911 Board Meeting Minutes June 21, 2012
Call to order by Secretary Schiliro at 2:00 pm
Members Present:
Secretary Schiliro, Secretary Sills, Lewis Briggs, Michael Metcalf, Jamie Turner, Arthur Lewis, Michael Vincent
Staff Members present:
Terry Whitham, James Cole, and Matt Laick.
Secretary Schiliro welcomed new member Lewis Briggs as the public member of the Board.
Secretary Schiliro announced the retirement of Michael Metcalf from the Board and that this would be his last meeting with the Board. Thank you comments for his service from Secretary Schiliro and comments from Mr. Metcalf on his opportunity to serve on the Board. Comments from Secretary Sills and Jamie Turner. .
Motion to approve minutes from the March 15 and April 19 meetings by Mr. Metcalf and seconded by Mr. Turner. Motion carried with no objections. Corrections to Minutes: none.
Terry Whitham reviewed the monthly status reports noting that the New Castle County Stats are missing. He noted the increase in calls with the start of summer. He noted that we are at the National Average with the percentage of wireless calls. He reviewed the discretionary fund balance with note that it included payment for the Sussex County upgrades. At the request of Mr. Vincent he has created a bare bones initial budget for the Legislative Committee and that he needs to meet with the Legislative Committee to prepare a budget to present to the OMB in September. He would also like to discuss with the Legislative Committee a revisiting of Wireless Cost Recovery; we are currently only being invoiced by two carriers and this might be a good time to revisit an issue that could put $275,000 back available in our operating budget. Question by Mr. Turner asked about what is included in the spreadsheet provided – Terry noted that the Capital Expenses are not included and it is also missing some other committed projects with Mr. Cole. He also noted that at the CAD meeting, he has a goal of defining what modules/aspects of the system the Board will be responsible for and what the agencies will be responsible for.
Jim Cole provided an overview of the monthly phone bills and trouble reports. Nothing sticks out other that the Suscom System Outage that will be brought up later in the meeting. A copy of the cause analysis of the Suscom Outage and some information on the Dover PD battery issue that appears later in the agenda.
Committee Reports
Legislative – no meeting. Mr. Metcalf commented that the majority of States are no longer providing cost recovery and that the carriers have converted to self recovery as a point of information for Terry’s earlier comments. Jim Cole noted that 7 of the 9 carriers in Delaware are not billing us for cost recovery, but with future growth and NG911 they may elect to start billing again and this may be an opportune moment to get the legislation changed.
Training – Jamie Turner working on a Matrix of standards that currently exist. Committee meeting will be scheduled at some point.
Public Education – Joe Mulford has obtained some information on methods for public outreach that will be taken to the PSAP Managers Meeting. Looking at possibly working with a college or high school to create a video for PSA for Television or Movie Trailers and possibly some pamphlets. Additional comments on the effects of Public Access Broadband will affect the Public Education needs of the PSAP Community. Comments on the tools used to control the network management with the system’s growth. Comments from Kevin Sipple on the new video from Prince George’s County Maryland’s 9-1-1 Center on their website.
Wireless Cost Recovery – Terry Whitham reported invoices received from AT&T in the amount of $11901.20 and Sprint in the amount of $24,270. Motion to pay by Jamie Turner, second by Mr. Vincent. Motion carried without objection.
University of Delaware Emergency Phones – Secretary Sills introduced representatives from the University of Delaware who reported that Gaitronics has been out and touched every phone and have either been replaced or repaired to factory specs. Jim Cole/Bill Shertzer worked with Intrado to install Viper 4.1 that includes a fix for the volume issues. This seems to have cleared up the volume issues by working the issue from both sides. They have not had any bad calls with the limited testing that has been done today. They will continue to monitor the issue.
New Castle County Viper Installation Issue – Jim Cole reported we are 2 months past the cut over date. We have been held up with motherboard issue in the HP Computers that were received with the order. They are replacing all the computers and they are currently in Montreal being programmed at this time. Shipping and install is scheduled for early July. They have also been having an issue with “parking” calls in the ACD environment and an Engineering request has been submitted and a fix will be loaded with SP2.
Sussex County Phone Interruption – Jim Cole reported that we lost the Center and a copy of the Cause Analysis Report is with his report. Mike Metcalf noted that we may want to look at heartbeat monitoring systems. Bill Shertzer reported that what happened was that a process in one of the servers tied up the server and would not allow the system to do anything or allow the other server to take over the calls. A fix has been installed and is being monitored on a daily basis by the technicians. Joe Thomas noted that normally when you have a phone problem you lose either the 9-1-1 side for the Admin side and with this issue they lost both. They are installing two line phone sets that are separate from the Viper system so that phone lines are available if they have a problem in the future. On the day in question all of the 9-1-1 Technicians were in New Castle and DSP Aviation assisted in bringing the Technicians down to the system. Jamie Turner asked about notification to the Centers of Position Problems. Jim Cole commented that they are looking at installing an Intrado Sentry system to monitor the heartbeats and improve service. Some of these improvements will be part of the NG911 Network System and could be included based on the package that is selected. One of the packages he has discussed with Intrado includes a monthly fee without the up charges we see currently upgrading the Centers. More information will be coming in future meetings. Joe Thomas noted that they were down for about 2 to 3 hours, they did fold to Seaford and had them busy for a short time and the fold worked well. Joe Thomas commented that they used the Network Control Modems, there was an issue with the transfer and the switches would have made it much easier but for a larger Center the NCM options are helpful
Dover PD UPS Battery Issue – Jim Cole reported on an issue with the batteries in the UPS at Dover PD swelling. Due to the Board’s approval they were able to change out the batteries. They had to evacuate officers due to the chemicals from the battery issue. Christina Kober asked about who was responsible for the disposal, they are still in their building. Jim Cole will contact them to remove the batteries and if any bills are received please send them to Jim. Secretary Sills asked that the Vendor be contacted for safety issues. Questions on how something happens, we had just done testing and they were fine and then they all went.
