WASHINGTON
PARISH COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT
A regularly scheduled and
properly and advertised Washington Parish Communications District Board meeting
was held on at July 06, 2004 the E-911 Planning Office located at 1005
Cleveland Street.
Members present were:
Mr. James Coleman
Chairman
Mr. Gary Fenner
Treasurer
Mrs. Cynthia August
Secretary
Mr. Jason Verret
Mr. Joshua Bridges
Members absent were:
Mr. Mike Stogner
Vice-Chairman
Mr.
Mike Miller
Others present were:
Mr. Kenney
Gatewood
Attorney
Mrs. Joanna Thomas
Manager
Chairman Coleman called the
meeting to order at the appointed time of 6:00 p.m.
Mr. Fenner opened with prayer and
the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States.
ROLL
CALL OF BOARD MEMBERS
Mrs. Thomas called the roll. The
results of that roll call are recorded above.
READING OF
THE MINUTES
Chairman Coleman called for a
motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of June 14, 2004, since they
were mailed out to each member prior to this meeting. Mrs. August made the motion to dispense with the reading of
both these sets of minutes. Mr. Brigdes seconded the motion. Motion passed by a
unanimous vote.
Chairman Coleman asked if there
were any deletions, corrections or additions to be made to the minutes of June
14, 2004. Hearing none, Mr. Coleman
called for a motion to accept the minutes as written and mailed out.
Mr. Fenner made the motion to accept and approve the minutes as written
and mailed out. Mr. Verret seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous
vote.
MANAGER’S
REPORT
All
PSAP equipment which includes the new CML equipment at the Washington Parish
Sheriff’s Office and the Franklinton Police Department is up and running.
Gage Telephone continues to give excellent response to fix all problems
that have come up.
The accounting
system is working well Mr. Fenner and I continue to input the monthly financial
data.
We’ve
given out a total of 20 new addresses in the Parish and they are:
Franklinton
09
Mt.
Hermon 06
Pine
03
Bogalusa
01
Angie
01
Total
20
The
Franklinton Police department has been successfully brought on line and it is
working fine now. During the start
up there were some abnormal occurrences such as, (1) Bell made circuit test
calls without our permission, which overwhelmed the Franklinton Dispatcher, and
(2) Calls are being automatically forwarded to the back up PSAP after 20
seconds, which may be too quickly. This
has been addressed by adding 10 seconds to the ring time before forwarding,
which is now 30 seconds.
Two
days were spent with the mapping engineer to review all records and data.
All such records and data has been sent by FEDEX to the engineer and has
been received. As soon as I receive
a list of missing roads from the engineer, I will send Jeannie out to find and
drive them with our automatic mapping equipment.
This
has been an interesting and productive month for our office. I would like to
thank the board for their support and inputs.
Chairman Coleman asked for questions or comments on the Manager’s Report, and hearing none, asked for a motion to accept and approve the report as written. Mr. Bridges made the motion to accept and approve the Manager’s Report as written, and Mrs. August seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
CHAIRMAN’S
REPORT
The CML
ECS-1000 and Higher Ground recorder system is currently in operation at both the
Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Franklinton Police Department.
The new system is running well and is being tuned for maximum
performance. An example of system tuning is a recent 10 second increase in
telephone ring time before the call is automatically forwarded to the PSAP’s
back up agency.
The
Bogalusa Police Department and the Bogalusa Fire Department is scheduled for new
equipment start up on Thursday, July 8. As
is their custom, Gage telephone will be performing training for the dispatchers
both prior to and after the cut over to the new equipment. The Franklinton
Police Department’s new office will be brought on line as appropriate when
they are ready.
The
following summarizes the estimated final costs of this phase of our
modernization efforts:
Telephone
Control and Recording
CML
Equipment
$
260,000
HigherGround
Recorder
$ 30,000
CML
Addendum 1 $
0
(cancelled)
CML
Addendum 2 $
6,500
(additional voice circuit card)
CML
Addendum 2 $
5,500
(additional data circuit card)
Gage
Telephone
$
6,000
(circuit connection equipment to Bell system)
Total
$ 307,000
This
total compares favorably to the $ 300,000 reserve which is noted in our 2003
Compilation Report.
As you
know, we have received a proposed settlement agreement from the U.S. Attorney
General’s Office. This agreement
has been signed and returned to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
Members
of the Policies and Procedure committee met with Parish President M.E.
