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2 <br />FINAL REPORT <br />TO: Orange County Board of Commissioners <br />FROM: John Link, County Manager <br />DATE: February 13, 1992 <br />RE: Orange County Emergency Communications System Review <br />During this past autumn, I conducted a review of the <br />practices and procedures that comprise the Orange County <br />emergency communications system. I am pleased to report to <br />you that most of what I have learned indicates that our <br />system works well. This is in large measure due to a well - <br />trained and dedicated telecommunications staff and a network <br />of emergency response agencies who are very much focused on <br />providing Orange County citizens with the best possible <br />service. Not surprisingly, I have also learned that there <br />are some aspects of the system that do not work quite as <br />well. The report that follows will outline these <br />shortcomings and steps that we are taking to address them, <br />but will also point out the successes that the system and its <br />participants have achieved. <br />PROCESS <br />This fall, I held a series of meetings with key personnel to <br />obtain a wide range of perspectives about what was working <br />well and what not so well in the Orange County emergency <br />communications system. Rod Visser and I met with each town <br />manager, the sheriff, volunteer fire chiefs, rescue squad <br />chiefs, the medical director, and many members of the <br />County's telecommunications staff. I asked for confirmation <br />of system improvements in the past several years and <br />constructive suggestions about ways to improve the system. <br />While not all feedback I received was positive, it was <br />without exception constructive. In my view, this reflects a <br />fundamentally healthy working relationship between <br />telecommunications staff and response agencies that provides <br />a sound basis for incremental improvements to the system. <br />Some of the suggestions I received have already been <br />implemented. Others will be in place over the next few <br />months. While not all ideas raised can or should become part <br />of our system, that system is bound to be improved by the <br />process we have pursued. <br />1 <br />