About the Agency

Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency

Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency (WCCCA, pronounced "Wah-kuh") was formed in 1985, under the authority of Oregon Revised Statues (ORS) 190 by the execution of an Intergovernmental Agreement originally between Washington County and the cities of Beaverton, Cornelius, Hillsboro, North Plains, and Washington County Rural Fire Protection Districts Nos. 1 (now Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, TVF&R), and 2. WCCCA subsequently entered into intergovernmental agreements with the cities of Banks, Durham, Forest Grove, King City, Sherwood, Tigard, Gaston, and Tualatin. Subsequent Fire Districts joining the agency are Banks, Cornelius, Forest Grove, and Gaston.

WCCCA was established to provide 9-1-1 service and public safety communications for police, fire, and emergency medical service for the participating jurisdictions and for other governments under contract. That means that if you live in any part of Washington County, including the cities of Banks, Beaverton, Cornelius, Durham, Forest Grove, Gaston, Hillsboro, King City, North Plains, Sherwood, Tigard, or Tualatin, , and you call 9-1-1, WCCCA will answer your phone call. WCCCA dispatches all calls for police, fire, or medical assistance to the citizens of these cities and the unincorporated areas in Washington County, Oregon. WCCCA also handles fire and medical calls for the portions of Clackamas County that are in TVF&R’s service area, which includes the cities of West Linn and Wilsonville.

Prior to WCCCA, Washington County public safety dispatching had existed since October of 1973 when the first civilian dispatchers were hired. Having civilian dispatchers, freed police officers and fire fighters to respond to calls rather than stay behind to answer phones and monitor radios. From 1973 to 1985, the Center served as the communications center for the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the cities of Cornelius, Banks, Hillsboro, and Gaston as well as Washington County Fire District 2, the City of Hillsboro Fire Dept., Cornelius Rural Fire Dept., and Banks Fire Department.

In the years following the switch to civilian dispatchers, a demand started to grow for all Oregon residents to have access to 9-1-1. In order to better facilitate this trend, there was a move toward the establishment of central answering points for 9-1-1 calls. As this was occurring, more and more police and fire departments were doing away with their individual dispatch facilities and merging with the Central Dispatch Center. Thus in 1985 WCCCA was "born" and became a consolidated dispatch center. In 1973 our staff consisted of 8 full time dispatchers; WCCCA now has a staff of over 65 full time dispatchers.

WCCCA operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, answering 9-1-1 and non-emergency calls from residents of Washington County and dispatches for 10 police agencies and 7 fire agencies. The Agency’s service area is 819 square miles and our service population is 586,727. The Agency's population has experienced considerable growth over the past 10 years and continued growth is expected.

WCCCA is governed by a Board of Commissioners consisting of one appointed official from each participating jurisdiction. The Board is responsible for appointing the Agency Director, establishment of Agency service levels, adoption of the annual budget, financial audit, and personnel rules. A Chief Executive Officers Board consisting of the Chair of the Board of Commissioners, the representatives of the two largest participating agencies and two at-large members appointed by the Board meet monthly to address more timely issues, including policy changes, purchasing issues, and labor negotiations.

As an ORS 190 organization, user fees from the participating jurisdictions, State 9-1-1 excise taxes, and contract revenues from several non-emergent users fund the Agency. In addition, the Agency provides radio and data infrastructure for Yamhill and Clackamas Counties through unique partnership arrangements.

In 1990 the citizens of Washington County passed a serial levy which allowed a major upgrade in the County's 9-1-1 system. Due to the support of our citizens for the levy, WCCCA was able to acquire a building large enough to house our current operation, become computerized by installing a computer aided dispatch (CAD) system, upgrade the county wide radio system and become an enhanced 9-1-1 center. An enhanced 9-1-1 Center is one that can display the caller’s phone number automatically (ANI=Automatic Number Information) and the location of the calling number (ALI-Automatic Location Information).

