WASHINGTON
PARISH COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT
A regularly scheduled and
properly and advertised Washington Parish Communications District Board meeting
was held on August 3, 2004, at the E-911 Planning Office located at 1007
Cleveland Street.
Members present were:
Mr. James Coleman
Chairman
Mr. Gary Fenner
Treasurer
Mrs. Cynthia August
Secretary
Mr. Mike Stogner
Vice-Chairman
Mr. Mike Miller
Mr. Jason Verret
Mr.
Joshua Bridges
Others present were:
Mr. Kenney Gatewood
Attorney
Mrs. Joanna Thomas
Manager
Chief
Jerry Agnew
Bogalusa
Police Department
Chairman Coleman called the
meeting to order at the appointed time of 6:00 p.m.
Mrs. August 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 July 06, 2004, since they
were mailed out to each member prior to this meeting. Mr. Stogner made the motion to dispense with the reading of
the minutes. Mr. Verret 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 July
06, 2004. Hearing none, Mr. Coleman
called for a motion to accept the minutes as written and mailed out.
Mr. Bridges 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’s have been equipped
with their new CML equipment and this equipment is working well.
It should be noted that the Franklinton Police Department was hit by
lightning last week, and the WPCD recorder which they have been using to record
their radio traffic was damaged beyond repair.
They are currently evaluating new recorders for their radio and
administration lines.
The accounting system is working well.
Mr. Fenner and I continue to input the monthly financial data.
We’ve given out a total of 25
new addresses in the Parish and they are:
Franklinton
12
Mt. Hermon
01
Pine
05
Bogalusa 07
Angie
0
Total
25
I have changed our rate plan with
AT&T long distance due to the expense of the PSAP’s connecting callers
with other emergency agencies outside of our local calling area. We were being
charged 99 cents per minute and our new rate is now approximately 7 cents per
minute, nation wide.
Chad with Gage came on the 27th
to help get our new data circuit up and running between our Cleveland Street
office and our record keeping equipment at the sheriff’s office.
The old circuit was just not fast enough to allow an adequate connection
between the four record keeping computers on the network.
We were here until 9:30 PM due to BellSouth circuit problems, but we
finally successful in getting all these computers connected.
The Bogalusa Police department
and Bogalusa Fire Department have been successfully brought on line and their
equipment is working fine. As
always, there was some “fine tuning” after start up.
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. Verret made the motion to accept and approve the
Manager’s Report as written, and Mr. Miller seconded the motion.
Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
CHAIRMAN’S
REPORT
The progress of the Commission
has been excellent over the past month and the day to day issues of the
Commission have been effectively handled in the office. The CML ECS-1000 and
Higher Ground recorder system is currently in operation at all PSAP’s.
An increase in telephone ring
time to 45 seconds before the call is automatically forwarded to the PSAP’s
back up agency has been instituted. This
time change was based on requests from all PSAP agency heads. There are
approximately 4 calls per week that fall into this category.
We have received a revised
proposed settlement agreement from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
This agreement requires a $1,500 payment to the complainant and needs to
be signed and returned to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
Kenny Gatewood will review this revised agreement and its implications
with us tonight.
I met Saturday with Valerie
Patterson, Manager of the Deaf Action Center of the Northshore to mutually put
the finishing touches on the TDD training which will be provided to the PSAP’s
at no cost to them. This training
will be presented next week on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I have attached a copy
of the letter sent to all affected agencies informing them of this training.
An implementation meeting of
affected agencies, chaired by Sandy Bloom, Assistant to Mayor James
"Mack" McGehee of Bogalusa, was held on Thursday, July 8.
Kenny Gatewood will comment on his thoughts concerning this meeting and
his plan to place revised Interagency Agreements in place to bring us all
together in our common goal of providing 911 services to the public.
Chief
Agnew is here tonight to express to the Board his thoughts on the future of 911
in Washington Parish and his agency’s support of that vision.
In addition, he will be requesting additional dispatcher equipment to
handle the volume of calls which his agency receives.
I have completed our first
monthly PSAP performance report to all agencies, and have a copy for your
review.
The following summarizes the
current status of our modernization efforts:
Map Development
Map development continues forward
and I have a sneak preview of our future map.
