Emergency Communications Board

BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING November 21, 2012 ITEM 1. Roll Call David Warren absent. Ricky Curtis, attorney – absent. All others present. ITEM 2. Recognize Guests Supervisor Mike Callahan ITEM 3. Minutes of Previous Meeting – October 17, 2012 Jim Messimer made a motion, seconded by Tim Eads, to approve the minutes from the October 17, 2012 meeting. All voted in favor. ITEM 4. Treasurer’s Report A. Receipts & Expenditures The receipts and expenditures were provided for review by each Board member. B. Current Account Balances In the absence of the Treasurer, Mrs. Smelser reviewed the balance sheet, monthly budget, and monthly financial reports. Shelton Hillman made a motion, seconded by Tim Eads, to approve the financial reports as presented. Roll call: Blanton – yes, Eads – yes, Hillman – yes, Honaker – yes, Messimer – yes, Wade – yes, Warren – absent. Motion passed. Mrs. Smelser advised she has turned in the funding request to the Tennessee State Emergency Communications Board for reimbursement of the new recording system purchased in the early part of 2012. The amount of the request was $59,566. Also, the paperwork was turned in for pre-approval for the reimbursement of the controller and on-site next generation equipment in the amount of $235,861.79. ITEM 5. Old Business A. Report on Operations & Equipment 1. Overview of Operations a. Radio Low Volume The radio low volume issue has been very intermittent. The tracking numbers had gone down a couple months ago but has started going up again. Last week, we were logging 10-20 reports a day. There was also a problem that started last week that sounded like an open microphone. There was a lot of static and system background noise. A few months ago, the radio shop had turned off one of the control channels due to interference. Last week, Kingsport experienced an issue that required the radio shop to turn that control channel back on which resulted in the return of the interference. The control channel has now been turned back  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING November 21, 2012 off. This matter has been discussed at the Sullivan County 800Mhz Radio Oversight Committee and is being followed up with Sprint/Nextel. This control channel interference problem started when the control channel was changed in rebanding. b. Personnel Courtney Trivett has been released from training. Brandi Blevins will be released in about a month. Penny Durham, our newest employee, started work last week and will be in training for approximately three months. We are back to full staff. c. Internet connection No change. We are waiting on the City IT Department. d. Status Update on Web page Move to City Server No change. We are waiting on the City IT Department. B. Statistics Mrs. Smelser reviewed the monthly statistical report. C. Update on Regional 911 Solution The controllers are in and being installed at the telephone company. The first one will be ready for testing during the first week of December. The second controller is scheduled for testing during the third week of December. The group is working on insurance for the controllers through VFIS. The billing will be done through Washington County 911 and they will bill the individual Districts their portion. D. Problems with Regions Bank Regions Bank was sent a letter from Mrs. Smelser as directed by the Board at the last meeting. Mr. Lauzon did call a couple days after he received the letter and wanted copies of the previous audit responses from his bank. Those were sent to him the day he called. There has been no contact since and that was three weeks ago. Mrs. Smelser stated the auditor for the State Board called when they received our audit and asked about the finding concerning Regions Bank. She stated she explained the situation to him, including the actions being done to correct the situation. She stated she would send him a copy of any response received from Regions Bank concerning this issue. The auditor accepted the explanation.  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING November 21, 2012 Chief Wade advised Mrs. Smelser to make one more contact with Regions and if the situation has not been corrected, move the funds to another bank. The Treasurer should check the interest rates and choose a bank accordingly. Motion to move funds if issues not resolved with Regions Bank made by Shelton Hillman, second by Tim Eads. Roll call vote: Blanton – yes, Eads – yes, Hillman – yes, Honaker – yes, Messimer – yes, Wade – yes, Warren – absent. Motion passed. E. Discussion of Upgrading Protocol/QA Software Mrs. Smelser gave a Protocol/QA presentation to the board regarding upgrading the Protocol and Quality Assurance software. We currently use Medical Priority for EMD and EMD quality assurance, and we use in house protocols for police and fire department which are approved by Chief of Police and the Fire Chief. We designed our quality assurance for the police and fire protocols. Medical Priority software is interfaced with our computer system and the program is more efficient for quality assurance and less time consuming to complete than our current police and fire software. The goal is to implement a cost effective call guide consolidation of police, fire, and medical to reduce the time of the quality assurance process, and assure the national standards are met with call handling and training. Mrs. Smelser found there were only three vendors available to meet the solution: 1. Priority Dispatch a. Police, fire, and medical protocols available b. Software and manual call cards included c. Protocols are unchangeable d. Must attend training for certification provided by vender for a fee of between $295 and $395 per student per protocol. e. Already own program for EMD which currently costs $30,382 to maintain over a five year period. 2. APCO a. Police, fire, and medical protocols available b. Software and manual call cards included c. In-house protocols available (as long as they do not violate the national standard) d. Includes quality assurance e. In house training with automatic electronic updates provided by vendor f. Initial start-up cost 35,610 for 5 years 3. Power Phone a. Police, fire, and medical protocols available b. Software and manual call cards included c. Call guides consolidate all call types a. All information is available for police, fire, and medical on one call guide rather than flipping between instructions for each.  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING November 21, 2012 d. In-house protocols available (as long as they do not violate the national standard) e. Includes quality assurance f. Training provided by the vendor g. Initial start-up cost $66,990. Motion made to continue research for the possibility of a quality assurance and protocol software upgrade by Frank Blanton. Motion seconded by Jim Messimer. Motion passed. ITEM 6. New Business ITEM 7. Discussion Items ITEM 8. Other Matters ITEM 9. Citizens and Delegations Presentation ITEM 10. Next meeting December 19, 2012. The Board decided not to meet in December. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 3 p.m. in the Annex Conference room.