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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 07-25-2022911 COMMUNICATIONS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE July 25, 2022 At a Regular Meeting of the 911 Communications Oversight Committee on Monday, July 25, 2022, at 1:30 p.m., in the Commission Chambers of City Hall located at 300 South 5th Street the following Committee members were present: Commissioner Carol Gault, Commissioner Eddie Jones, Jewel Jones, and Dr. Irvin Smith (4). Chairperson Kauffeld was absent (1). Dr. Irvin Smith presided as Chairperson. City Clerk Lindsay Parish took the minutes of the meeting. APPROVE MINUTES Jewell Jones offered motion, seconded by Commissioner Gault to adopt the Minutes of July 11, 2022. All in favor. Q & A WITH BRANDON MARSHALL – KSP NETWORK Brandon Marshall with the Kentucky State Police Communications Branch was invited to speak to the Committee. Mr. Marshall oversees the Commonwealth statewide trunk system and has been with KSP since 1997. Mr. Marshall goes to many city and county held meetings to talk about what KSP is doing related to 911 and to talk about potential partnerships. Mr. Marshall made note that it is not mandatory for the City and County to join KSP to be part of the statewide system, but there are some partnership opportunities. In relation to Paducah/McCracken County joining the Statewide system, Mr. Marshall said, “You are welcome to join, but you don’t have to, and I don’t think you should.” He made note McCracken County is in a good position with 911 as far as the options available to the City and County. Many cities do not have the same opportunities due to a lack of funding, aging infrastructure, lack of expertise on staff and no ability to hire a consultant to acquire that expertise. Paducah/McCracken is in an advantageous position in that Federal Engineering is consulting on the project. He noted that partnering with KSP could potentially save money on the initial cost directly from Paducah/McCracken County, but that funding is ultimately going to come from the tax base either way. Mr. Marshall offered the expertise of KSP as the project moves forward, regardless of whether the choice is made to join KSP. Mr. Marshall gave the following input to the committee: Know what the total cost of ownership. Understand hidden costs such as end user licensing and software upgrade agreements. Make sure the system is scalable and that money is set aside for equipment upgrades in the future. Understand the needs of the users. The City and the State may have different needs in that the State is primarily concerned with coverage in and around their vehicles, whereas, the City may be more concerned about firefighters or police officers inside of a building. Different levels of coverage are needed based on what is needed by the first responders who are using the system. The Committee asked Mr. Marshall the following questions: What is the largest county that has partnered with KSP to date? Only one county has partnered with KSP to date which is Simpson County/Franklin 911 COMMUNICATIONS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE July 25, 2022 City. Simpson County utilized ARPA funding to build a tower and are partnering with KSP for the core. When will KSP be ready to have Cities/Counties begin using the KSP system? Mr. Marshall’s first priority is to have KSP online and ensure that the current users have their needs met. Paducah/McCracken County cannot utilize the system currently, because it is not online. The timetable on the tower construction was too ambitious and the project is 3 years behind where Mr. Marshall would like it to be. He believes that Post 1 and Post 2 will be online by the end of 2022. What are the synergy opportunities of the City and County partnering with KSP? Increasing the KSP Footprint – a benefit for KSP would be that they would have additional towers to increase the footprint of the entire KSP system. Interoperability - Partnership would mean that the City/County would have an option of a few different radios that would work with State radios and allow them to communicate. Cores – KSP has 2 cores that have 200 miles of separation. This separation is good in case of disaster or attack. KSP would maintain the cores. Is there a limitation on the frequencies that could be used? There is a limited amount of radio spectrum, and some of those have been allocated to McCracken Co. Even though there is a limited amount, there are enough for the City/County to have a frequency independent of KSP. Channels are allocated based on population. If the City/County partners with KSP, what changes for the people who call into 911? KSP currently provides dispatches for Simpson County. As long as Paducah/McCracken County continues to take 911 calls, nothing significant changes. KSP does not want to perform dispatching services. KRS requires that counties be responsible for taking 911 calls and the State does not want to handle 911 Call Centers unless there is no other option. If Post 1 & Post 2 come online at the end of 2022, when could McCracken partner with KSP? Once online, the City/County could begin checking coverage, but could not immediately come online and be dependent on the system. The system would need to be fully vetted before that would be allowed. Would it be unreasonable to assume that we could have a system up and running within one year? This depends on many factors such as whether all the sites have been picked, whether those sites are already purchased/owned, etc. If a partnership was initiated with KSP, what is the process around adding/removing a radio? What is KSP staffing like and would adding/removing radios have lag time? KSP has 22 employees across the state. There would not be a significant lag time. Radios have to be programmed and assigned an ID before they are activated. Changes could take 24 hours. Is it possible to create an RFP that would have an Option A for Paducah/McCracken County to build its own system and an Option B to partner with KSP? Mr. Marshall believes that in order to do this, 2 RFPs may be needed. If Paducah/McCracken County wants to partner with the State, then Motorola would be the only option for the equipment, but not necessarily the only option for the radios. 911 COMMUNICATIONS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE July 25, 2022 If we work with KSP, would we need an RFP for towers and an RFP for radios? Possibly, depending on the type of radios desired. Radios can also be purchased off of the State Procurement Master Agreement or NASPO (National Purchasing Master Agreement). UPDATE ON RFP Police Chief Brian Laird gave an update on the RFP. He spoke with Federal Engineering after last meeting and asked them to include language around options (KSP model). Federal Engineering is working on the updates and anticipate having a draft within the next few weeks. Commissioner Eddie Jones asked about obtaining a copy of the Georgetown/Scott County RFP as a reference. REVIEW DRAFT OF 911 PROPOSAL Commissioner Carol Gault & Commissioner Eddie Jones met to discuss a draft 911 proposal that includes the following elements: Set up a separate agency governed by a 5-member board of directors. The draft does not have any City or County Commissioners serving on the board Incorporate a 2-teir funding mechanism including parcel fee & water meter fee with an amount still to be determined The draft was created with the Joint Sewer Agency as an example Commissioner Gault & Commissioner Jones asked the committee to review and provide feedback. Mayor Bray offered comments that he believes it is important for the committee to have an objective view about the way this project moves forward. Elected officials see issues with a specific lens and it is important to have the perspectives of people who are not elected officials. Recommendations from the committee should be very objective and non-political. VENDOR DISCUSSION Commissioner Eddie Jones would like to receive additional information from potential vendors in order to know what mistakes they have seen in other communities that would result in them not responding to the RFP. He would like vendors to be invited to committee meetings and allowed a certain amount of time to talk to the committee. The committee discussed how they would know who to invite and what amount of time would need to be dedicated to hearing from all potential vendors. Commissioner Eddie Jones has additional questions about how the RFP will be written related to reliability and DAQ requirements. The committee agreed that these specifics can be discussed after the committee receives the first draft of the RFP for review. Commissioner Eddie Jones would like to have ample time to review the RFP and send it to potential vendors before it is finalized. 911 COMMUNICATIONS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE July 25, 2022 ADJOURN Mr. Jewell Jones offered motion, seconded by Commissioner Eddie Jones to adjourn the meeting. All in favor. TIME ADJOURNED: 2:59 p.m. ADOPTED: August 22, 2022