Loading...
March 28 2002 Board Meeting A regular scheduled meeting of the Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board was held on Thursday, March 28, 2002, in Room 501 of the County Administration Building, 320 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: Chairman Frank Blackley Donnie Hall (Excused) Andy Atkinson Major Terry Todd (Excused) Steve Smith Brian Roberts Lise Ruefle (Representing Sheriff’s Department) Lt. Ed Pigford Ed Woodard Bill Clontz Dan Summers Everett Ward Bill Whisnant GUEST: Donna Blanton, Telecommunicator, Public Safety Communications Center Chairman Frank Blackley called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. The summary of the February 28, 2002 meeting was reviewed and approved as submitted. Andy Atkinson moved to approve the February 28, 2002 minutes and Frank Blackley seconded the motion. Steve Smith introduced Donna Blanton, Telecommunicator, Public Safety Communications Center. OLD BUSINESS: Legislative Study of E-911 Funds:  The Board of County Commissioners approved the Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board recommendations regarding the E-911 Legislative Study of E-911 Funds.  A letter was submitted to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners in reference to the Public Safety Communications Center Policy Board recommendations regarding the E-911 Legislative Study of E-911 Funds. Wrecker Services:  Eleven different counties were contacted regarding wrecker services in their areas. The majority of the counties contacted do have a rotation list and handle the service very similar to the way New Hanover County handles the service.  The Committee recommended that the wrecker service process needs to be simplified and more business orientated by incorporating a bid procedure for wrecker companies.  There should be only one rotation list and New Hanover County should adopt the same ordinance as the City of Wilmington.  It was stated that if a citizen needs wrecker company services they should contact the wrecker company directly and not call the Public Safety Communications Center.  Have the Public Safety Communications Center assign call numbers to the wrecker companies.  Continue to use the code enforcement method used by the Wilmington Police Department, which not only ensures officer safety, but also is successful in helping to dispose of abandoned vehicles in the downtown area. area.  Use the Wilmington Police Department as a call basis.  Re-activate the abandoned vehicle rotation list.  Make recommendations to the wrecker services more lucrative for abandoned vehicles and better define what justifies an abandoned vehicle and its location point. Emergency Telephone System/Wireless Funds: Steve Smith reviewed the handout information that was included in the agenda package. The Committee had the following remarks about the issue:  The State is very strict on the how the funds may be used, especially with the Landline Funds.  Some counties have been very liberal on their interpretations on how they may use the funds.  A color orthophoto over New Hanover County was done in early March and the results should be ready to insert into the CAD mapping system by early summer. Currently, a 1998 orthophoto map is being used.  The population of the service area determines the surcharge amount. New Hanover County has a reasonable surcharge amount because of its population ratio. Some counties have a higher surcharge to compensate for a low population ratio. New Hanover County is the fifth in the State in user volume.  The money collected may not be used for salaries; it must be used for equipment or enhancements to the equipment.  Bill Clontz stated that the study commission should focus their efforts and look at the two funds to see if they should be consolidated. NEW BUSINESS: Bill Clontz reported on the Information Technology subcommittee that met on Friday, March 15, 2001. He provided and reviewed a fact sheet on “Issues Surrounding the Audit Process for Dispatch Zone” to Committee members. After a lengthy review of the information the Committee had the following remarks about the issue:  The Information Technology subcommittee needs to redefine the audit procedures for addressing in New Hanover County. More information needs to be submitted.  Latitude and longitude coordinates need to be assigned to each parcel in New Hanover County. Currently, there are 80,000 parcels in New Hanover County that would have to be integrated into the system. Mike Arkinson, New Hanover County GIS Department, has confirmed that it could be done. In order to have correct coordinates, a person(s) would need to be hired and go down each street with a Global Programming System (GPS) machine to do the addressing. Several area counties have hired people to do that function. This would be be an allowable expense with the Wireless Funds. Dan Summers and the City of Wilmington have portable GPS units.  The Committee needs to pursue the conversion of the CAD addressing system from a proportional addressing system to a point address system.  All new development plans should be provide with plats with XY coordinates.  When developers request a building permit, the XY coordinates could be incorporated on the permit. The New Hanover County Inspection Department could oversee the process and building inspectors could be supplied with GPS consoles to do the addressing.  Need to look at the tax system and have a parcel number assigned to each parcel.  Need to satellite areas. Andy Atkinson made a motion to recommend that the governing board develop a point addressing system that would require the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County to provide addressing standards for new development parcels to have latitude and longitude coordinates and to implement an ordinance to have a common method to do so. Lt. Ed Pigford seconded the motion. The recommendation was approved by the Policy Board and will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners for their approval. Staff Adjustments: Steve Smith stated that he has made some staff adjustments in the Public Safety Communications Center.  