MEETING MINUTES 6/8/16 Voting Members Present: Guests Present: Secretary: Kurt Sacha, City of Longview Mark Nelson, CCSO Val Cummings Dennis Weber, Cowlitz County (Chair) Jim Zdilar Terry Sinkler, Cowlitz County Fire Officials Butch Brenaman Non-Voting Members Present: Sabrina Fraidenburg Deanna Wells, 911 Director Chairman Dennis Weber called the regular meeting to order at 10:05 a.m. in Conference Room C of the Cowlitz County Administration Building, 207 N. 4 th Ave. Kelso, WA. A quorum was met. 1. EXECUTIVE SESSION At 10:05 Chairman Weber announced that the E-Board members would enter into a 10 minute closed executive session to include the Cowlitz County HR Director, Jim Zdilar and his assistant, Sabrina Fraidenburg, for an estimated 10 minutes starting at 10:06 a.m. and ending at 10:16 a.m. The purpose of the closed executive session is to review the performance of a public employee (RCW 42.30.110 (1) (g)). The closed executive session ended at 10:16 a.m. Chairman Weber reported that there were no decisions made or actions taken during the closed executive session. The regular meeting reconvened at 10:17 a.m. 2. MINUTES APPROVAL Terry Sinkler made a motion to approve the 5/11/16 regular meeting minutes; Kurt Sacha seconded the motion; all were in favor. The motion carried unanimously. 3. DIRECTOR S REPORT 3.1 FINANCIAL REPORT. Val Cummings presented the redesigned Financial Report for the period ending April 30, 2016. 3.2 EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION/AWARDS. Three employees will receive their longevity awards this year: Lisa Lidorikiotis (25 years), Maria Gilbert (10 years) and Robert Schaefer (5 years). 3.3 OTHER BUSINESS 3.3.1 Radio Issues 3.3.1.1 Changes/Improvements. Wells explained that several changes have been made to help improve radio coverage issues several user agencies have been experiencing. These improvements are frequency dependent. Testing has shown the changes have improved the system. Complaints have been significantly reduced. 3.3.1.2 BeeBee Mountain Radio Tower. Wells has reached out to cellular companies and Cascade Network to install equipment on BeeBee Radio Tower in an effort to improve coverage. She is waiting to find out what the cost for this are. Wells asked the E-Board for authorization to move forward with RFP to build another radio site at BeeBee Mountain. This will be a vote and receive site; basically, a duplication of our other radio tower sites and will expand the footprint of our radio system from eight (8) sites to nine (9).
Meeting Minutes 6/8/16 Page 2 of 5 Kurt Sacha made a motion to consider a plan for development of a radio tower site at BeeBee Mountain. Terry Sinkler seconded. All were in favor. The motion carried unanimously. After the costs are determined the 911 Director will need to bring this back to the E-Board for approval before moving forward with this project. 3.3.1.3 Replacement of JPS Voting Repeaters. Day Wireless recommends four (4) Raven voting repeaters be purchased to replace the existing JPS voting equipment. The cost for this is approximately $6,500 each and $550 for installation for a total estimated cost of $30,700. The cost of this equipment will be paid from the approved 2016 Radio Operations Budget. Wells requested authorization to put out an RFP to replace the JPS voting repeaters for Kelso, County, Fire and OPS 4 with Raven equipment. Sacha asked if there could be testing prior to purchasing 4 of these before we buy them all now hoping it will solve problem. Deanna, there is one already installed at Rainier for the Longview Police frequency. The testing of this indicates it has helped solve some of the problems. Kurt Sacha made a motion to authorize the Director to move forward with replacement of the 4 voting JPS repeaters with Raven repeater equipment at an estimated cost of $30,700. Terry Sinkler seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion carried unanimously. 3.3.2 CAD Hardware Replacement. Longview IT Dept. is putting together plan to upgrade the CAD hardware. Suggested have also suggested we consider upgrading our current CAD software to next most current version. Maintenance for the current version of IG Software will expire March 2017. They are anticipating our current version of software won t be supported at that time.. Both the CAD hardware and software were purchased in 2012. Wells has asked the Longview IT Director, Todd Dodgin, to draft a proposal outlining the cost for this by August for use during the mid-year budget review process. Dodgin will come to the August E-Board meeting to discuss this. Discussion continued regarding timing for budget amendment proposal deadlines. Kurt Sacha asked for a rough budget projection as soon as possible for his and all other user agencies budgetary purposes. 