HomeMy WebLinkAbout20093484THE WELD COUNTY REGIONAL COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY BOARD
TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2009, 10:30 AM
WELD COUNTY LAW ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
The Weld County Regional Communications Advisory Board met in session in on
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:32 a.m. in the Weld County Law Administration building.
ROLL CALL:
The meeting was called to order by Bill Garcia. Present were board members Bill
Garcia, Gary Barbour, Rick Brandt, Rod Deroo, Jim Burack, Kim Fleithman, Jay
McDonald, Mark Lawley, Brian Martens, Robert Standen, Greg Thompson, and Jerry
Garner representing Juan Cruz. Staff members present were Mike Savage, Dave Mathis,
Julie Walde, and Susan Johnson. Others attending included: LaSalle Police Chief Carl
Harvey (Police Zone2 Law Nominee), Chief Warren Jones representing the Weld County
Fire Chief's Association, and County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer.
MINUTES:
Mark Lawley moved to approve the minutes of the February 24`h meeting; Rod Deroo
seconded, motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS:
1. Staff Report: David Mathis presented Dispatch stats for February 2009 [refer to
Sgt. Mathis' "February 2009 WCRCC Monthly Report and Personnel Report as
of February 2009].
2. Emergin Paging Update: Julie Walde explained that Emergin Paging is the
system that transmits pages from dispatch to paging devices. She has been trying
to get a new update from them for several months with no cooperation from them.
She recently found out that their company has evolved from emergency services
paging to medical paging, and they are not willing to do maintenance on our
system.
• Julie has contracted with some of their former employees to provide
maintenance for the time being.
• A new paging system is required. Please email suggestions to Julie at
Julie.Walde@greeleypd.com include:
o What do we want?
o What do we need that we don't have?
o What do we have that we don't need?
o What are the current problems?
o What devices or systems would provide the
broadest system possible?
(9099— 3'/cF
3. Emergency Notification Systems: Dave Mathis announced that a webinar
demonstration of the 3N Emergency Notification System will be held on
Thursday, April 2n° at 10:00 a.m. everyone is invited to tune in and learn more.
He is willing to arrange other webinar presentations for Code Red and Reverse
911 in the future.
• Mike Savage added that systems are being researched for the E-911
Authority Board, if anyone has suggestions, to notify Dave.
• The board discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the current
contract vs. the capabilities of other notification systems.
4. Fire apparatus numbering system: Bill Garcia facilitated a discussion of the
recent topics in the Weld fire community, how they affect the public safety, how
they affect the fire community, the EMS community and the law community.
• He began by asking the Weld Fire Chiefs point of view on Union Colony
Fire having a dedicated channel and on the fire apparatus numbering
system topic. He asked if it caused any problem for public safety. Evans
Fire Chief Warren Jones represented the Weld Fire Chiefs Association at
the meeting.
o He stated that the Weld Fire Chiefs Association is
supportive of Union Colony having a dedicated
radio channel. They are a large, complex, urban fire
department and the original system was not
designed for the current situation.
o He presented a memo to the board [refer to Weld
County Fire Chiefs memo dated March 24, 2009]
which stated that although feelings were strong both
ways, the fire chiefs had voted to continue the use
of the numbering system.
o He stated that neighboring communities use the ICS
configuration to communicate with Union Colony
and the outlying departments do not have an issue.
If Union Colony was still on the shared radio
channel, using different unit terminology might be
an issue.
• Next, Bill Garcia invited discussion regarding the new channel allocated
for Union Colony fire. Some discussion centered on what determines if a
fire department gets a dedicated channel.
o The Communications Center Director is responsible
for long-term planning on radio infrastructure and
vision for the communications center configuration.
He needs input from the Comm Board, the 911
board and the local leaders projecting future growth
and needs for their talk groups to best plan for the
overall system.
o The discussion centered between what constitutes
an operational decision vs the role of the Advisory
Board in granting this dedicated channel to Union
Colony Fire. As an operational decision, the
channel caused no additional cost, no additional
equipment and it was an advantage to all the other
departments because there is less for them to listen
to. The Advisory Board did not have a voice in the
decision, which some members felt would have
been appropriate, GPD provides operation of the
center with input from the board.
