History

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 King County Airport in February 2018. 

Since 1977, the organization has grown significantly, with staffing increasing from 16 authorized positions to 142.5 in 2026. The administrative team includes an Executive Director, Operations Manager, Finance Manager, Senior Finance Analyst, Payroll and Accounting Specialist, Human Resource Director, HR Specialist, HR Generalist, 1.5 Public Records Specialists, Administrative Assistant, Training Manager, Training Supervisor, and Training Specialist.

The Technology Department is composed of a Chief Information Officer, Client Services Manager, Infrastructure Manager, Information Security Officer, two Systems Engineers, two Network Engineers, two Public Safety Systems Engineers, a Communications Manager, and a GIS Analyst.

In operations, 10 Team Supervisors currently oversee a staff of 57 Dispatchers and 46 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-art 24,000 square foot facility with planned space for 20 years of operations.