3.3.3 Intergraph Maintenance Agreement. Received and sent to the County civil Attorney for review prior to submitting approval 3.3.4 DOL Licensing ACCESS changes to new coding format (XML). This change at DOL may require modifications to our CAD interface to allow our CAD to communicate with the State system. This is out of our control and Wells is not sure how much it will cost. She has asked for a price quote. 3.3.5 TMLA Crash Notification. This is live at the state level sending data to 911 trunks. A robotic voice calls 911 Center and gives details of the crash incident. We will need to make some changes to our current CAD and telephone phone systems in order to be able to decipher what type of call is being received. Wells is working with Intergraph to make the needed changes. 3.3.6 Radio Task Force. Wells would like to put together a radio task force to work on managing the radio system and building a long term plan for managing the radio system to assure it meets user s needs. Sacha requested, with the consensus of all members present, that the Director go through the Combined User Committee for this. 3.3.7 Next Generation 911. There was an article in The Daily News (TDN) recently about the changes in technology coming to the 911 Center in the near future and the impact those changes might have on the operation. 3.3.8 CPE (Certified Public-Safety Executive Program) Training. Wells has been accepted and is enrolled in the 12-week APCO CPE Training Program beginning in July 6, 2016 and ending January13, 2017. Tuition and travel expenses for this training program is reimbursable under our State E911 CPD-
Meeting Minutes 6/8/16 Page 3 of 5 Only Contract. She has also received a $1,000 scholarship to be applied to tuition for this training course. 4. COMMITTEE REPORTS 4.1 COMBINED USER COMMITTEE. Committee Chair, Phil Jurmu, was unable to attend the meeting due to a scheduling conflict. However, he sent a report via Email and a copy was distributed. The Combined User Committee has decided to wait until after the 6/28 Special E-Board meeting before moving forward with any recommendations. Weber noted that the E-Board is expecting recommendations for any needed modifications to the inter-local agreement be brought to the 6/28/16 Special E-Board meeting. Wells suggested that the user agencies all need to communicate this expectation to their legal representatives prior to the 6/28/16 Special E-Board meeting. 5. OLD BUSINESS 5.1 REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION TO FILL TWO (2) NEW 911 DISPATCHER POSITIONS. Wells requested authorization to fill two, currently unfunded, dispatcher positions as soon as possible. Kurt Sacha requested we defer a decision on this request until next month after reviewing the budget projections for 2016 and 2017. Wells noted that she is moving forward with filling the, currently funded, dispatcher position vacated due to Brandon Poff s promotion to 911 Supervisor. 5.2 RADIO LICENSING 5.2.1 LETTER FROM HOOD RIVER COUNTY RE: HOOD RIVER COUNTY FCC LICENSING LETTER OF CONCURRENCE REQUEST, DATED MAY 9, 2016 Wells asked the E-Board to consider approving this request from Hood River County to use 154.234 MHz in the southern portion of Hood River County as an analog non-dispatch public safety operations/tactical channel within the rural and forested service areas of Hiyu Mountain, Middle Mountain and Gunsight Butte. 5.2.2 LETTER FROM HOOD RIVER COUNTY RE: HOOD RIVER COUNTY 154.235 MHz LETTER OF NON-INTERFERENCE. Wells noted that Hood River County has submitted a letter of non-interference. Hood River County has asked for a meeting with our users, if necessary, to discuss this further. Sinkler noted that noted that the Cowlitz County Fire Users are not in support of approving this request at this time due to historical and current bleed-over issues. (E.g., District #5 is currently receiving interference from Aberdeen). Because Hood River is closer they anticipate bleed-over interference if this request is approved. Deanna noted that there are ways to work through the issues. A meeting with Hood River and the fire user agencies regarding this matter is scheduled at the Longview Fire Department on June 14th at 1:00 p.m. Weber stated he is not comfortable moving forward with approval of this request without a recommendation from the user agencies after their meeting with Hood River on June 14th. He suggested this item could be added to the June 28 th special meeting agenda if necessary. This item was tabled pending a recommendation from the users.
