HomeMy WebLinkAbout20141406.tiff RECEIVED
APR 2 9 2014
Minutes WELD COUNTY
WELD COUNTY COUNCIL COMMISSIONERS
March 17, 2014
The Weld County Council met in regular session in full conformity with the Weld County
Home Rule Charter, Monday, March 17, 2014, at the Weld County Administration
Building, Greeley, CO.
El ROLL CALL: The meeting was called to order by Councilwoman Marge
Klein and on roll call the following members were present, constituting a quorum of
members thereof:
Councilwoman Marge Klein
Councilman Brett Abernathy
Councilman Don Mueller
Councilman Bernard C. Kinnick
Councilman Jeffrey Hare
Also present: Weld County Public Safety Communications Director, Mike Wallace, and
Sarah Mundt, Council Secretary.
ID APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Councilman Mueller made a motion to approve the
March 17, 2014 agenda. The motion was seconded by Councilman Hare and the
motion carried.
El APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 10, 2014 Minutes. Councilman Kinnick,
questioned l.b "in the event of his absence"- delete. III. Grammatical "on/and" should be
removed. VI. "Reports" is still part of IV and should be "c". The correction needs to be
followed though the document in VI and VII. The motion was made to approve the
minutes with changes by Councilman Hare seconded by Councilman Abernathy and
carried. Secretary will make changes and send out to the Council for review before
distributing new copes to Councilmembers at the next regular meeting.
El REVIEW PROGRAM: Mike Wallace, Weld County Public Safety
Communications Director presented on the New Dispatch Center and his program. Mr.
Wallace used a PowerPoint to give his presentation and handed out a brochure for the
dispatch center. Mr. Wallace began with a background of his career leading up to his
employment at Weld County that began in March of 2012. There is a dispatch center
owned by the City of Greeley and Weld County operated within the City's dispatch
center. Weld County began to recognize that there have been issues with its
governance. A private company, GeoComm, was hired to assess the operations of the
Center and the report lent to the need for Mr. Wallace to lead the move to develop a
Weld County Public Safety Communications Center. On September 2, 2013, Weld
County took control of WCRCC. On February 13, 2014, the County began operations of
a state of the art communications center. Moving the center out of the Sheriff's office
CEFfY��GLOi
5/5/1/ 2014-1406
Weld County Council
March 17,2014
Minutes
was essential because of water and sewer leakages over multimillion dollar equipment,
close quarters, and HVAC issues. There are 14 Dispatch consoles, a work station that
houses 4 different computer systems: a CAD system, VIPER 911 phone system,
Motorolla Radio system and a standalone PC system. Dispatch can operate from any
position, at any time, in the room. The new facility brings 'trunk diversity' to reduce the
probability of a system going down. A new phone system, VIPER, was put into place to
replace the 20 year old system that was outdated and hard to repair. The center is
working to stay state of the art in these systems. Weld County is the first to provide
texting through the 911 phone system, noting that some negotiations and working has
had to be done with the major cellular companies. The goal is to have the system fully
operational by the opening of the new center. Auto mapping according to cell
coordinates or registered addresses is also a key function of the new phone system.
When someone calls 911 it is common for the caller not to know where the live, so the
automapping is essential. CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) is the current system and
the center is reevaluating its usefulness and will be meeting with the Commissioners on
how to move forward to meet the Public Safety and Operational needs of the County.
Front Range Communications Consortium (Adams and Weld Counties) built a new
radio system to replace the previous Statewide System. The new system was needed
after the State updated the Statewide System and seized County assets. Weld County
has 20 million in assets in the system that could have been potentially lost.
Mismanagement by the State during the September floods required Weld County to
begin pulling away from the State. The FRCC consortium is bringing in other entities
within the Front Range (NCRCN: Loveland, Ft. Collins, Estes Park and Berthoud) that
want to own their own infrastructure and system. With the new Center, there were three
new Supervisor positions to provide more training, management, continuing education
and quality assurance capabilities to the dispatch personnel (over 60 people). An E9-1-
1 MSAG Project Coordinator position that manages every county cell phone, land line,
emergency entity and maintains the mapping coordinates needed.
()Councilman Kinnick asked if fewer questions are asked now during a standard 911
call.
OThe answer is there are industry protocol as to what questions must be asked and
there are probably more questions asked now.
Another issue was a problem with IT support. During the years that the city ran the
Center, there was no expertise in IT specific to Public Safety needs. The County now
has a Public Safety IT Division as of January 1 that has 2 System Administrators, 2
Analysts, a Data Base Administrator, a GIS analyst and a Public Safety Technician. The
new Center has added a new Critical Incident Area that has access to up to date
weather reports and enables prediction of storm paths and provide timely notification to
citizens.
0 Councilman Hare asked about laying fiber lines and methods of handling
redundancies.
