Emergency Communications Board

BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING April 18, 2012 ITEM 1. Roll Call Blanton – absent, Hillman – absent, Honaker – absent, and Attorney Ricky Curtis – absent. ITEM 2. Recognize Guests Mike Callahan ITEM 3. Minutes of Previous Meeting – March 21, 2012 Jim Messimer made a motion, seconded by David Warren to approve the minutes as submitted. Motion passed. ITEM 4. Treasurer’s Report A. Receipts & Expenditures Receipts and expenditures were reviewed by the Board members. Chief Wade asked what was the GSA rate for meals traveling to Nashville and Mrs. Smelser responded $66 for the whole day and $46.50 for the first and last day. B. Current Balance Mr. Warren reviewed the financial reports, receipts and expenditures. Jim Messimer made a motion, seconded by Tim Eads, to approve the Treasurer’s Report as presented. Roll call vote: Blanton – absent, Eads – yes, Hillman – absent, Honaker – absent, Messimer – yes, Wade – yes, Warren – yes. Motion passed. ITEM 5. Old Business A. Report on Operations & Equipment 1. Overview of Operations a. Radio Low Volume We are still having some issues with the radio low volume but it has gotten considerably better. There have been 15 instances in the last six weeks. Motorola is still working on this item. b. Personnel Frank Perry has officially left. We are one position short with two in training. We have advertised on the City and 911 web pages and have created a  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING April 18, 2012 recruiting video that is airing on BTN-TV. Applications will be cut off on Friday, April 20, 2012. Orientation is scheduled for May 3rd. Applicant testing is scheduled for May 8th and will be administered by the Human Resources Department. There are two current dispatchers who have applied for police officer positions. They will interview today. We hope to create a hiring list from this testing. c. Internet connection The internet connection is still being worked on by the City IT Department. d. Status Update on Web page Move to City Server Mrs. Smelser stated that she spoke to IT two weeks ago and they do not have anyone on their staff that does web pages. She was told that until they were back to full staff, they will not be able to move the web page. She stated that because of this status, we will have to make a budget line item adjustment to cover the monthly fee we are paying for web page hosting. B. Statistics Mrs. Smelser reviewed the monthly statistics. Mr. Warren asked Mrs. Smelser to explain the QA number. Mrs. Smelser stated this is the quality assurance score for the reviews completed on the different types of calls being answered and processed. She stated we review 10% of each category (police, fire, EMS) each month. Each call is graded by a checklist of items including customer service, questions asked, dispatching the responders appropriately, and the pre-arrival instructions. C. Update on Regional 911 Solution The group met on Monday to review the RFP that was submitted. There was only one submission and it was from Century Link for Cassidian equipment. The group met to ask questions regarding the submission. Mrs. Smelser stated that the meeting lasted about 3 hours. Mr. Lowry, Mr. McNeil, and Mr. Lewis are on the committee with Mrs. Smelser. All of the eight districts were represented at the meeting and had been given a copy of the submitted RFP. Mrs. Smelser questioned 35 items in the RFP and  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING April 18, 2012 only two were answered at the meeting. Century Link will respond to the remaining questions in writing to the group. On May 1st the group will award the RFP and then we will begin contract negotiations. She stated that most of the questions she had asked have a direct impact on the contract. ITEM 6. New Business A. Request to approve purchase of 911 Training Academy system (handout provided). Mrs. Smelser explained that this a complete training system that can be used in-house as a basic course for initial training, for remedial training by topic, or as an overall refresher for established employees. This program is a college level training program complete with the computer and related hardware. The course is done at your own speed. There are ten units covering various topics. Within the program are examples of call answering, call dispatching, quizzes, games to improve learning, and a final test. Mrs. Smelser stated she felt it would be a big benefit to our new employees as well as our established employees. The program is a 630 hour college course written by Sue Pivetta with Professional Pride. We currently use a lot of her training products because of the quality. The cost is $5895 with free shipping. Everything is already loaded on the system so that the user only has to plug it in and create the accounts for the users. This year in the training budget, the State sent the annual $16,000 and we have $8469.14 remaining. If we were to purchase this item, it would leave a balance in the training account of $2574.14. Mrs. Smelser stated there are no competitors for this particular product. Mr. Warren asked if this new product was unlimited license. Mrs. Smelser explained that there is no limit on the number of users and there are no additional fees. Chief Wade asked if there was any other company that sold a similar product. Mrs. Smelser stated she has not been able to find any other companies with a similar product. Tim Eads asked if there was an annual maintenance fee. There is no annual recurring fee of any type for this product. Mr. Warren asked if we had workstation space available to house this product. Mrs. Smelser stated we have a computer that we use for some training that is on the console. The current computer was purchased at Wal-Mart many years ago and is having considerable problems. This new product could also be loaded with the software on the old training computer without any problem and would replace the existing computer. The product is new and Mrs. Smelser stated she has not  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING April 18, 2012 talked with any current users. The Professional Pride company is dedicated to producing training products strictly for communications and dispatching. The two simulators we currently own were purchased from Professional Pride. APCO offers some web based, online training but nothing of this type and each class ranges from $195 to $395 for each person for each class. Mrs. Smelser did look at the product on line and completed the demo. Chief Wade asked what would happen if we bought this product and it just doesn’t work for our people. Mrs. Smelser stated she would have to investigate that with Ms. Pivetta who owns the company but that up to this point in time, we have been very satisfied with the products purchased from Professional Pride. Mike Callahan stated that the price also includes a new PC and the associated hardware. He stated it has the capacity to hold any additional items we might want to load on to the system. Tim Eads stated he thought it sounded like a good idea but that he would like to see the demo to review the product before spending the money. He suggested we put off a decision until next month to give the members a chance to look at the product. Chief Wade asked how often this company updates their training materials. Mrs. Smelser stated that the basics never really change but some of the laws and standards do occasionally change. Professional Pride does not teach specific State laws or requirements but rather National and industry standards. She stated that Professional Pride comes out with new products all the time. Chief Wade asked about adding a 911 reality simulator to this product. Mrs. Smelser stated we already own and use the 911 reality simulator from the same company. The simulator has the CAD, radio, and call taking position. The trainee can practice answering various calls and handling the associated radio traffic while being recorded and reviewed by a trainer or supervisor. We purchased the simulator about 4-5 years ago. Chief Wade stated he preferred to defer this item until the next meeting giving him time to make certain there is not another vendor with a similar product and to review the demo. Mrs. Smelser will check with current product users for references and report at the next meeting. ITEM 7. Discussion Items A. The board member terms for Dr. Blanton, Shelton Hillman and Dwayne Honaker will expire on June 30, 2012. Chief Wade will  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING April 18, 2012 follow up with the City Manager on this item. Each board member wishing to be reappointed will need to reapply with the City. B. Mrs. Smelser will contact Ricky Curtis and ask that he have the City-911 Inter Local Cooperation Agreement ready for review at the next meeting. ITEM 8. Other Matters ITEM 9. Citizens and Delegations Presentation ITEM 10. Next meeting May 16, 2012