CAD RFP Status – Terry Whitham reported that the CAD RFP Package is completed and has been reviewed by Stephanie Young to put into proper format. The Business Case has been submitted to DTI. The package has been submitted to GSS for review for release. Plan is to release on July 2, mandatory meeting for interested vendors on July 25, questions may be submitted through July 18 with answers by July 25. Bids must be received by 3 pm on August 22. We then have 90 days to make a decision to award contract. We will score all proposals and have a product showcase for 2 to 3 vendors. Question by Mr. Vincent does the RFP meet the needs of all the Centers and Terry noted that all agencies were given input into the process and the goal has always been that no agency loses functionality. Ed Marecki asked about data conversion and Terry reported it is included in the RFP. Mr. Turner asked if RFP accommodates how the system would interface with the “street” users. RFP includes requirement for references and part of the scoring process includes contacting current users. Terry noted that the CAD Users Group and the PSAP Managers will be included in the final demonstration and selection process. Dave Roberts asked if RCC would be involved in the “scoring” process, this is not part of their current contract but is an available service from RCC. Discussion on the “scoring” process and involvement of person will all the proper knowledge for the evaluation. Dave Roberts commented that he thinks an outside consulting firm could help the process greatly for how to evaluate the bids in an overall manner. Comments from Dave Roberts and Joe Thomas that they would have a contract consultant assist with the scoring if they were doing a similar project to make sure that the bids meet all the requirements of the bid so that nothing is missed. Discussion on RCC any impediments to RCC being contracted to score the bids. Terry reported that he could contact RCC for a price to perform the review. Discussion on the benefits of a consulting form and comments on RCC’s involvement with the State and CAD evaluation track record. Mr. Turner asked if RCC is under any current contract in the State as this may help with contracting with them. Terry will contact OMB for what can/can’t be done. Kevin Sipple asked if this would remove the PSAP Managers. Joe Thomas explained their process with RCC and that they would provide ranking and evaluations that can be used by the PSAP Managers in making the final decision to recommend to the Board.
CAD Servers for New World – Terry Whitham reported that we had a server fail at Kent County over the weekend and we can’t get any service contract for them. We need to take action to address the servers while we are working through the RFP. Hardware cost is $120,000 and Software Upgrade for $72,000. We will contract with New World to upload at their location, they will then ship to sites, and then plug in and transfer data. Ken Allen explained the effects of the Kent Server failure. Ken Allen would like to see some action moving forward on replacing the servers. Mr. Turner commented this is the first time he has heard about the current criticality of the servers. Secretary Schiliro asked about the impact of this proposal on the RFP Process. Terry and Secretary Sills explained not a real impact, the servers may be “throw away” depending on the solution of the RFP Vendor but this is needed to keep the current systems in operation and it could very well be 3 years before agencies go live on a new system. Question if it would be “cheaper” to ship here and Matt Halladay explained this is a cost saving proposal so there would be not costs for New World to travel in for the install. They would then transition the data to the new servers remotely. Jamie Turner how does this affect their servers and the costs for replacing servers for their CAD Systems. Jamie Turner if the Board approves this purchase and the new RFP utilizes other technology could the servers be used for other purposes. Secretary Sills noted that they could be used for other purposes and that now that we are seeing failures we can expect more failures in the future. Mr. Vincent asked if there was funding available. Terry reported there is currently funding available. Mr. Vincent commented that moving forward we need to work on improving our planning and budget process so that we don’t continue to have so many of these “surprise” funding needs come before the Board. Question from Mr. Roberts on which Centers this applies to. This affects DSP, Kent Center, Seaford, Rehoboth, and Newark. This is physical structure and the cost is prohibitive for Virtual at this time, but is still being looked at for the future. Discussion on moving forward and what will be paid for by the Board and what will be agency responsibility. Discussion on how Cloud computing might be used in the future. Question from Mr. Turner to Secretary Sills on the need for a Business Case. Secretary Sills reported this is hardware replacement so business case not needed. Motion by Mr. Metcalf to support the proposal in an amount not to exceed $282,000 with a second by Mr. Turner. Motion carried with no dissension.
Mr. Turner asked for a copy of our contractual responsibilities with life cycles for the budget and legislative committee.
Mr. Roberts asked about the current status of the New World Agencies. Are they all on the same level and is there anyone accountable to keep the systems. There is no one person who accountable to oversee the CAD System. Comments this was originally going to be done through State Police. Mr. Briggs commented on his amazement that the system has become so fragmented. Mr. Vincent commented that if we accept the RFP we need to make sure we have appropriate control, oversight and maintenance of the system.
Meeting adjourned at 3:25.