Discuss, consider and take appropriate action with regards to State of Texas Department of Public Safety's continued utilization of the County's Radio Communication Systems (RCS).

In 2017 the Williamson County RCS was approached by the State of Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) with an offer of in-kind in the form of a vacated communications shelter located at the DPS Florence Training Facility.  The in-kind value was established at 260K.  After group discussions with the RCS they concluded that in-kind offers, although generous, are a “one time” contribution with a service anticipation coupled with O&M, that would exhaust the value of in-kind being offered over a period of time.  In line with the attempts of a contract negotiation, the RCS polled the City of Austin for utilization reports for any talk groups utilized on the WILCO layer associated with the DPS ID range.  Up and to this point of inquiry the Williamson County RCS and its management team were under the impression that DPS’s use of the County’s layer was restricted to the Regional Interop channeling provided by GATRRS (the Greater Austin Travis Co. Regional Radio System).  Reports later revealed that DPS was a high utilizer of the County’s system and they also were facilitating the County network for their own talk groups activated by the City of Austin on the radio system.  It was also discovered that the primary utilization of our footprint was used by the state to conduct their day to day business back to the Austin capital dispatch.  Logistically none of this usage was being accounted for or tracked by the WILCO System Manager, nor was their high utilization being viewed as part of the Lifecycle expansions of the system.  Up until this point DPS has always maintained a sponsorship which covered their RCS fees via County general fund, accounted for under 0560/ 0562 Williamson County Sheriff’s office budget.  For many years Williamson County not only sponsored the states fees but also until 2012-2014 the County also purchased and provided the states radios for troopers and Rangers assigned to Williamson County.  In 2012 the state funded their own radio replacement and the WILCO units were returned over a course of 3 years.  However, the Williamson County Sheriff’s office continued to sponsor their declared amount of DPS users assigned to the WILCO layer (Troopers and rangers were reported to have 80 radios) billed at a rate of $28.18 per month per unit.  The 0560/ 0562 budgets have been supplementing the state for many years now with their current sponsorship at  $27,052.80.  After further review of system usage reports the utilization being captured was far more than 80 radios.  It has now been discovered that DPS has 224 radios actively working on the County’s layer which would equate to $75,747.84, of usage on the system.  Even at 224 radios the meta data provided from the usage reports indicates even a higher utilization, the 224 number now provided by DPS does not include transient traffic or influx usage at their training facility.  

Earlier this year negotiating deadlines were missed to solidify a use agreement for the Florence Training Facility shelter. RCS conducted numerous discussions on the states usage and the City of Austin was also consulted about the unauthorized talk groups and usage on the layer.  Several months later, the City of Austin formulated a response to the inquiry. They could not produce any agreement or written authorization between Williamson County and DPS, but they did produce emails where discussions were had on the topic.  Somewhere between the discussions (which date back to 2008) and the states purchase of their own radios, Austin activated these talk groups for DPS on the WILCO layer.  The RCS initiated a written request for deactivation of the talk groups in the middle of April. Along with this request, the Board enacted a policy memo to the City of Austin clearly defining that all users on the system will be held accountable for service fees.  The policy memo also clarified who has the authority to activate talk groups on the WILCO layer. 

Since that time we have paused our request for deactivation to afford conversations with DPS on how to rectify this, usage.  A meeting was conducted between DPS and WC RCS and about the state paying their own fees and they were adamant they won’t pay subscriber fees and they would fall back on their own VHF in WILCO.  Since that meeting with RCS, the board has met in a workshop forum to deep dive the DPS usage.  From this discussion the room consensus was “fair and equal across the board” for all agencies. Everyone is welcomed and afforded Regional Interop Channeling, and through Talk group authorization letters agencies could share their talk groups, however creation and use of personal talk groups equates to payment for use on the system.  The precedence of our actions with this one agency will set the tone and precedence for the rest of the state agencies.  Currently the Williamson County Sheriff’s office sponsors other state agencies like TX Parks and Wildlife, TABC, TSCRA, & Core of Engineers.  Much like DPS these state agencies are also being afforded radio units purchased by the state, however the state did not plan or create a plan to supplement the system owners for their use, their own State strategic plans outlines their intent, which is to leverage the radio systems within the state of Texas for communications under a systems of systems concept.