Meeting Minutes 6/8/16 Page 4 of 5 5.3 REVIEW ACTION ITEMS LIST Wells reviewed status of the Action Items List. 5.3.1 STRATEGIC PLAN. Wells is ready to move forward on her own to draft a strategic plan until the user agencies are interested in working with her on this. 5.3.2 RADIO TOWER LEASE AGREEMENT WITH COWLITZ COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT #5 - INTERFACE FOR THE DIGITAL SYSTEM WITH THE COWLITZ COUNTY VHF RADIO SYSTEM. The lease agreement with Cowlitz County Fire Protection District #5 and Cowlitz County for Rainier Tower Site rent is expected to be placed on the Board of County Commissioners meeting agenda for next week. Discussion regarding engineering study and site inspection requirements prior to approval of the lease agreement. Wells reported that the as-built records for tower are unavailable. She asked if we should move forward with approving the lease agreement without this or stipulate it will be completed within a certain number of days. Sinkler noted that no other agency with equipment installed on the Rainier Tower was required to have an inspection before installing their equipment on the tower. Wells noted that a site inspection, separate from the engineering study, was not a requirement imposed by the County--these are two separate reports. Sinkler asked if Fire District #5 was going to be held up waiting for the foundation study, noting that their grant deadline is sometime in August 2016. Wells asked the E-Board for a policy decision whether or not to require a foundation and engineering study be completed on all our radio tower sites. Nelson stated that he concurs that all our radio tower sites should be inspected and have an engineering study completed and that he believes Fire District #5 should be allowed to move forward with installation of the needed equipment on the Rainier tower site. Kurt Sacha made a motion to authorize a site inspection, engineering and foundation study be completed on all the emergency radio towers with the cost for this to be shared by the all the user entities. Terry Sinkler seconded the motion. All were in favor. The motion carried unanimously. 5.3.3 DISPATCH STAFFING ISSUES. Wells explained we are having problems with short staffing when sick call-ins occur. Historically we divide fire dispatch duties between the three law dispatchers when we don t have a 4th person available to work. Or the dispatcher at a less active console, usually, Kelso Police, takes the fire radio and works both of those frequencies at the same time. This is not ideal and happens every day during rest and meal breaks. Weber noted that we have talked about a sharing console between Kelso and LPD; however, that suggestion was met with stiff resistance from those two agencies. He noted that the reality is this is happening anyway. Wells noted that this issue was discussed by the Combined User Committee yesterday. The Longview and Kelso police users are not receptive to sharing a dispatch console because they believe doing so will create an officer-safety issue. Discussion continued regarding how to deal with the staffing level issues. Wells stated that the dispatch staff are tired of all the overtime and there is a legitimate need to staff the 911 Center with five (5) dispatchers every day 24 hours-per-day without overtime. Sinkler noted that Longview and Kelso Police each have separate work consoles with a dedicated dispatcher24-7, but they are each only paying half the cost of one dispatch console according to the cost sharing formula in the budget..
Meeting Minutes 6/8/16 Page 5 of 5 6. NEW BUSINESS None 7. OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT There was no public comment. 8. NEXT MEETING A special meeting is scheduled on June 28, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. in the EOC. The July 13, 2016 regular meeting is CANCELED. The August 10, 2016 regular meeting is RESCHEDULED to August 3, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. in the EOC. The meeting was adjourned at 12:36 p.m.