Valley Communications History

In August 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. 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 Vashon Island Fire and Rescue in March 2003.

Since 1977, the staff has increased from 16 authorized positions to 112 in 2003. The administrative staff consists of a Director, Assistant Director, Finance Manager, Accounting Technician, Training Coordinator, Human Resources Coordinator, Administrative Services Coordinator, Records Custodian and Administrative Clerk. A Technical Systems Manager, Systems Specialist and Network Specialist support the technology. 7 Team Supervisors oversee 57 Dispatchers and 36 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 23rd, 2002, Valley Com moved into a state-of-the-art 24,000 square foot facility with planned space for 20 years of operations.