LAO Urges Officials to Push Pause on Next-Gen 911 Project

(TNS) — The Legislature should pause the state’s effort to modernize its 911 system until the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services can answer questions about the project, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office recently recommended.

For years, CalOES has worked to build out a better emergency communication tool, known as Next Generation 911, that provides better location services and ways for first responders to communicate with those seeking emergency services. After investing over $450 million in the project, state leaders decided to scrap the design because the system encountered issues when it was rolled out in some parts of California. CalOES is in the process of finding new providers to build out the statewide networks.

The LAO joined a growing chorus of officials calling for more oversight of the project last week when the office published a report that urged the Legislature to pause the ongoing transition from a regional design, which was how the system was initially built, to a statewide approach until there is more oversight of the project.

The regional and statewide approaches each have advantages, the LAO noted. For example, the regional system may have more redundancy, in the event one provider network goes down, while the statewide approach may be simpler and easier to operate.

Independent of the Legislature, CalOES has decided to pursue the statewide design.

“It is unclear if OES’s choices are consistent with the Legislature’s preferences if faced with the same set of options and trade‑offs — particularly since OES has not provided information on the trade‑offs and costs of the alternatives it considered, nor sought formal legislative input … as it moves forward with its plans,” the report stated.

In a statement, CalOES spokesperson Mat Notley said, “We are taking decisive steps to improve vendor accountability, strengthen oversight, and increase transparency so the public can see clear progress on this critical safety upgrade.”

CalOES made the decision to end its contracts with several vendors that built out the regional design last year, but the state agency has yet to fully outline the issues that led to that significant change, the report said. Several key questions remain unanswered, including: “What is the nature and scope of the problem?”, “will the new plan solve the problem?” and “what other options were considered?”

One of the vendors that serves as the provider in two of the state’s four regions has raised similar concerns about the lack of transparency from CalOES.

“To date, there has been no published cost-benefit evaluation, no independent engineering assessment, and no clear explanation for why abandoning an operational system is preferable to completing it,” Don Ferguson, the co-founder and CEO of NGA, said in a statement last month.

Until answers to those questions become clear, the LAO recommended that the Legislature prohibit CalOES from making the transition to the statewide approach. The report recommended inviting a third party, such as the California State Auditor, to evaluate the situation.

The legislative analysts also recommended requiring CalOES to provide monthly progress reports and quarterly fiscal reports to the Legislature about the project’s progress.

Last month, one California lawmaker introduced legislation that would require CalOES to provide quarterly reports about the project’s progress. Another legislator requested the state auditor to conduct an audit of the project. Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission chairman sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a letter demanding information about the state’s Next Generation 911 project.

Unlike other state technology projects, the Next Generation 911 system has not been subject to the California Department of Technology’s Project Approval Lifecycle process because it is related to telecommunications, rather than information technology, the report noted. The PAL cycle is designed to ensure state IT projects stay on timeline and within the allocated budget.

The project, the LAO report noted, is over-budget and behind schedule.

After the project was transferred to CalOES’ oversight, officials expected that Next Generation 911 would be deployed across the state by 2022, and it would cost $132 million to build out the system over five years.

During a 911 Advisory Board meeting last month, CalOES officials estimated that the updated system would be complete, and the legacy system fully decommissioned, by 2030.

The current budget proposal allocates $181 million from the fund that collects a monthly surcharge from telephone lines in California to support the existing 911 system and help transition to the more modern technology, which was the same amount allocated for the current fiscal year, the report noted.

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