“Toye” Taylor to discuss the Settlement Agreement and other issues being
addressed by the Board. President
Taylor was briefed on the Settlement Implementation Plan, the CML system
implementation, and other issues. Subsequent
to the briefing, he expressed his appreciation and support for the
Communications District and their efforts.
I met
last week with Valarie Patterson, Manager of the Deaf Action Center of the
Northshore to mutually develop an implementation plan on certain items contained
within the agreement. While the
present TDD’s are deemed appropriate by her, a spare is in the process of
being ordered. In addition, TDD
training materials are also in the process of being ordered.
Ms. Patterson will perform the training at no cost to the District.
An
implementation meeting of affected agencies, chaired by Sandy Bloom, Assistant
to Mayor James "Mack" McGehee of Bogalusa, is scheduled for Thursday,
July 8. I have had multiple meetings during the last two weeks with Dan Foil of
the Sheriff’s Office, Chief Lynn
M Armand of Franklinton, and Chief Jerry Agnew of Bogalusa. These meeting were
to discuss CML system implementation and the implementation of the Settlement
Agreement. All these meetings were
proactive and positive, and I am encouraged by them.
I
especially would like to note the continuing support of Chief Agnew of Bogalusa.
Chief Agnew has expressed his personal support of our centralized call
taking concept, and asked me to relay to the board that had his health been
better last year, he would have been able to better support our proposal to the
voters. In my conversations with
him, he has requested assistance by the board to help him with general
dispatcher training, to improve their ability to handle 911 calls.
I will investigate the cost to implement this request, and will report
such at our next meeting.
I have
completed our Settlement Agreement implementation plan and supporting polices.
These are attached for your review.
I propose that the information packet be made available to the Washington
Parish law enforcement agencies to assist them in their implementation efforts.
I see no issues that can not be resolved in this implementation.
Our
automobile, equipment, liability, and umbrella policy from VFIS as handled by
Moore and Jenkins is now up for renewal. The
yearly cost has increased by approximately
Our web site continues to operate. Since its start up we have had 1,226 page hits from 91 separate visitors. I have placed a page on this web site for our most recent approved minutes and a page for our yearly Balance Sheet and Income Statement for public information. Please let me know if you wish for me to continue these two pages on our web site.
Map
Development
A two
day meeting in Franklinton with GeoComm’s mapping manager has been
accomplished to further develop the digital map implementation plan and to turn
over to them our map data and records. They
were well pleased with the amount of information given to them.
Approximately 150 pounds of address records were shipped to them last
week. We are on track and on
schedule with the final development of our map.
The
following summarizes the estimated final costs of this phase of our
modernization efforts :
GeoComm
Map Development Services
$ 59,000
Addendum
1
$ 4,000
(misc map improvements)
Total
$ 63,000
The small cost increase is based on the two day project review which identified needed improvements to the map not included in the original project scope.
Phase 2 Wireless Implementation
The
wireless Phase 2 implementation team continues to work with the carriers to
manage their implementation efforts. We
are beginning to develop solutions to current wireless 911 call routing problems
and will implement the solutions as soon as possible.
Phase 2 circuits by Bell to the CML ECS-1000 are scheduled to be
installed on July 15. This is the
first step in receiving the additional wireless ANI/ALI information that we
currently need but are not receiving from some of the carriers.
The
following summarizes the estimated final costs of this phase of our
modernization efforts :
GeoComm
Phase 2 Services
$ 59,000
Addendums
$
0
(none identified)
Total
$ 59,000
The total of these two projects compare favorably to our starting estimate of $118,000 for this project.
Dispatcher
Mapping
I am
currently negotiating a Sales Agreement with GeoComm to furnish their dispatch
mapping system to the PSAP’s as per their proposal to our recent RFP, “911
Dispatch Map Display System”. This
Sales Agreement contains the equipment and services for $ 55,000 which were
approved in our APCO grant. As soon
as the agreement is finalized, I will submit it to Kenny Gatewood for legal
approval and subsequent signing.
The
following summarizes the estimated final costs of this phase of our
modernization efforts :
Dispatch
Mapping Software
$ 57,000
Addendums
$ 7,000 (dispatch info failure
tracking)
Gage
Telephone
$ 6,000 (additional monitors and
install)
Total
$ 70,000
Less,
Grant Re-imbursement
($
55,000)
Net
Cost to WPCD
$ 15,000
The out of pocket expenditure of $ 15,000 to complete this phase of the project is entirely reasonable.
Wide Area Network
The final phase of our system
will require the establishment of a WAN (wide area network) to connect the all
the computers in our system to each other, much like the connection of
Joanna’s computer to the CML and Higher Ground computers.
