Town of Los Gatos Capital Budget RequestTown of Los Gatos
Town Council Mee�ng – March 21, 2023
Dear Town Council Members,
In recent town council mee�ngs, Patrick Dirks and I outlined Emergency Communica�ons needs
that the town’s emergency communica�ons volunteers have recognized need to be funded.
That funding is needed as soon as possible to reach the level of preparedness called for in
responding to the most likely emergencies we expect to face: fire, earthquakes, and major
storms. Yes, there are other emergencies we train for, but these three require substan�al
mobiliza�on and coordina�on of efforts where normal communica�ons facili�es are likely to be
disrupted.
We have iden�fied five areas in need of moderniza�on and strengthening:
1. The Civilian Emergency Radio System
2. The neighborhood Incident Command Posts (ICPs)
3. The Emergency Opera�ons Center
4. The CERT Trailer
5. Messaging between the EOC, ICPs, and the CERT Trailer
Civilian Emergency Radio System
Just as the na�on’s first responders adopted a modern digital radio network (P25 system)
beginning a decade ago as recommended na�onally by the 911 Commission (because of
interoperability needs, efficiency, and reliability), the same jus�fica�on applies for CERT, DART,
town staff and council to move to a digital radio system. That system is DMR (Digital Mobil
Radio) and is second only to the P25 system for providing the benefits of digital radio
technology. DMR is being adopted by the private sector, as well as ham radio. It has become the
civilian alterna�ve to P25, and has the advantage of more suppliers and lower costs. Finally,
DMR provides dedicated radio frequencies that the FCC assigns exclusively to each license
holder (such as the town of Los Gatos) without the general public having shared access that
would interfere with use during emergencies.
The CERT world adopted GMRS radio-based communica�ons decades ago (before digital radio
was available). GMRS suffers from scarce, shared, radio channels that are used by the general
public for rou�ne cha�ng, resul�ng in congested channels frequently unavailable in
emergencies. In addi�on, there is a need for other groups in town, such as DART and the town
staff to use a common radio system because of coopera�ng ac�vi�es.
In the January heavy rains, the Fron�er land-lines and the Verizon cellular network were down
in certain loca�ons of town for significant amounts of �me causing loss of these facili�es for
coordina�on of civilian ac�vity. While we would like to have GMRS be the backup
communica�on system, that can be problema�c due to the reasons noted above. We are
fortunate that DMR overcomes the limita�ons of GMRS radio.
We have chosen to adopt repeater radio technology that provides both GMRS and DMR
capability so that DMR can be phased in without obsole�ng the investment in GMRS radios.
Civilian Incident Command Posts
Los Gatos has just over 12,000 households. The CERT organiza�on divides the town into 12
CERT “neighborhoods” serving the needs of about 1,000 households each. The objec�ve is to
provide an Incident Command Post (ICP) for each neighborhood as an emergency supplies
depot, a command center, and organizing loca�on. The town, through the Police Department,
has built and fully equipped six such ICPs (Civic Center, Almond Grove, Los Gatos Almaden,
North Santa Cruz/Daves Ave, Belwood, and Vasona/JCC). These are growing and thriving.
However, the other half of Los Gatos is not yet being well-served by the CERT organiza�on. Of
the six other neighborhoods, three have no ICP (or CERT organiza�on: Kennedy East, Blossom
Hill/Shannon, Santa Rosa/Hicks), and three have temporary ICPs, two located in backyards (Vista
Del Monte, and Rinconada), and the Kennedy North/Shannon Fire Sta�on temporary ICP.
Emergency Opera�ons Center (EOC)
The emergency radio communica�ons area of the EOC has been in need of structural
improvement in order to provide a noise-free, good working area for radio communica�ons.
The County EOC, San Jose’s EOC and several other city EOCs, and hospital EOCs provide a
separate room for their emergency radio opera�ons for the same reasons as mo�va�ng our
request in Los Gatos. The solu�on could be a separate room within the Police Opera�ons
Center, or structural changes to the back area of the EOC.
CERT Trailer
The town Police and DART each have mobile command posts, built into trailers. Last year, the
Police Department put new emphasis on the use of the CERT trailer for opera�onal purposes
during emergencies, and began equipping the trailer with modern equipment, supplies and
work areas. It is very close to being completed.
Messaging between the EOC, ICPs, and the CERT Trailer
Voice communica�on is ideal for immediate, short, urgent informa�on. However, during
emergencies, digital (TCP/IP) messaging provides much greater message accuracy and seven
�mes the throughput of voice messaging. The County and the City of San Jose have both
adopted digital technology for messaging during emergencies. Fortunately, our town manager’s
office funded the equipment that provides for Los Gatos to have digital connec�vity between
our EOC and the County (along with the City of San Jose) in an emergency.
However, we all have seen the transi�on from telephone voice calls to text messaging, email,
and other forms of digital messaging. We are fortunate that our residents have at least one
mobile messaging pla�orm: their smartphone, tablet, and/or notebook. But, there is currently
no use of these modern, universal devices, in our Civilian emergency communica�on ac�vi�es.
That is easily remedied by using any one of the emerging low-cost Satellite internet providers to
go between the field and the EOC. We plan to pilot such use star�ng this summer to understand
how best to integrate this technology, long ago adopted by our first responders.
Atached is a spreadsheet with a summary of these Capital Budget items, programmed for
implementa�on in FY24, 25, and 26. We request these funds be provided for use by the Town
Manager’s office and the Police Department.
Respec�ully,
Peter Hertan
Town Emergencies Volunteer