WASHINGTON
PARISH COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT
A regularly scheduled and properly
and advertised Washington Parish Communications District Board meeting was held
on at May 04, 2004 the E-911 Planning Office located at 1007 Cleveland
Street.
Members present were: Mr. James Coleman Chairman
Mr. Gary Fenner Treasurer
Mr. Jason Verret
Mr.
Joshua Bridges
Members absent were: Mr. Mike Stogner Vice-Chairman
Mrs. Cynthia August Secretary
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.
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 April 06, 2004, since they were mailed out to each
member prior to this meeting. Mr. Bridges made the motion to dispense with the
reading of both these sets of minutes. Mr. Fenner 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 April 06, 2004.
Hearing none, Mr. Coleman called for a motion to accept the minutes as
written and mailed out. Mr. Verret
made the motion to accept and approve the minutes as written and mailed out. Mr.
Fenner seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Mrs. Thomas stated that she has been active during the
month of April with both the normal daily operational issues of the office plus
supporting our special project.
Daily Operational
Issues
All PSAP equipment is up and running at this time.
We replaced the DAT drive in the Bogalusa Police Departments 911
recorder. The DAT drive came in on April 7 and Ben from Hunt Brother’s took it
to Bogalusa Police installed it and called Mrs. Thomas to let her know that it
did not work. She then called
Quality Recording, the company that we had ordered it from, and told them about
the problem and that she needed it fixed immediately.
Quality Recording said that could over night it, but that it would have
to be on Good Friday when it came in.
Mrs. Thomas told them to go ahead and over night it to her
at the 911 office. She then called Hunt Brother’s to make sure they would be
open on Good Friday so they could go and install it as soon as it came in, and
they said they would be open. UPS delivered it here to the office on Friday and
as soon as it was delivered Mrs. Thomas took it over to Hunt Brother’s.
They immediately went to the BPD to install it. She waited for them to
call her and let her know everything was working and it was.
This continuing reliability problem will be solved when our
new equipment is up and running.
Following the Board’s decision last month, ADT came and
programmed the alarm system for the office we now have a security alarm on every
door and window plus two portable panic buttons which, if pushed, will cause the
ADT dispatcher to notify the Franklinton police department.
The accounting system is working well Mr. Fenner and Mrs.
Thomas continues to input the monthly financial data. There have been some year-end adjustments to the books that
Mr. Fenner will review as part of his Treasurer’s report. Mr. Fenner will also report on the results of our efforts to
determine the lower than expected Cingular income for last year.
We’ve given out a total of 30 new addresses in the Parish
and they are:
Franklinton 17
Mt. Hermon 03
Pine 0
Bogalusa 08
Angie 02
Total
30
Mrs. Thomas has been in daily contact with Gage Telephone
to coordinate 911 equipment deliveries and training schedules.
All equipment needed for the start up of the system at the
Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office on May 12 is now in.
Bell South has been installing our telephone and data circuits at all the
PSAP’s, and should now be finished, except for the Franklinton Police
Department, which is not ready yet. The training date for the WPSO trainer on
our new 911 system will be held on Friday May 7.
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 Mr. Fenner seconded the motion.
Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Chairman Coleman stated that he is happy to report that the
progress of the Commission has been excellent over the past month and that the
day-to-day issues of the Commission have been effectively handled in the office.
All CML equipment has now been received and Bell installed
their circuits yesterday and today. Our
new recorder will be installed on Thursday.
After that, equipment and circuit testing will begin.
Our switch over target for the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office is 10
AM, Wednesday, May 12.
I have no updated information on our ongoing communication
with the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
Our web site continues to operate. Since its start up we have had 350 page hits from 19 separate
visitors. Last week Google listed
the web page in response to a search inquiry, and we should see additional
activity from now on.
During my routine visit to the Bogalusa City Hall, the
Mayor told me that the Bogalusa Police Department union president had discussed
the union’s concern with liability issues as it relates to answering 911
calls. Perhaps Kenny can follow up
on this to help educate the Bogalusa Police Department on the extent of their
legal liability. The mayor
expressed his hope that we would be liable for any dispatcher related issues and
that our insurance would cover any lawsuits.
Mapping and Addresses
Based on the board’s approval at our last meeting I have
begun the process to place the GeoComm project team led by Norm Forshee under
contract to finalize our emergency mapping data for wireline and wireless call
locating and to engineer, facilitate and manage the multi stage project by the
multiple wireless service providers to give us their location data.