This WAN will allow data updates and software maintenance to be
accomplished without dispatcher involvement.
Not only is the network needed to finish the present project, it is also
a necessary component for all future upgrades to the system which share data
such as CAD and radio system integration.
The
following summarizes the estimated costs of this phase of our modernization
efforts :
Computer
Server
$ 7,000
WAN
Modems
$ 3,000
WAN
Software
$
10,000
Total
$ 20,000
Portions of this expenditure will require the request for bids and such will be accomplished in a timely manner.
Entire
Project
A
summary of the expected expenditures for the entire project is as follows :
Telephone
Control and Recording
$ 307,000
Map
Development
$ 63,000
Phase 2
Wireless Implementation
$ 59,000
Dispatcher
Mapping
$
70,000
Wide
Area Network
$ 20,000
Total
System Cost
$ 519,000
Less,
APCO Grant
$ 55,000
Net
Cost
$ 464,000
It is
expected that the WPCD Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Investments will approach the
following by year end, 2004 :
2003
Year End
$ 499,195
2004
Retained Earnings
$ 75,000
Total
$ 574,195
Therefore,
subsequent to project completion, WPCD will have approximately $ 110,000 of Cash
and Investments for the future. It
is suggested that at the beginning of 2005 we begin ten year straight line
depreciation on our new equipment of $ 46,000 per year to begin the
replenishment of our funds for the future replacement of our equipment.
Beginning in 2005, it is
expected that discretionary spending in excess of expected costs will be
approximately $ 25,000 per year.
As the
Manager reported in her report, public education on 911 for the community of
deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired people has begun with the publication
of our ADA services statement in the ERA Leader.
Conclusions
Our
agency is making much progress to improve 911 communication services in
Washington Parish. Additional
challenges related to the community of deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired
people have been added. I am
confident that all challenges will be met.
I would like to thank both the board and the staff for their hard work on
the many complex challenges currently facing us.
Chairman Coleman asked for questions or comments on the
Chairman’s Report. It was discussed about leaving the financial statements on
the website. Kenny suggested that he thought it was a good idea.
A motion was made by Mr.Verret to leave the financial
statements on the website for 3 months and to then re-evaluate if necessary.
Mrs. August seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Chairman Coleman called for any more questions or
comments, hearing none chairman Coleman called for a motion to accept and
approve the report as written. Mr. Verret made the motion to accept and approve
the Chairman’s Report. Mr.
Bridges seconded the motion. Motion
passed by a unanimous vote.
Mr. Fenner made the motion to renew the insurance policy with Moore and Jenkins.
Mr. Bridges seconded the motion. Motion passed by a
unanimous vote.
TREASURER’S
REPORT
Mr. Fenner reviewed the financial
statements beginning with the current assets.
He then reviewed the balance sheet, both assets and liabilities, followed
by the income and budget statements. Mr.
Fenner pointed out that we have capitalized $200,000 of new equipment and have
begun monthly depreciation on a ten year, straight line basis.
We took $200,000, divided that by
10, which equals annual amount, then divided that by 12 to get our monthly
amount. Mr. Fenner reviewed the
check registration, cash receipts, the account reconciliation statement and the
911 funds statement with cash disbursements.
Mr. Fenner discussed the 30 day
CD at Hibernia that will mature on July 21st in the amount of
$52,000.00, Mr. Fenner called for a motion to close it out and deposit that
money into the checking account. Mr. Fenner asked if there were any questions or
comments regarding any of the financial statements
Chairman Coleman called for
questions or comments on the Treasurer’s Report. Hearing none, Chairman
Coleman called for a motion to accept and approve the Treasurer’s report, all
the financial statements, the checklist, and the close out of the CD to put it
into checking. Mr. Bridges made the motion to accept and approve the
Treasurer’s report, all the financial statements, the checklist, and the close
out of the CD to put it into checking. Mrs.
August seconded the motion. Motion passed by unanimous vote.
Chairman Coleman said that he
would like to compliment the board again for all their hard work and all their
support that they give.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
There were no committee reports given.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
There were no public comments
Chairman Coleman called for any additional comments or
questions from the members of the board. Hearing
none, he called for a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Mr. Bridges made the motion to adjourn. Mrs. August
seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Meeting adjourned at 7:05 PM.
As recorded by: Mrs. Joanna Thomas.
Approved by: ___________________________________
Mrs. Cynthia August, Secretary