Commissioner Tony DeBoehn, chair of the State Interoperability Executive Council, and William Chapman, Oregon’s statewide interoperability coordinator (SWIC), told the Joint Committee on Information Management and Technology on March 28 that Oregon is continuing work to make emergency communications “seamless, interoperable and resilient.”

Chapman said the state’s SCIP (Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan) contains seven strategic goals and more than 80 tactical objectives that guide priorities for technology, governance, training and grant investments. He told the committee Oregon uses the SCIP to vet federal grant proposals and to provide statewide grant guidance and investment priorities for emergency communications projects.

The committee heard updates on Next Generation 911. Chapman said the Federal Communications Commission recently finalized rules that define NG911 and ESInet systems and described Oregon objectives to deploy a next‑generation ready ESInet to primary 9‑1‑1 centers and state command centers. He said the number of primary emergency communication centers in Oregon has changed to 41 (down from published counts) and that ESInet connectivity has been deployed to 38 of those centers. A statewide CAD‑to‑CAD interoperability study is also in progress.

Chapman explained the SWIC role in coordinating state, local and federal partners, and noted an interoperable markers assessment developed with CISA is under review. He described operational arrangements: the interoperability program is operationally deployed to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management under an interagency agreement while Enterprise Information Services (EIS) continues to provide funding and administrative support.

The council is recommending statutory changes through Senate Bill 826 to reflect current operations and to move program responsibilities — including the contract for the state alerting system Orelert — from the Department of Administrative Services to OEM, and to establish a distinct statewide interoperability fund. Chapman said the governor’s recommended budget includes the same organizational change.

Committee members raised questions about consolidation of public safety answering points, procurement and equipment cost. Chapman and others noted that frontline multi‑band radios meeting national standards can cost several thousand dollars (discussion referenced figures in the mid‑thousands) and that grant guidance now prioritizes dual‑ or tri‑band radios and equipment that meet national security guidance; manufacturers including Harris and Motorola were named as U.S. producers.

The committee also heard usage and alerting statistics for Orelert: Chapman reported 36 counties, five tribal governments and 26 state agencies are enrolled and that the system has been used more than 11,000 times since going live in 2021, including heavy use during recent fire seasons. He described a planned transition of a statewide watch center function to OEM in 2026 and noted training, exercises and contingency planning remain priorities to preserve redundancy and resilience during large incidents.

Ben Gresky, Oregon’s state chief information security officer and the state’s FirstNet single point of contact, briefed the committee on FirstNet adoption. Gresky said FirstNet (the First Responder Network Authority) is a federal entity operating under a public‑private partnership and that Oregon has more than 47,000 FirstNet subscribers, roughly 160 communities participating and about 500 subscribing entities. He reported the state plan built in 2017 led to deployment of planned towers (46 towers were listed as built) and that FirstNet adoption includes mission‑critical push‑to‑talk capabilities and priority/preemption for first responders on the network.

Committee members and presenters discussed operational details, including the automatic priority behavior that can throttle or deprioritize civilian data when first‑responder demand requires capacity on a tower. Presenters emphasized testing, redundancy and training as key to ensuring systems perform under major incidents.