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April 28, 2011 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: April 28, 2011 Board Summary Date: April 29, 2011 A Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board meeting was held on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM in the Emergency Operation Center, 220 Government Center Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Frank Blackley Leslie Stanfield Sterling Powell Harold Heglar Warren Lee Kurt Bartley Mike Arkinson Dennis Cooper Jerry Brewer Andre’ Mallette Donny Williams Jon Rorie Cynthia Deacon Michael Core Sharon Braxton William Younginer Rick O’Donnell Donnie Hall Guests Debora Cottle, Emerg. Management/9-1-1 Donna Smith, Wilmington Police Dept. Mary Smith, Wilmington Police Dept. Carla Bradshaw, Wilmington Police Dept. Wayne Pearce, Emerg. Management/9-1-1 Chairman Blackley called the meeting to order at 10:05a.m. Chairman Blackley asked if everyone had signed in. Chairman Blackley asked if the Public Safety budget that was requested had been sent out. It was attached to the previous meeting notes email but will be sent out again with the meeting notes for this meeting. Chairman Blackley asked if everyone had a chance to review the minutes from February 24, 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. Cynthia Deacon made a motion and Sterling Powell 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 that he and Jason had met twice but they need more information from Motorola engineers for an accurate quote. City and County Fire AVL Chairman Blackley stated that AVL is up and running and City Fire does not have any issues. Mary Smith stated they were having additional issues; with the update there have been an increase in corrupted files and computers locking up. They would like to roll back their system to before the update. Genia Boswell said that it wasn’t importing information correctly, such as time and mapping. Mike Arkinson and Sharon Braxton said that it could not be rolled back to a previous version. All of the system had to be the same version. There were several versions updated at once; any fixes for the issues found are included in the updates. Instead of intermittent updates there have been larger updates done at the same time since everyone has to have the same version. The large jumps of updates at one time introduce other bugs as well as fixes for the issues that are at hand. OSSI is being kept informed of the problems and working on getting them fixed. Sharon is keeping a spreadsheet of the issues and keeping in contact with them. Warren Lee asked who Sharon had been talking to about the issues and upgrades within the County. Sharon stated that she had been in contact with Jan and coordinating this effort. Warren stated that he and Debora had not been informed about any of this and they are the ones that run CAD. Jan had been telling Sharon whether they were ready for the updates. Mary asked who was involved in the decisions for the updates from the Wilmington Police Dept because they wanted to roll back to the previous version. Sharon said they couldn’t roll back to a previous version since everyone must have the same version. Mary stated the officers that have not updated are not having issues and wanted to know why they couldn’t roll all of them back to the previous version, removing all the updates. Sharon said that was because everyone needed to have the same version. Sharon is forcing the records in on her end and now she knows why she is getting the increase of having to force records if there are some officers who have not updated. NEW BUSINESS Request Create a Management Review Committee Mike Arkinson would like there to be a subcommittee created to coordinate and control any changes to protocol, software, hardware and planned service interruptions. This would allow the PSCC Board to discuss and have the control of the changes; when and how it is handled and what the effects would be of any changes. Proposal: Creation of the E911 Change Management Review Committee The NHC Emergency Management & E911 Department along with NHC Information Technology Department would like to recommend and propose the creation a new PSCC Board sub-committee to oversee and coordinate a change control process for E911. This new E911 Change Management Review Committee would review and approve ALL proposed changes to E911 protocol, software, hardware, and planned service interruptions. We believe this can be done without creating unnecessary delay to the process of requesting or implementing changes to E911 services and assets. Initially, we propose this committee would meet at least once a month, but could meet more frequently if needed. Their review would create discussion about proposed changes at a very high level, and bring about several positive changes, including: 1.) Advanced notification and buy-in of changes from all stakeholders 2.) Coordinated scheduling of all approved changes 3.) Historical logging, status monitoring, and recording of descriptive information about of ALL changes that are requested, approved, completed, or postponed. We propose the E911 Change Management Review Committee would be composed of seven (7) members: • 1 member -NHC Emergency Management/E911 • 1 member -NHC Information Technology • 2 members – Municipal Fire (CB, KB, WB, WM) • 1 member – NHC Fire • 1 member – NHC Sheriff • 1 member – Wilmington Police Department Sharon asked about updates and how would they be handled; would they have to be be brought before the subcommittee before upgrading. Mike said that yes, anything that would make any changes in the Center would have to go before subcommittee. That doesn’t mean that Firehouse would have to go before the subcommittee since that is not in the Center. Chairman Blackley asked if that meant it would take a month for any issue that came up if there was an immediate issue that had to be handled promptly, not when the next committee meeting took place. Mike said that they would be able to meet as frequently as needed and that emergency meetings could be set up since no one wanted to wait a month for any of the changes or updates that required immediate attention. Warren stated a perfect example of why this subcommittee was required; he was unaware that OSSI had been to New Hanover County upgrading software until one week after they were gone and the upgrade was complete. Mike said if there was an immediate fix needed, the group could meet or even electronically discuss the pros and cons of the change. It could even be done through SharePoint and set up as a meeting to make it more convenient to all the members of the subcommittee. Warren