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7.
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| City Council Regular Meeting |
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| BACKGROUND |
Currently, physical access to City facilities by employees and other authorized personnel is managed through one of two different badge access control systems. Both systems have been in place for at least 15 years and are now completely obsolete. Parts are no longer available from the manufacturers for routine maintenance, and when an entry point fails it can take weeks for the vendor to find replacements on the secondary market. Three years ago a stakeholder group was created that included staff members from the Police Department, Facilities, and IT and others to review options for consolidating and replacing the current access control systems into a single centrally managed system.
Input from various departments was solicited and the team identified a series of requirements. The major requirements included:
- The new system had to be backwards-compatible with the existing locking hardware used by the City.
- Next, the system had to have an interface with the City's centralized security camera management system from Ocularis.
- The new system also had to allow the use of existing employee badges, as well as be able to accommodate newer badge technologies such as chip-cards, RFID, etc.
- The system had to provide advanced report capabilities to allow audit trails, custom and recurring reports, etc.
- The system had to allow tenants of City buildings to manage their sites directly while retaining overall oversight by the City.
- Another requirement was to allow staff managing certain venues the ability to issue time-limited access cards to renters that would reduce the need for staff to be available at all times to open a venue in advance of the event and stay to lock the doors once the event is over.
- Another requirement included the need to be able to integrate employee badges into the login process to ensure compliance with federal mandates for 2-factor authentication into the secure data network.
The team reviewed multiple systems on the market and eventually recommended that the City upgrade the existing system from Open Options currently in use by PD. Open Options is a registered vendor with the state DIR Buy Board, and their representatives provided contact information for 2 vendors in Central Texas that were qualified to support their product. After reviewing documentation and presentations from both vendors the team decided to contract with DAC, Inc. of New Braunfels, Texas to manage the upgrade.
The overall project is expected to be completed in three phases. Phase one as presented here will focus on replacing the software, back-end hardware, wiring (as needed), and door control systems in each City facility that already has an access control system in place. The vendor will also provide integration into our camera management system. Phases two and three will add new facilities, replace outdated door lock hardware as needed and add access control management to outlying facilities such as pump stations, water towers, etc. Once those phases are complete the City will continue to expand the use of the system to include integrating badge access to sensitive data, security management systems, etc.
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| GOAL |
| This upgrade to the existing access control system currently in use in PD will consolidate all City facility access into a single system. This will increase efficiency by providing a single centrally-managed system and will allow for the use of industry-standard access control hardware moving forward. This upgrade will also provide enhancements that will allow tenants such as the YMCA to better manage access to their individual sites. This system will provide the necessary foundation for integrating security camera monitoring and for upgrading network management.by integrating security badge access to our network infrastructure. |
| COMMUNITY BENEFIT |
As the City continues to grow a centrally managed flexible access control system provides many opportunities to enhance efficiency and improve Public Safety response. By integrating the system into our existing security camera management system, for example, this system will allow our dispatchers to see and hear alerts presented by the access control monitoring system and view the nearest security camera on a large screen in the dispatch area. Dispatchers can then provide the appropriate response to the alert as opposed to always sending an officer.
Another benefit of this upgrade will be that sponsors of events can be issued time-limited access cards to venues such as the Civic Center, the Northcliffe Center and the meeting room in Fire Station 3 to allow them to get into the venue for their events. This will reduce the effort needed by staff to personally manage access to these sites and improve the City's ability to provide quality service for events while reducing the need for overtime. |
| SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDED ACTION |
| Staff recommends that Council approves the contract with DAC, Inc. of New Braunfels in the amount of $166,956.19 with not to exceed amount of $175,000 for phase one of the City-wide Access Control Upgrade Project. |
| FISCAL IMPACT |
| In 2018 Certificates of Obligation in the form of bonds were issued in the amount of $300,000 to fund this project. Phase One, as presented here will allocate $164,415.41 and allowing a contingency to a total not to exceed amount of $175,000. The remaining funds will be used for subsequent phases. |
| RECOMMENDATION |
| Staff recommends that Council approves the contract with DAC, Inc. of New Braunfels in the amount of $164,415.41 with a not to exceed amount of $175,000 for phase one of the City-wide Access Control Upgrade Project. |
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