By Jon Chown
The Scotts Valley City Council voted to join a countywide effort to replace Santa Cruz County’s aging public-safety radio network, collaborating in what was described as the region’s first unified attempt to build a modern, interoperable emergency-communications system.
The council approved the move unanimously, with the contingency that other cities and governmental entities also participate in the Regional Interoperable Next-Generation Radio System, or RING.
Joining RING will make the city safer, said Scotts Valley Interim Police Chief Jayson Rutherford, a 27-year veteran of the Scotts Valley Police Department. He explained to the council members before they voted the many benefits of being part of the system. Most importantly, the city would be modernizing its out-of-date equipment.
“The current equipment that we use is well over 10 years past its actual serviceable life,” said Rutherford. “We’ve seen issues in the past here in the city when we’ve had severe rainstorms where our radio channel has gone down. We’ve kind of had to piece meal things together and apply Band-Aids for lack of a better term, to limp the system along.”
It’s so bad, Rutherford said, that police and fire can’t even always communicate with each other using the current system.
“It’s important that we’re able to, in a critical incident, be able to speak with each other,” he said, pointing out the obvious.
The new RING system will replace that patchwork with a digital system intended to deliver countywide coverage for at least the next 20 years. Under the approved Master Governance and Service Agreement, each of the member agencies will hold an equal vote on the RING Executive Committee, which will advise the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors — the system’s fiduciary authority. Routine matters will require a simple majority vote, while budgets, fiscal changes and major service-level decisions will require nearly unanimous approval.
The county will serve as lead agency for procurement, financing and vendor management. While the agreement does not create a Joint Powers Authority, all members agreed to discuss transitioning to a JPA within the first two years, during system construction.
The RING system’s capital cost is estimated at $28.7 million, which the county intends to finance over about 10 years, with debt service beginning in FY30. Capital costs will be shared only among the six governing members, based on the number of radios each operates.
Operations and maintenance costs will be shared among both member agencies and “subscriber” agencies — which will use the system, but will not hold a vote. A one-time connection fee is being developed to ensure non-member users contribute proportionally.
If all projected users participate, Scotts Valley’s share is estimated at 2.2% of member-agency costs and 1.7% of total system use. The city’s projected payments include $41,069 in FY27, $42,247 in FY28, $76,662 in FY29, $96,207 in FY30, $98,121 in FY31, $95,336 in FY32 and $100,861 in FY33. Santa Cruz’s share would be roughly 10 times that amount, while Capitola, a potential member, and Boulder Creek, already a member, would pay similar amounts to Scotts Valley. Scotts Valley’s participation is contingent on Capitola, Watsonville and other municipal jurisdictions joining the program.
The county’s Information Services Department will oversee implementation, vendor contracts and long-term maintenance. Member agencies, including Scotts Valley, will continue to maintain any towers or facilities they own that are incorporated into the system.
“I’m a fan of anytime our agencies across our county can get together and find a solution,” said Mayor Derek Timm. “We spend a lot of time sitting on our own island working on things on silos and when we’re working together and we can share costs, I think it’s a good idea.”
TOP PHOTO: Scotts Valley police officers and firefighters are going to get an upgrade to their communications equipment.