History - Valley Communications Center
In 1976, the mayors of the Cities of Auburn, Kent, Renton and Tukwila entered into an Interlocal Agreement to consolidate their police and fire dispatching services into one organization and Valley Communications Center was born! Valley Com began dispatching on August 1, 1977. Over the years, several public safety agencies entered contractual relationships with Valley Com for emergency communications services. In 2000, the city of Federal Way was invited and joined the relationship as the fifth owner. The most recent addition to the Valley Com family was Valley Regional Fire Authority in February 2008.
Since 1977, the staff has increased from 16 authorized positions to 128 in 2009. The administrative staff consists of a Director, Assistant Director, Finance Manager, Payroll and Accounting Specialist, Human Resource Manager, Administrative Services Manager, Public Records Specialist, Administrative Assistant, Training Manager and Operational Systems Coordinator. A Technical Services Manager, 2 Network Administrators and 3 System Administrators support the technology. 10 Team Supervisors oversee 52 Dispatchers and 44 Call Receivers.
In 1977, the first Valley Com facility was a 1050 square foot building that had been converted from a vacated volunteer fire station. In contrast, on June 23, 2002, Valley Com moved into a state-of-the-are 24,000 square foot facility with planned space for 20 years of operations.
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