• Despite the Weld County Fire Chief's Association recommendation to use
the numbering system, some local fire departments have stated their intent
to use different unit terminology.
o Dave Mathis stated that dispatchers absolutely need
the agency identifier before the unit numbers. They
do not have the corresponding numbers memorized.
He stated that he needs to know how to address
those who choose not to follow protocol.
o Mike Savage advised the board the center will
answer those who choose not to follow protocol
anyway, for the sake of public safety. The
commissioners may need to approach the fire board
to address their members.
o Barbara Kirkmeyer stated that when the Regional
Center was formed, the individual departments
joined the IGA [refer to Intergovernmental
Agreement dated May 3, 1993] and agreed to
follow the rules. Commissioners need to tell the
people operating outside of the system to follow the
rules for public safety.
o Carl Harvey asked if the Weld Fire Chief's letter
was intended for agencies that remained on the
common fire channel. The fire community
represented agreed that was the intent, for the fire
departments on the shared channel to use the
numbering system, it did not apply to the dedicated
Union Colony Fire Channel.
• Rob Standen made the following motion: I move we accept the Weld
County Fire Chiefs recommendation as stated in the letter.
o Prior to the motion, some board members had to
leave for other appointments. A quorum no longer
existed.
o Members discussed the need to get Carl Harvey
approved as a board member, since he was there but
was not a voting member yet. He will be included in
the next group mailing (charvey@lasalletown.com)
o The motion was tabled for lack of a quorum.
NEW BUSINESS
As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:20.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 28th , 2009.
Minutes recorded and submitted by Susan Johnson
To:
Fr:
Dt:
Re:
Captain Mike Savage
Sergeant David Mathis
March 13, 2009
February 2009 WCRCC Monthly Report
Personnel:
Authorized:
Assigned:
Hourly:
Vacancies:
Workload:
47 Full-time Dispatchers (inc. 1 over hire), 8 Supervisors
46.5 Full-time dispatchers, 3 part-time Dispatchers (1.50 FTEs), 8 supervisors
3 non -benefited hourly dispatchers
E-911:
Non -911 calls:
EMD Calls:
NONE (We presently have a .5 Dispatcher One over hire
January
Phone Calls 2009 YTD 2008 YTD
7,004 14,516 13,901
18,751 38,995 57,813
1,201 2,453 2,173
* Overall, incoming phone calls are DOWN year to date by 25.38 %.
Calls for Service:
Police: 25,842 53,226 52,756
Fire: 1,881 3,843 3,508
* Overall, calls for service are UP year to date by 1.43 %.
% Change YTD
+ 4.42 %
-32.55 %
+12.89 %
+ .89%
+ 9.55 %
Additional Information/Projects
• All newer dispatcher trainees hired in June, August and January 09 are still progressing very well in
training.
• We have a total of 10 dispatchers in training.
• We are still more than fully staffed. We currently have a .5 FTE over hire.
• Upgrading of the Back Up center is progressing. We tested the phone and CAD systems on Feb. 25`h
QWEST is making one correction on the 911 system as only half (6) of our 911 lines transferred
successfully. The CAD and EMD PRO-Q/A systems worked well.
• We do have a testing process scheduled for March 16-17. Ninety applicants will be testing to establish a
dispatcher waiting list. We have never had NO openings AND a waiting list.
• 911 call answering times county -wide for January 2009:
Calls answered in less than 10 seconds: 92.58% (Last year: 82.85%)
Calls answered in less than 15 seconds: 99.00% (Last year: 93.75%)
• Fire dispatch times for January 2009: Received to Dispatched
Less than 1 minute: 57.48% (Last year: 49.93%)
Less than 2 minutes: 92.52% (Last year: 88.54%)
Hello