Emergency Communications Board

BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING February 20, 2013 ITEM 1. Roll Call All Board Members present. Ricky Curtis and Virginia Smelser present ITEM 2. Recognize Guests Mike Callahan ITEM 3. Minutes of Previous Meeting – January 16, 2013 Tim Eads made a motion, seconded by Frank Blanton, to approve the minutes as presented. All voted in favor. ITEM 4. Financials A. Receipts & Expenditures All receipts and expenditures were passed around for Board review and signatures. Also, Mrs. Smelser passed around the signature cards for the new CD at First Bank. B. Treasurer’s Report David Warren presented the Treasurer’s Report. There was a question on the $6300 expenditure to Century Link. Mrs. Smelser explained this was the fee for the Ethernet installation and charge for the next gen 911 equipment. Frank Blanton made a motion, seconded by Tim Eads, to approve the Treasurer’s Reports as presented. Roll call vote: Blanton – yes, Eads – yes, Hillman – yes, Honaker – yes, 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 making progress. Mrs. Smelser met with Motorola and reviewed the system report. There are a lot of radios that are losing power and have drifted off frequency. We are working on getting the radios serviced. b. Personnel The last trainee, Penny Durham, will be released in March. At that time, we will be back up to full staff. c. Internet connection There has been no change at this time.  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING February 20, 2013 d. Status Update on Web page Move to City Server The City is creating a new web page. We are working on reviewing and updating our page to be included on the City’s system. Eventually, the $19.95 charge we pay each month to web.com will be discontinued. e. Update on GEO/GIS/TIPS Mrs. Smelser, Jon Hamic, David Metzger, Mike Callahan and Mandy Hall will meet with the State GIS/GEO coordinators next week for an update on our status with the mapping, TIPS requirements, and MSAG. The last report we received showed only a 2% error rate but that included the known anomalies. f. Deltalert changeover to Code Red This is being scheduled for April. The maintenance renewal fee for the coming year will remain the same. g. Update on Required Inter-Local Cooperation Agreement for Designated Back Up PSAP Mr. Curtis approved the agreement this morning and it has been forwarded to Ike Lowry at Sullivan County for his signature. Once this has been done, a copy will be sent to the TECB to show our compliance with the mandate. h. Update on Upgrade to New Protocol/QA This has been temporarily placed on hold. The upcoming budget does include some funding for this project, if, at some point, the Board decides to move forward with this project. B. Statistics Mrs. Smelser presented the monthly statistical report. The quality assurance is now up to date. C. Update on Regional 911 Solution Mrs. Smelser advised several months ago she turned in the paperwork to the ECB for reimbursement of our recorder expenses last year. This has been approved and we should be receiving the refund within the next few weeks. All the paperwork has been turned in to the ECB to obtain pre-approval for the reimbursement of the next generation 911 equipment. This has been pre- approved so as soon as it has been paid, the final paperwork will be submitted. Last week, Century Link installed more of the wiring for the next generation 911 equipment. Unfortunately, they made a mess of the installation and they have been asked to come back and clean up the install. They are scheduled to be here  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING February 20, 2013 tomorrow. The State will be here on Friday to install the router and additional wiring. The Washington County 911 is set to go live with the new system in the next two weeks. Sullivan County 911 will be second and Bristol is scheduled to be completed third. D. Update on Regions Bank When we received the statement this month, Regions charged us the $25 account fee again and will not issue a credit. When the money was withdrawn to deposit into the new account at First Bank, Regions also charged us an $8 fee for the cashier’s check and to close the account. The bank gave Mrs. Smelser a problem about withdrawing the money because of the signature cards. Mr. Lauzon had to be called in order to authorize the withdrawal. The money was withdrawn and has been deposited in a CD at First Bank. ITEM 6. New Business A. Proposed legislation in Tennessee on reallocating funding from 25% of wireless to 85% of wireless going to the Districts based on population. (See handout) The Board packet included some email copies received from the TECB over the weekend. There are a couple of legislators in West Tennessee that have put in a bill to change the funding for the 911. They are proposing to increase the 25% wireless funding to 85% by population. However, this will stop all additional funding and grants from the TECB. The money currently going to the TECB funds those projects and is paying for the infrastructure of the next generation 911. Currently, we receive $16,000 per year for training, $28,500 per year for our GIS/GEO program, $142,000 for operational funding, plus the reimbursement on our recorder and the funding for the next generation controller and on site equipment which is over $200,000. If this bill goes through, this funding will be eliminated and we will show an increase in the wireless funding from $65,000 annually to an estimated $155,000 annually. This will be a significant drop in funding. The bill will have a significant negative impact on our District as well as most of the smaller districts in the State. Mrs. Questell is asking all the 911 Districts in the State to contact their legislators and push to have this bill thrown out. Mr. Curtis stated by increasing the wireless remittance to the Districts, the TECB would no longer have the pool of funds to assist the Districts or pay for equipment. The bigger Districts would receive considerably more funding but it would hurt the small Districts. Tim Eads stated that there is no mandate on the other funds the State has been given such as the training funding. Mrs. Smelser stated the TECB has passed rules/regulations on their operations that include the allocation of these funds back to the District as part of their required budget. These rules/regulations are also approved by the State Comptroller. Tim Eads stated that the budgets could be changed.  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING February 20, 2013 Shelton Hillman made a motion recommending the Director contact our three local representatives via telephone to express our opinion on this bill and provide figures showing the negative impact on our District. The motion was seconded by Frank Blanton. All voted in favor and the motion passed. B. First Reading of 2013-14 Proposed Budget Mrs. Smelser presented the proposed 2013-14 budget. The highpoints of the budget are: 1. The percentage of 911 calls increased from 18 to 20% in 2012. This created an increase in the City contract fee of $14,059. 2. There is an overall decrease in the budget from the last two years due to the next generation 911 funding and expenses. 3. Maintenance agreements are up by a total of $365 4. 911 equipment/lines will decrease significantly; however, the exact amount is unknown. 5. The vehicle maintenance account shows an increase of $1500 due to the age of the vehicle. 6. General phone expenses are decreased by $600 7. Communication Equipment is increased by $60,000 to allow for the possible implementation of a new protocol program. Jim Messimer made a motion to approve the proposed budget on first reading. Motion was seconded by Tim Eads. Roll call vote: Blanton – yes, Eads – yes, Hillman – yes, Honaker – yes, Messimer – yes, Wade – yes, Warren – yes. Motion passed. The second reading will be held at the March Board meeting. A copy of the proposed budget will be forwarded to the City Manager as required by State Law. Mr. Curtis will have the Inter-Local Cooperation Agreement ready for approval at the March meeting. ITEM 7. Discussion Items A. The State Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against the company that owns Magic Jack. This lawsuit is to recover the 911 fees for this service. B. Bristol Tennessee 911 and the Police Department have received recognition as a certified partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We are one of 17 centers in Tennessee to receive this recognition. Tennessee has over twice as many than any other state. The ECB is working on regulations mandating this training for all 911 Districts.  BRISTOL TENNESSEE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MEETING February 20, 2013 ITEM 8. Other Matters ITEM 9. Citizens and Delegations Presentation ITEM 10. Next meeting March 20, 2013 in the Annex Conference Room.