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09 23 2010 Board Meeting DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND 911 COMMUNICATIONS 230 Government Center Drive, Suite 115 Wilmington, North Carolina 28403 Telephone (910) 798-6920 Fax (910) 798-6925 wlee@nhcgov.com Warren Lee Director Memorandum To: Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board Members From: Warren Lee, Director Subject: September 23, 2010 Board Summary Date: September 27, 2010 A Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board meeting was held on Thursday, September 23, 2009 at 10:00 AM in the Emergency Operation Center, 220 Government Center Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Frank Blackley Andre’ Mallette Sterling Powell Harold Heglar Warren Lee Kurt Bartley Donnie Hall Dennis Cooper Jerry Brewer Sharon Braxton Leslie Stanfield Jon Rorie Patricia Fields Cynthia Deacon Darryl Lanier William Younginer Michael Core Guests Debora Cottle, Emerg. Management/9-1-1 Mary Smith, WPD Carla Bradshaw, Wilmington IT Chairman Blackley called the meeting to order at 10:06a.m. Chairman Blackley asked if everyone had signed in. Chairman Blackley asked if everyone had a chance to review the minutes from August 26, 2010 and if there were any questions, comments, changes or corrections. There were not any. Chairman Blackley asked if there was a motion to approve. Sterling Powell made a motion and Warren Lee seconded. All in favor; none opposed. Motion passed. OLD BUSINESS: School Coverage Chairman Blackley asked Jerry Brewer to update everyone on the school coverage issue. Jerry stated they are waiting on Motorola’s engineers to give an estimate. Their biggest issue will be the money to fund this since they need two bi-directional antennas; one for Hanover and one for Hoggard. City and County Fire AVL Chairman Blackley stated they are having a meeting next week; Wednesday at 2pm and they will flip the switch and see how AVL works for them. Debora will try to be available if she is unable to be there during the testing; if not, Pam Graham will be available. Narrow Banding Chairman Blackley asked Leslie if there was anything to add for narrow banding. Leslie stated that 2013 is the deadline for VHF and UHF narrow banding. The UHF frequency range is 450 to 470 MHz and VHF is 150 to 174 MHz. Any equipment purchased within the last six to eight years should be able to be reprogrammed. The FCC had instructed manufacturers early on they had to manufacture for this change. Paging only channels are not subject to narrow banding. This is an effort to gain more channels in that spectrum with less interference. Donnie Hall asked when the last time they upgraded or replaced the transmitters. Warren said they were replaced when they changed the new system was installed. Dare County Request Chairman Blackley asked where the request stood with Dare County Sheriff’s Office. Jerry said that he had talked with Dare County and they wanted to add everyone for the request. Jerry steered Dare County away from that; he recommended that they only do a couple since their main purpose for the request was for transporting prisoners. They were very cooperative with the few that they need to use the Viper talkgroups and it would accomplish what they need. Leslie stated that if they have the National Public Safety channels they can be patched at the consoles. Jerry stated they added radio training to the annual training so the deputies understand the functionality of the radio. Warren said that some of the deputies come to the classes without a radio so they have nothing to look at but the paperwork provided during the class. Jerry said that not all of the deputies have a radio since some that go to a class are jail deputies. The Sheriff’s Office still wants them to have the class since they eventually go to the street. It may be possible for them to borrow someone’s radio when they go to the class. Leslie asked if Warren had any radios or spares to use for demonstrations. He said he has some on his trailer and some they use in Emergency Management but they are set up differently. Warren asked if they needed to tell Dare County to use Viper or were they going to give them some ID’s. Jerry said they should use Viper. Warren said he is not opposed to giving them Viper ID’s if they will let them know who will be here using them but not for the whole of Dare County Sheriff’s Office. Jerry said that he will talk with Dare County; he believes they will just get them for their transportation units. Jerry stated they added radio training to the annual in-service training so the deputies understand the functionality of the radio. Warren said that some of the deputies come to the classes without a radio so they have nothing to look at but the paperwork provided during the class. Jerry said that not all of the deputies have a radio since some that go to a class are jail deputies. The Sheriff’s Office still wants them to have the class since they eventually go to the street. It may be possible for them to borrow someone’s radio when they go to the class. Leslie asked if Warren had any radios or spares to use for demonstrations. He said he has some on his trailer and some they use in Emergency Management but they are set up differently. Chairman Blackley asked if there was anything else to add for old business. No one had anything else. Mary Smith asked if the CAD searches were were still limited to 30 days and if that would be standard or if that would change. Leslie said the search criteria should be lifted but they will have to test it first. She would check to see if it was still in place since their plan was to lift the limit. NEW BUSINESS Meeting Schedule Chairman Blackley asked Warren to update everyone