King County voters are expected to be asked next spring to approve a property tax increase to fund a new emergency radio network for police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel.

The Kent City Council unanimously approved an inter-local agreement on Dec. 9 for Mayor Suzette Cooke to sign the new Puget Sound Emergency Radio Network (PSERN) contract because Kent is part of the Valley Communications Center (ValleyCom) system that would use the network to dispatch responses to 911 calls. The new system also would allow public safety personnel to communicate better with each other throughout the county.

“It’s a very big bond (estimated $273 million) to complete this project,” Kent City Attorney Tom Brubaker said to the council. “But once it’s done we will have a new state of the art emergency radio system throughout the county.”

The current emergency radio system is nearly 20 years old and needs to be replaced.

“The system we have now is very, very old and it’s hard to get parts, it’s a failing system,” Brubaker said. “There’s not really any other options right now.”

County officials estimate the property tax increase through a levy lid lift would be about 7 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation over a nine-year period or about $21 per year for a $300,000 house. The King County Council will have to approve a proposed bond measure by mid-March to get the issue on the April ballot.

“We can’t have a police department functioning without dispatch,” City Councilman Dennis Higgins said and then asked Brubaker a question. “But just to be clear this project won’t move forward and there won’t be any city funds obligated unless the countywide vote passes?”

“That’s correct,” Brubaker said.

ValleyCom would have to pay about $250,000 per year in maintenance costs and those expenses would be spread out among the five cities that belong to the agency, Brubaker said.

The new network would serve ValleyCom (the cities of Kent, Auburn, Federal Way, Renton and Tukwila); the Eastside Public Safety Communications Agency (the cities of Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Mercer Island and Redmond); King County; and Seattle.

All of the cities had to sign off on inter-local agreements so the County Council can put the bond measure on the ballot. The County Council plans to set public hearing dates about the measure for early next year.

Cooke asked her staff to set up a council workshop early next year about the county proposal for a bond measure to pay for the new emergency radio network.

“This is very complicated as you get into the governmental structure as well as the communication structure,” Cooke said.

For more information, go to psern.org.