Resilient Infrastructure​

FOCUS AREA ONE: COMMUNICATIONS TOWER AND SITE IMPROVEMENTS

Summary of objective implementation status (achievements or progress over last year; significant delays or issues, etc.)

The Sheriff’s Office continues to coordinate with Public Infrastructure to complete communications sites upgrades, which are critical to relaying communications signals for law enforcement agencies, fire and emergency services. In 2023 the County retrofitted the tower on Mt. St. Helena, negotiated with AT&T to improve cell service in underserved areas, and installed generators at communication towers.

In 2024, the Sheriff’s Office and Public Infrastructure worked together to complete upgrades to the Sonoma Mountain communication site.   Another project was initiated at Pine Mountain to make critical repairs to the communication vault and to implement fire mitigation improvements to the site as well.

Key milestone update (include relevant metrics, if applicable)

2021-2023:

The Sheriff’s Office received Strategic Plan Funding for the following projects, which have been completed:

• St. Helena Tower Retrofit – Complete
• Base Station Radios: Complete
• Network Management System: Complete

2024:

The status of other Sheriff projects is as follows:

• R110040 Radio Infrastructure – Communications Towers – Unfunded
• R220011 New Generator and Power System Upgrades – Sheriff’s Main – In progress
• R220002 Communication Sites Backup Generator Replacement Unfunded
• R210010 Replace Emergency Channel Banks at Communications Tower Sites  Unfunded; however, the Sheriff’s Office has preliminarily obtained grant funding.
• R200040 Replace Emergency Power System and Base Radios  Tribal In progress, grant and Tribal Funding received in FY 24-25.
• R210007 Emergency Radio Dispatch System Replacement Complete
• R210011 Replacement Test Equipment In progress, grant and Tribal Funding received in FY 24-25.

Coordination and partnership update

The County continues to coordinate closely with fellow agencies and communications service providers to maximize investments in communications infrastructure. In December 2024, Public infrastructure will be submitting a Lease Revenue Agreement with New Cingular Wireless to the Board of Supervisors for consideration.

Community, equity and climate update

The goal of the Resilient Infrastructure Pillar is to ensure that essential services will be provided to Sonoma County residents – and the agencies that serve them – in the event of disaster.

If this objective received Strategic Plan funding, please provide the project status and amount spent to date for non-position related funding.

The Board of Supervisors awarded the Sheriff’s Office $356,000 for the Emergency Base radio project, $136,000 for the Network Management System Replacement and $70,000 for the Microwave Backhaul Replacement.

The Sheriff’s office completed has expended $356,000 for the Emergency Base radio project and $136,000 for Network Management System Replacement. The Sheriff’s Office pursued the Microwave Backhaul Replacement project, however it did not move forward due the cost of suitable technology solutions. After further analysis this project can be accomplished by replacing the existing microwave. The Sheriff’s Office is requesting to reallocate the funds to replace a microwave on one of the towers. 

FOCUS AREA TWO: TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

Summary of objective implementation status (achievements or progress over last year; significant delays or issues, etc.)

The Information Systems Department has focused on several initiatives to enhance infrastructure resiliency as well as address the heightened Cybersecurity threat landscape that continues to target government agencies. The Information Systems Department is focused on the following initiatives that are currently underway:

• Microsoft Office 365 Deployment – On track for completion by March 2025. Details regarding this project are highlighted in Resilient Infrastructure Implementation Plan 1.3.
• Hybrid Cloud Design Advisory
  • This is a multi-phase project to develop a road map for integrating cloud services with the County of Sonoma network.

Key milestone update (include relevant metrics, if applicable)

The following are key milestones that have been achieved:

• Microsoft Office 365 Deployment
  • E-mail migration completed June 8, 2022
  • Teams, OneDrive, Sharepoint Online, and Office 365 Desktop Suite deployment completed June 2023
  • Data migration to Teams and Sharepoint Online is in progress with a projected completion date of March 2025

• • • Focus will be on the highest priority data as identified by County departments

• Hybrid Cloud Design Advisory
  • Phase 1 focused on discovery and documentation of current state architecture. This has been completed.
  • Phase 2 focused on strategic goals, hybrid cloud technology solutions, cost analysis, and development of a road map for future state technical architecture. This has been completed.
  • Phase 3
    • Review proposed technical architecture and financial impact. This has been completed.
    • Begin Proof of Concept (PoC) phase to test and evaluate the proposed technology. This has been completed.
    • Develop network architecture for Hybrid Cloud environment. This has been completed.
    • Implement resilient network architecture. This is in progress.
    • Anticipated completion date – December 2024.

Coordination and partnership update

No activity has occurred in regards to city partnerships as the focus has been on the implementation and migration of services to Microsoft Office 365 in addition to the Hybrid Cloud and Cybersecurity initiatives. However, several ISD executive and management level staff attended the California Counties Information Services Directors Association (CCISDA) conference Oct 13-16, 2024. This conference is attended by IT executives from 58 counties within California to share ideas and solutions with our peers on common challenges and initiatives. Several discussions and workshops detailed the challenges that Counties are facing regarding resiliency and Cybersecurity. Future goals include collaboration with cities within Sonoma County to share lessons learned with the Microsoft Office 365 deployment and discuss projects related to Cloud services and Cybersecurity.

Community, equity and climate update

The goal of the Resilient Infrastructure Pillar is to ensure that essential services will be provided to Sonoma County residents – and the agencies that serve them – in the event of disaster. Communications infrastructure, collaboration tools, critical applications, and many more require the ability to be available at all times, regardless of the circumstances. Additionally, these objectives will reduce the carbon footprint of the data center as services are shifted to a Cloud-based infrastructure. The effort to shift additional data center services to the Cloud will begin in Jan 2025.

If this objective received Strategic Plan funding, please provide the project status and amount spent to date for non-position related funding.

The recommendations from the Hybrid Cloud Design Advisory has been reviewed to determine the potential fiscal impact and financial needs for future initiatives. Funding associated with the Hybrid Cloud Design Advisory for Fiscal Year 23-24 had been approved with the following allocations:

• $240k for One Time Costs
  • Utilized for Professional Services and software/hardware as needed
    • $100k has been expended for professional services associated with the Hybrid Cloud Design Advisory.
    • The remaining balance of One Time Costs is expected to be utilized for software and hardware related items.
  • $130k for Ongoing Costs
    • Utilized for subscription costs associated with Cloud services.
    • No ongoing costs were expended in the 23-24 Fiscal Year

It is anticipated that the remainder of funds will be expended for Fiscal Years 24-25 and 25-26 with the following allocations:

Fiscal Year 24-25

• $220k for One Time Costs
  • Utilized for software, hardware, and hosting services

• $80k for Ongoing Costs
  • Utilized for subscription and circuit costs associated with Cloud services
    • It is anticipated that these costs will begin in January, 2025

Fiscal Year 25-26

• $100k for Ongoing Costs
  • Utilized for subscription and circuit costs associated with Cloud services