Two employees in the Public Safety Communications Center are willing to go from full-time status to part-time status. This would allow the Public Safety Communications Center to have four part-time employees (two currently full-time employees that will move to part-time status and two new part-time employees). The shift schedule will be re-adjusted to accommodate the four part-time employees to work during peak hours (Wednesday to Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and cut back on the number of employees working on off peak hours. Two of the four part-time employees would work from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and the other two part-time employees would work from 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Each squad would have 11 employees instead of 12. Having the four part-time employees would allow two full-time employees to review numerous information including the business CAD information, unit identifiers, and indemnifier numbers that need to be addressed. The two full-time employees would also be able to assist Carolina Beach when they move their dispatch service into the Public Safety Communications Center.  Currently, three employees are on leave without pay status.  The main goal of the Center is to have employees come to work every day when they are scheduled to work and be allowed to use their time off to relax and not be on call-status. Dress Code:  Steve Smith stated that Article II; Section 2:01; Item J under Work Attire has been revised to include open-toed shoes for woman. However, no flip-flops or shower type shoes will be allowed.  Since the staff has been allowed to dress in their own clothes instead of uniforms the morale and attendance has improved.  Andy Atkinson made a motion to accept the change made to Item J in Article II, Section 2.01 of the Standard Operating Procedures Manual. Ed Woodard seconded the motion. Motion passed.  Bill Whisnant stated that the Public Safety Communications Center staff maintain a list of all current Standard Operating Procedures. OTHER BUSINESS: Emergency Medical Services (EMS):  Ed Woodard stated that the State has changed the rules governing EMS by passing House Bill 452 and House Bill 453 and regulations enacted by the State Office of Emergency Medical Services. At its March 25, 2002 board meeting, the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution designating New Hanover Regional Medical Center as the EMS system administrator for New Hanover County pursuant to House Bill 452 and House Bill 453 and regulations enacted by the State Office of Emergency Medical Services.  The Standard Operating Procedures Manual will incorporate dispatch procedures and guidelines advising the telecommunicators on what to say to the units. The procedures should be kept simple and not complicated.  Each agency will be responsible for their own standard dispatch procedures. Contact will be made with law and fire agencies to obtain the verbiage needed to incorporate into the Standard Operating Procedure Manual. Public Safety Communications Center Remodeling:  Andy Atkinson stated a budget is in place for the remodeling of the Public Safety Communications Center. On Monday, April 8 and Tuesday, April 9, 2002, the architects and engineers will meet with staff to start the design process.  It will cost $1.1 million to have a separate generator in place to provide essential public safety services during emergencies in the Public Safety Communications Center.  The Emergency Management Department will re-locate to the Training Facilities Center after the Department of Register of Deeds moves back into their quarters in the Judicial Building.  A total of $700,000 in the Wireless and Surcharge Funds will be utilized to upgrade equipment. Alert Policy:  Dan Summers stated that he is working on the aircraft alert policy; he hopes to incorporate the policy into the CAD system. Once an alert is activated, it would automatically be programmed into the CAD system with all vital information pertaining to that particular aircraft, such as the size of the aircraft and passenger rooster. The CAD system could be programmed to store a variety of information pertaining to different alerts; the type of response needed would be based on the type of alert received.  The CAD format needs to be addressed. Nature Codes:  Chairman Blackley stated he had met with Chiefs Everett Ward and Brian Roberts, and Donnie Hall to discuss the nature codes for fire services.  After the meeting, Donnie Hall modified the nature codes; he came up with a description of the codes. Chairman Blackley stated he did not have a copy of the nature codes to hand out to Committee members.  It was stated that commercial fire alarms need to be simplified.  The ideal situation would be to have all the alarm responses organized in the same manner including New Hanover County, City of Wilmington, and beach communities. Discussion ensured on the Wilmington Police Department law enforcement codes.  The law enforcement codes need to be reduced, there are too many choices and it is causing problems. The Sheriff’s Department is running into the same problem.  CAD could be used to assign the recommended GIS coordinates since the GIS coordinates are different from the CAD system.  There are 12,000 coordinates on the City of Wilmington side.  The zone boundaries on the south side versus the GPS boundaries need to be identified by those vehicles  Lt. Ed Pigford stated that there is a unified grant fund program available for emergency vehicles. Any funding received could be used to install equipment in emergency vehicles. Committee members suggested that the Wilmington Police Department pursue the program to see if funding is available. If funding were available, it would enable all vehicles to be accounted for on a 24-hour basis. The grant funding could also be used to put equipment on emergency vehicles so they could change the traffic lights in the intersections from red to green.  The XY coordinates on emergency vehicles and the automated vehicle locator (AVL) cannot be placed on top of MDT data. Another frequency must be found.  The point address system needs to be organized and operational before you can implement different systems. 800 MHz System Report: Dan Summers distributed an “800MHz System Report” to Committee members and gave a detailed status report on each of the items listed below:  Simulcast System  FCC Issues  800MHz Expansion  Radio Purchase  Reprogramming  FAILSOFT Drill  Generator Installation at Hill Valley Walk  Port of Wilmington:  State Agency Radio:  Policy on Lost or Stolen Radios  Emergency Management – MDT Request  Pager Changes  Dialogic Notification System Steve Smith informed Committee members that a telecommunicator picnic will be held at Ogden Park on Saturday, April 13, 2002, from 10 to 5 p.m. Committee members are invited to attend and have lunch and enjoy the festivities. The next scheduled meeting will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2002, at 9:00 a.m. in Room 501 of the County Administration Building, 320 Chestnut Street, Wilmington, North Carolina. Ed Woodard motioned to close the meeting. Everett Ward seconded the motion. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:43 a.m.