on the County Commissioners meeting where the By-Laws were amended. Warren went before them on Monday with the proposal to amend the By-Laws from monthly to bimonthly or quarterly. It passed unopposed. It is up to the PSCC Board now to determine if it will be bimonthly or quarterly. Chairman Blackley opened the floor for discussion. Everyone discussed meeting bimonthly and Warren stated that if anyone saw the need to meet monthly it can be varied. Chairman Blackley asked if someone would put forward a motion. Donnie Hall made a motion for a December 2nd meeting and starting in 2011 the Board would meet bimonthly on even months. Darryl Lanier seconded. Chairman Blackley asked if there were any questions. There were none. He asked if all were in favor of the motion on the floor; all said aye, none opposed. Motion passed. Chairman Blackley asked if anyone had anything for new business. No one had anything to add. Warren said he asked Chief Evangelous and Deputy Chief Conklin to meet with him and Debora so they could discuss opportunities for improving service. The west side radio traffic is really busy and they would like to talk about their ideas to reduce some of the traffic. Warren said he did not have sufficient full time personnel to add another WPD console on each shift so they would like to discuss ways to alleviate this issue. Mary Smith said they were having some issues with MCT. There is a keystroke that opens in configuration for the MCT; when you exit out, it defaults that all units show up on the map. It was supposed to be that only supervisors could see all units, but the units on the street can see every other unit, not just theirs. Leslie said that is the way it is supposed to be; supervisors only see all units. Patricia Fields said that it must be a bug because some of hers are doing that as well. Leslie asked if OSSI has been notified. Mary said that she didn’t know. Leslie said that she would make sure it was reported. They have a list of open items with OSSI they keep track of and this is not how it was designed. This has caused issues of Wilmington Police and EMS seeing who was closer to a call and telling them to respond because they can see where they are. Leslie said OSSI may have to return for thorough cleanup. Warren said they could probably send a request for an onsite cleanup. Mary Smith introduced Carla Bradshaw. She is a new IT person with Wilmington Police; she will start participating in the meetings. Chairman Blackley asked asked if anyone had any other new business. Darryl Lanier stated they want to add more channels for their task force members. They are going out of town to assist DEA and US Marshalls and they don’t have any way to contact other agencies. Warren stated the Highway Patrol’s VIPER common event channels would probably be suited to their needs since they are statewide talkgroups. Warren said they have been good about granting those channels when there is a need. OTHER ITEMS AND REPORTS Integrated Dispatch Chairman Blackley said that Sam Hill has a rough draft of the policy they have been working on. 9-1-1 Center Chairman Blackley asked Warren to update everyone on the 911 Center. He asked if anyone had any questions or comments about the reports sent to them. He stated that they just brought in six new trainees, of which now five remained. They are now in the center working with the telecommunicators for their live training. October 5, 2010 they will have 15 new trainees. The county allowed him to hire more so they don’t have to do this every two months. He was allowed to do this on the premise he would stay within the budget. IT Chairman Blackley asked Leslie to update everyone on IT. Leslie said they had their first routine maintenance on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 on the new CAD servers and it took much longer than they anticipated; which required them to take people off line. Leslie will have IT try to find a better way to do this for the next maintenance cycle because it seems worse now than before the two new servers were added. The County and City have been testing data applications in the “white space” spectrum which is in the VHF/UHF spectrum area. The FCC will have a ruling for the use of that spectrum. Hopefully it will be reserved for Public Safety use. This would be for data only. The available spectrum can handle more data and travel further. The tests show reception at distances up to two miles. It even has penetration through trees and some obstructions such as has been demonstrated with the cameras at Hugh McRae Park. This is a move towards a Public Safety specific network that will be able to take all kinds of media into the center. This is part of what they are referring to as Next Generation 9-1-1. The testing of video stream on white space channels will allow them to see the quality of videos into your car. This is a cutting edge test for quality and information. Certain channels may allow you to view a video in your car. The first phase they are discussing will be one way and the second phase is two way video. This will allow interaction. This testing will start shortly. This is a a licensed channel system. Management might be outsourced but they would only be available for public safety use. Fire Services Donnie Hall said the fire district will be consolidated effective October 1, 2010. The County will no longer be contracting will the individual corporations. There will not be any changes to the dispatch side but there will probably be some changes to CAD later. Sterling Powell asked if there were any changes when they request aid. Donnie said nothing changes; if you call they will come. Chairman Blackley asked if there was anything else. Chairman Blackley adjourned at 10:42am.