stated that the City of Wilmington did not have access to SharePoint. Mike said they were very close to making that happen so they can participate. Donny Williams asked if the members could be changed or added to allow more participants. Mike stated the members listed are only a suggestion; it can be changed however it will best suit the PSCC Board. Several members wanted to know if they could invite their IT personnel to the meetings. Mike said that they were permitted; that anyone interested would be welcome in the meetings. Sharon did ask about a statement from Jan about updating a board when they discussed changes and what board was it. Mike stated they have a board in IT where these issues have been presented and discussed before implementation. He thinks some of the issues brought up today show that this is a necessary subcommittee for the PSCC Board. Rick O’Donnell asked that EMS be added to list of members. Chairman Blackley stated that he could see the need as there were some on the list that may not participate. Chairman Blackley stated that he would review the proposal over the next couple of weeks and get feedback from the agencies that are not present. Overall, it looks like a good concept and he will let Mike know what his decision is when he has talked to everyone involved. Chairman Blackley asked if there were any more comments about the proposal. OTHER ITEMS AND REPORTS Communications Policy Chairman Blackley passed out a copy of the draft of the Communications Policy for Fire Services. This is a rough draft. Please review it and let him know if there are any comments so that he can pass it along to the subcommittee. Sterling Powell asked if they had a need for the hospital backup with the digital system and does the hospital have a digital system. They are not included in the new radios so they will have to be added back. Sterling also asked if we lose one tower, do we lose the whole system. Warren stated they would have to lose the prime site but they will always have the ability to talk radio to radio. You may lose trunking but not communications. If you lose the prime site they would switch to the designated channels so that there is still communication. It would go site to site trunking in the case of losing every tower within the county. 9-1-1 Center Chairman Blackley asked Warren to update everyone on the 911 Center. Warren stated they had just completed a round of interviews. Hopefully, they will have a larger class this time as they have lost several people since the last group was hired and put in the Center for training. Warren has received a request for Talkgroup Authorization from GE as they recently installed a digital backup system. They had a situation about a week ago; they do not have backup power on their tower. They lost the ability to communicate on site. GE has sent Warren a draft MOU and they are requesting an alternate channel allocated for them. PS10 and PS09 are options they can have for their backup. The MOA would have to be taken before the County Attorney to ensure there are not any concerns or conflicts with this document. Jerry Brewer stated that Lt Karp requested a channel for CSI. The Sheriff’s Dept would also like to create a talkgroup just for them. When they set up a command post they would automatically go to that channel for an ICS channel only. Wayne Pearce stated that they would have to add that to all the radios; Jerry stated this was just for the Sheriff’s Dept. Warren said that would require anyone responding to an event would have to be patched in to be able to communicate with anyone from the Sheriff’s Dept. Rather than creating another talkgroup, they utilize the channels set up in the radios. Jerry said he was asked to present this to the PSCC Board since the talkgroup created would be on the A Bank and easier for the users when using the radio. Warren was recently asked about adding Brunswick County since they now have digital. He has been working with Jason Jason to make this truly useful; when we give them access that does not automatically give us access. Jason had mentioned to Donny Williams that this could be done when they do the final touch on the radios but in the meantime they will rely on the soft patch. Warren stated that we needed to develop an in house procedure to patch and effectively communicate with the requesting agencies. The second touch rebanding can modify everyone’s radios. Donny stated there was an incident about a month ago that went into Navassa and they couldn’t communicate with Brunswick County. That would be the purpose of the talkgroup for outside agencies. This will not be the last time they will have to communicate with these agencies. Donny Williams asked if they could have a blanket approval for each county rather than each agency from the same county having to complete the Talkgroup Request form. Warren stated the form was created as a record device so that in the event there was a question of why a particular agency had access there was documentation. Donny used Brunswick County as an example; they have numerous agencies that they will give permission for access, do they have to complete a form every time or is an email attachment to the request form from each requestor sufficient to get access for the whole county. Warren stated he did not have an issue with a blanket request for access as long as it was acceptable to the PSCC Board. Chairman Blackley stated this might be a prime example of something the Change Management subcommittee would review if it is created. Chairman Blackley asked if Warren had anything else to add. Warren stated that was all he had. IT Chairman Blackley asked if Mike could update everyone on IT issues. IT is working with Warren on the five additional consoles. IT also been working on Neverfail and the primary and secondary CAD server; there were issues of getting it updated and they have been resolved. They are advertising for a Public Safety Analyst. Mike will supervise that team. Other Jerry stated that he has been working with Jason and a request they have to add an alert tone for a 10-3 status (stop transmitting). Jason is looking into this to see if they can add this low audible tone. This was requested because it is an issue if someone is away from their radio and they come on and don’t realize that everyone has gone 10-3, they are trying to use the radio when it is supposed to be 10-3. The alert would repeat every ten to fifteen seconds to inform them of a 10-3 situation. Jerry will keep everyone informed if this is possible and put in place. Chairman Blackley asked if anyone had anything else to discuss. Chairman Blackley adjourned at 10:48am.