0 The answer is presented later in the presentation and will be addressed.
Weld County Council
March 17,2014
Minutes
A Backup Center that was part of the City was gutted and is now in the process of
getting bids to create a new up-to-date Backup Center with plans to be operational by
the end of January. Tests will be done on the Backup Center once every 2 weeks to
test the backup center's functionality. Under the old center set-up, an evacuation was
handled by Loveland, which was too small to support our needs. Under the new
Center, the County partners with Adams County, which is large enough to support our
needs, and vice versa. Smaller counties have rollover partnerships to handle
redundancies to meet State requirements, but not to the degree that larger counties,
such as Weld, needs. The Council has been invited to tour the new Center.
0Questions about personnel carryover was asked by Councilman Mueller.
0 Every person who was employed by the City was brought over into the Weld County
Center. Only four employees have left due to varying reasons. The Center has found
that the staff are willing and wanting to perform.
The Operations budget is around 7 million dollars. The county does not provide it all, 2
million is provided by 911.
0 Councilwoman Klein asked for the number of dispatchers
OThe Center can have up to 14 dispatchers at one time, but they must have 12 at any
given time.
0 Councilman Hare asked about salary comparison between surrounding areas.
()Weld County's salaries were 6-7 thousand dollars less than surrounding areas and
personnel were leaving Weld County. A presentation at the Board resulted in an
approval of an increase in salaries between 10 and 12 percent to more closely match
our surrounding areas. The survey was conducted internally. Areas close to
boundaries may route differently.
QCouncilwoman Klein asked how 911 calls are routed in areas near County borders.
OA land line 911 call will route to the County. A cellular 911 call may route to a
different county center because of the nature and design of cellular technology.
0Councilwoman asked about training procedures for dispatchers.
0 Dispatchers are trained anywhere from 9-12 months and costs 85 thousand dollars
just to train and up to a third of new hires do not complete training.
0Councilman Kinnick asked about dispatcher salaries.
0 Beginning salary for base dispatcher without training is $19/hr or $37,000.
Weld County Council
March 17,2014
Minutes
The Center is getting ready to hire 12 more positions to handle to workload. The
County has been 10 positions shy of needed personnel that came with the transition
from City to County and the County is working to remedy that.
0 Councilwoman Klein asked is dispatchers work 8 hour days
0 Dispatchers currently work 12 hour days. Twelve hours days will not continue
because it is a liability to the County, it is unsafe and it causes undue overtime costs.
Twelve hour days allow for fewer staff to cover the center, once the new staff positions
are filled and trained, there will not be regularly scheduled twelve hour days in the Weld
County Public Safety Communication Center.
0 Jeff Hare asked Mr. Wallace about the security officer/security in local charter
schools that is being addressed and how the Center can be involved.
0 Mr. Wallace offered to meet with his Operations Manager and Councilman Hare.
PUBLIC COMMENT: None at this time.
El OLD BUSINESS: a Letter of Response was sent out on February 25, 2014 to
Mr. Robillard stating that the decision to not pursue an investigation was decided upon
based on pending litigation into the issue at hand. Councilwoman Klein read the letter
to the other Council members. Councilman Kinnick asked if we have received any
response. The council secretary stated that the Council has not received a response
from Mr. Robillard.
lEi NEW BUSINESS:
E-Signatures for Councilman Hare and Councilman Abernathy- approved
E Coordinator Reports— none at this time
Upcoming Meetings/Invitations— none at this time
Approval of Secretary's time sheet- Councilman Mueller moved this be approved by
president and not be part of future Agendas and was seconded by Councilman Hare
and the motion carried.
Pay Bills: Councilman Kinnick made a motion to pay the bills and was seconded by
Councilman Mueller and the motion carried.
• Phone bill $17.15 Councilman Hare motioned that this bill be approved by
president and not be part of future Agendas, Councilman Mueller seconded, and
the motion carried.
• Mileage- Councilman Kinnick made a motion to pay the bills and was seconded
by Councilman Mueller and the motion carried.
o Councilwoman Klein $102.06 (February and March reimbursements)
o Councilman Mueller $5.94 (February and March reimbursements)
o Councilman Abernathy$6.48 (February and March reimbursements)
o Councilman Kinnick$11.88 (February and March reimbursements)
o Councilman Hare $6.48 (February and March reimbursements)
Weld County Council
March 17,2014
Minutes
• Councilman Abernathy asked about requirement for Commissioner Kirkmeyer
as she runs for office? Does she need step down as a Board Member while
campaigning? Past models have shown that she does not need to step down.
If she is elected, then the Council appoints a replacement, either within the
Council or outside of the Council, based on the Home Rule Charter.
• Councilwoman Klein has appointed Councilman Abernathy to be a single point
of communication for any Council issues and he has agreed. This point of
communication will only involve communicating actions and decisions that the
Council has taken or made as a body as a whole, with no personal opinions.
Press Releases and formal interviews will still be handled by the President.
Judy Griego is our next meeting speaker and Councilman Kinnick will be the coordinator
for the April 21, 2014 meeting.
El ADJOURNMENT: By acclamation, the meeting
was adjourned at 7:43 p.m.
�(I� O
March 17, 2014 � ouncll resid nt Marge K K in
4/4 7
Council Secretary Sarah Mundt
Hello