The Washington County Consolidated Communications Agency has come a long way since 1973, both in technology and dispatching as a profession. Oregon now has in place a law that requires all emergency dispatchers in the State, as of July 1994, to be certified the same as a police officer or a fire fighter. The training process for a 9-1-1 Telecommunicator (dispatcher) is a lengthy one. A Dispatcher Trainee attends a 5-week in house academy and a 2-week state academy. The Trainee is then assigned to a coach, one-on-one, and remains with a coach for approximately 8 to 12 months, on average. Each trainee will learn how to answer phones, work radios and perform emergency medical dispatching (EMD). EMD is the process that allows the dispatcher to assist the caller with medical instructions to care for a patient until paramedics can arrive.

WCCCA is run by a dedicated staff of over 90 employees who are organized into the following departments: Administration, Operations, Performance Management and Logistics.

Administration & Finance

Administration is the Agency leadership in the execution of policies of the Board, shaping the organization into a high reliability operation focused on high quality internal and external customer service, and support of the respective Boards.

Finance protects the financial health of the Agency through long term financial planning, annual budget development and regular budget monitoring; ensures accountability and transparency through financial reporting, and provides internal and external business services with commitment, professionalism and customer service.

This department is responsible for the daily business operations of the Agency, as well as the more strategic issues, which may include legislative initiatives and strategic planning.

This department is staffed by 4 full-time employees, including the Director, Chief Financial Officer, one Senior Administrative Specialist and one Administrative Specialist, who work with other divisions, member agencies, and the community to ensure that WCCCA's service is meeting the expectations of its many users. Standard Administrative hours are 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday thru Friday, Holidays excluded.

Operations

The Operations department primary functions are 9-1-1 call answering and radio dispatch for WCCCA's 17 user agencies. This department is staffed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week by 66.5 Dispatchers, 6 Operations Supervisors, and 1 Operations Manager.

In 2010, WCCCA Dispatchers handled 450,504 telephone calls and dispatched 533,329 public safety incidents. The Dispatchers are truly WCCCA's front-line customer service representatives for citizens, police officers, and firefighters alike, and strive to meet WCCCA's mission of providing timely, efficient and compassionate communications services to all citizens.

Performance Management

The Performance Management department is responsible for quality improvement programs, training, recruitment and hiring, human resources, accreditation, policy review, public information and audio reproduction.

WCCCA is a learning organization and believes in promoting a Just Culture. Our two quality improvement programs (Performance QI and EMS QI) help us see “outside the box”, which allows us to come up with unique and innovative solutions to a variety of issues. The QI programs also help drive the training within our Agency.

This department is staffed by 5 employees, which includes the Performance Manager, a Training Supervisor, 2 Senior Administrative Specialists and a part-time Audio Reproduction Specialist.

Logistics

This department is overseen by the Logistics Manager and is broken down into three different sections, Radio Services, Facilities, and Data Services.

Radio Services

Radio Services is responsible for maintaining WCCCA's radio infrastructure, radio equipment for User Agencies, WCCCA facilities, and WCCCA's computer networks. Radio Services is also responsible for maintaining the radio infrastructure and User equipment for Clackamas County and the City of Newberg/Dundee Police & Fire departments through an intergovernmental partnership agreement.

This section is staffed by 4 Radio Technicians and 1 Radio Services Supervisor.

Facilities

Facilities is responsible for general maintenance and repairs of the building and radio tower sites in Washington and Clackamas County as well as the WCCCA dispatch building. Facilities personnel report to the Radio Services Supervisor.

This section is staffed by 1 full time and 1 part-time Facilities Maintenance Technician.

Data Services

Data Services is tasked with maintaining the software and programs that enable computer-aided dispatching (CAD) services, and providing information to Users and the public. They are also responsible for maintaining agency computers and software and the network they operate on.

This section is staffed by 1 CAD/Data Services Supervisor, 1 Data Services Coordinator primarily responsible for maintaining the CAD software and system, 1 Information Systems Analyst responsible for maintaining our web and intranet sites as well as data mining. 1Information Systems Technician responsible for software and hardware maintenance and 1 GIS/Mapping Technician responsible for maintaining the map used on the CAD system and police and fire mobile data computers (MDCs). This position also helps maintain the database used for enhanced 9-1-1.

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