per City Department and for Yellowstone County.

Note:  The MOU document shows a total annual cost of $217,000 for the first 5 years and an annual cost of $238,000 for years 6 - 10.  The annual maintenance listed above and on the contract from New World is higher by approx. $7,000 per year due to the late addition of a Decision Analysis & Mapping software for the Fire Department and a Web CAD Monitor
package for the Police Department.  The annual amount for Yellowstone County has not changed.

Staff recommends that Council approve the Memorandum of Understanding with Yellowstone County that will share the cost of the public safety software, the travel related expenses, and the on-going 10-year maintenance contract.