In addition, approximately 50 roads in our official MSAG data base are
not listed on either our parish map, the Bogalusa or the Franklinton map.
We will have to locate these roads for inclusion in the new electronic
map. I have a list of these roads
for your reference.
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 ANI /ALI circuits have been installed by Bell to the
CML ECS-1000 and are working properly. We
now are ready to handle Phase 2 calls after the cellular companies finish their
work.
Dispatcher Mapping
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” has been signed.
I expect to receive and pay in August an invoice for $ 50,000 for those
items covered by our grant and then submit the documentation to APCO for
re-imbursement. I have attached our
latest report to APCO on the progress of this project for your review.
Wide Area Network
Design of the PSAP data system
backbone to be installed in conjunction with Dispatch Mapping in October to all
PSAP’s is almost complete. This
system will allow updated map data to be distributed to all PSAP computers
without dispatcher involvement, and without having to take the PSAP down.
This network is essential for the dispatcher map system to effectively
work, and will serve both the present and future needs of our system.
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. A motion was made by Mr. Bridges to accept and approve the
Chairman’s Report. Mr. Stogner seconded
the motion. Motion passed by a
unanimous vote.
Kenny suggested that we go ahead
a pay the $1,500 specified in the proposed settlement agreement from the U.S.
Attorney General’s Office, in order to minimize legal costs.
Mr. Stogner made the motion to sign the revised agreement
and to pay the $1,500 to the complainant. Mr. Bridges seconded the motion.
Motion passed with one opposition by Mr. Miller.
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 stated that within the next
month or so he will have a revise 2004 budget for consideration by the board.
Mr. Fenner also called for a motion to move $50,000 from the CD in Citizens Bank
into the checking account and move one of the CD’s for approximately $21,000
from Parish National Bank into the checking. This movement of funds is to
provide liquidity for project progress payments.
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 accept and approve the Treasurer’s report, all
the financial statements, the checklist, and the close out of the specified
CD’s 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.
Mr. Stogner seconded the motion. Motion passed by unanimous vote.
There were no committee reports
presented.
At this time Chairman Coleman
called for a motion to go into executive session to discuss personnel matters.
Mr. Verret made a motion to go into executive session. Mrs. August seconded the
motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Returning from executive
session, Chairman Coleman stated that the board had taken no action while in
executive session.
A motion was made by Mrs. August
to give all employees of the District a 2 % cost of living raise and that an
additional 5 % merit increase be
given to Mrs. Thomas, with the increases being paid beginning on the next pay
day which will be on August 13, 2004. Mr.
Verret seconded the motion. Motion passed by a 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 given to the staff.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Chairman Coleman
called for comments from the public, and recognized Bogalusa Police Chief Jerry
Agnew for his comments.
Chief Agnew
stated that he supports the concept of a centralized 911 system for Washington
Parish.
Chief Agnew then
stated that he is requesting another answering position be put into the Bogalusa
Police Station. This additional
answering position would reduce the call load on the one full time dispatcher
that they currently have, by allowing another officer to answer the incoming 911
call if the dispatcher is busy.
Chairman Coleman
stated that the additional answering position would cost approximate $15,000 and
the additional data and voice circuits from Bell would cost approximately $4,000
per year. Chairman Coleman called for a motion on this request. Mr. Miller made
the motion to provide them with another answering position. Mrs. August seconded
the motion. During the discussion of the motion,
Mr. Fenner asked about the option of moving the answering position at the
Bogalusa Fire Department over to the BPD to minimize costs.
It was also suggested that a representative of Gage telephone be
contacted to provide their technical input to this suggestion.
After the
discussion, Mr. Miller withdrew his original motion and made the motion to move
the Bogalusa Fire Department’s equipment over to the Police Department if
there were no objections by the Bogalusa Fire Department or technical problems
from Gage. Mr. Stogner seconded the motion. Motion passed by a unanimous vote.
Bogalusa Police
Chief Jerry Agnew then made the comment that he has made the TDD training
mandatory for his employees.
Chairman Coleman thanked Chief
Agnew for his support and for his input to the Board.
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.
Mrs. August made the motion to adjourn. Mr. Bridges
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