Norm Forshee implemented the first successful Phase 1 and
Phase 2 project in the United States as Director of the St Clair County,
Illinois 911 system. He is well
respected in 911 in the United States, having served as NENA’s national
president two years ago. Our
project is in good hands.
I expect this contract to be finalized and placed in Kenny
Gatewood’s hands by week end for his legal review. After Kenny’s approval, I will sign the contract to
officially begin the project. This
portion of the project is funded by our budgeted funds of $ 100,000.
Also based on the board’s approval at the last meeting, I
have written a Request for Proposal for the last remaining portion of the Phase
1 and Phase 2 project, which is the purchase, installation, and training of the
dispatcher mapping software. This
portion of the project is funded by our $ 55,000 PSFA grant.
I have a copy of this RFP for your files.
For the board’s approval, I would like to suggest that we
invite the Washington Parish Council, the Sheriff, and the Parish President over
to our office following one of their regular meetings.
Following the feed, Sheriff Aubrey Jones has invited us all over to his
agency for everyone to see his dispatcher operation with our new equipment.
This would do much to further develop our relationship with
parish government and the Sheriff’s Office.
Conclusions
By this time next month we will be up and running at the
Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office and the beginning of improvements in the
services that we will be providing the public, will have begun.
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 called for any questions or comments on
the Chairman’s Report. Hearing
none, Chairman Coleman called for a motion to accept and approve the report as
given. Mr. Fenner made the motion
to accept and approve the Chairman’s Report. Mr. Verret seconded the motion.
Motion passed by unanimous vote.
Mr. Fenner reviewed the financial statements beginning with
the current assets. In the accounts receivable we have a few special items
listed. These are adjustments by
the CPA. Once a year the CPA
adjusts the accruals, and if you look down at the liabilities and capital under
the current liabilities you’ll see accounts payable and accrued salaries.
These items represent the adjustments these in December to reflect what
the current receivables and liability area.
Mr. Fenner then reviewed the balance sheet, both assets and
liabilities. He then reviewed the income and budget statements.
Mr. Fenner stated that it is similar to our normal month, with the
exception of income from Cingular from which we received a quarterly check for
$35,316.07. They charge us $0.01
for collection expenses and $0.11 for Phase I fees. It was suggested that maybe
we get Kenny to write a letter to the state to find out the exact amount that
they can legally charge us, and Kenny stated that he knows that the collection
fee can not exceed 1%, unless we contracted for something different.
Next, Mr. Fenner reviewed the check registration, cash receipts, the
account reconciliation statement and the 911 funds statement with cash
disbursements.
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 (1) accept and
approve the Treasurer’s report, the financial statements and the checklist,
(2) accept, approve, and sign the Completion Report from Mr. Durden, (3) approve
moving $ 75,000.00 from our $ 275,000 30 day CD into our Checking account on May
21, to help pay the second 25% of the CML contract, and (4) approve the
abandonment of non working 9-1-1
surplus equipment which has exceeded its book life and which has already been
taken off the books.
Mr. Fenner commented that Mr. Bill Durden stated that the
equipment could be discarded since none of it is operational and that such would
be in compliance with state law.
Mr. Verret made the motion to (1) accept and approve the
Treasurer’s report, the financial statements and the checklist, (2) accept,
approve, and sign the Completion Report from Mr. Durden, (3) approve moving $
75,000.00 from our $ 275,000 30 day CD into our Checking account on May 21, to
help pay the second 25% of the CML contract, and (4) approve the abandonment of
non working 9-1-1 surplus equipment which has exceeded its book life and
which has already been taken off the books.
Mr. Bridges seconded the motion. Motion passed by unanimous vote.
Kenny discussed the lease for the new office.
Everything is basically the same except there is a clause in it that
states that if our funding ceases, that we can be released from the lease at
that time.
The A/C in the old office was discussed. Mr. Bridges made
the motion to make a proposal to Mrs. Johnson about exchanging the A/C in the
old office of 1005 Cleveland for a portion of the rent for 1007 Cleveland, given
a favorable legal opinion from Kenny and Mr. Bill Durden.
Mr. Fenner seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Mr. Fenner made the motion to change our monthly June
Tuesday meeting to the second Monday in June the same night as the Police
Jury’s meeting and invite the Parish Council over for food and take them to
show our new 911 equipment at the WPSO. Mr. Bridges seconded the motion. Motion
passed by a unanimous vote.
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. Fenner made the motion to
adjourn. Mr. Bridges seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Meeting adjourned at 7:00 PM.
As recorded by: Mrs. Joanna
Thomas.
Approved by:
___________________________________
Mrs. Cynthia August, Secretary