Minutes Archive

Emergency Telephone District Board Meeting Minutes

September 18, 2007

Members Present:	Vice-Chairman Michael Olson, Greg Purcell, Bill Hankinson

Members Excused:	Chairman Allen L. Byam, Jim Demarest

Also Present:	Jill Fish, Jim Zoss, Gordon Webb, Don Cathcart, Rob Coles, Frank Peterson, Larry Utterback

Vice-Chairman Michael Olson called the meeting to order at 8:40 a.m. in the Law Library, County Building, 3 15 West Green Street, Marshall, Michigan. Mr. Olson noted there was not a quorum in attendance and therefore no formal business would be conducted as a result.

Financial Report - August 2007
Mr. Purcell indicated that the Financial Report which reflects payments mailed to the PSAPs for the month of August were included with the Agenda and should there be any discrepancies please contact Jeryl Schoepke of the Finance Department.

911 Funding Surcharge Update
Mr. Purcell advised the members of the Committee that as a result of the actions that have taken place recently in Lansing, SB 410 and 411 have been subbed to increase the state fee from 19 cents to 81 cents in order to pay for a myriad of public safety items in addition to 911 services. The local option for a surcharge was retained, however, the local surcharge would be collected by the state Treasury and then sent back to the counties which would clear the say for the state to potentially grab the assessed surcharge monies in the future.

Mr. Purcell has indicated that MAC is working to attempt to strip out the provision requiring the state Treasury to collect our local county surcharges. Further, Mr. Purcell has stressed the importance of everyone here today to contact their State Representatives Nofs and Wenke and Senator Mark Schauer. Please contact your legislator and stress that county commissions must retain control over their own locally assessed surcharges and that the providers need to pay these surcharges directly to counties where they are owed. Both Mr. Purcell and Vice-Chairman Olson urged everyone in attendance today to contact their legislators.

It is noted that there are a number of rumors flying around now and one of them is that the bills are going nowhere and the current provision will be extended for another year. We will have to wait and see.

Marshall/Albion PSAP Consolidation Update
Mr. Olson advised that the cities of Albion and Marshall held a special joint meeting at the Albion District Library on Monday, September 10, 2007 to discuss a report on the idea of the Marshall and Albion Consolidated Dispatch. Mr. Olson explained that by consolidating dispatch services, both communities would be able to keep more officers on the street as opposed to having them come in and cover dispatch.

The Consolidation Plan calls for six dispatchers to work from space in the Marshall County Building (the old District Court area.)

Mr. Olson indicated that while the Marshall City Council members seemed to be in unanimous agreement on moving forward with the project,( there was one council member absent), Albion's council members were not, with two members each expressing some strong reservations. One member was particularly concerned with a loss of personal service for Albion residents given they would, if the consolidation occurs, no longer be able to walk into the Public Safety Department and speak face to face with dispatchers. Another member had concerns about how the Albion lock up would be handled if there was no dispatcher physically present in the station.

All in all, Mr. Olson believes there was good dialogue and he indicated to Mr. Purcell he appreciated his attending. There were some concerns voiced by some council members about being charged for space use, feeling that the space should be given "free" by the County. It was pointed out that the County charges everyone, even their own departments for space, utilities, etc.

Mr. Olson indicated that the Mayors of Marshall and Albion did a walkthrough of the proposed Consolidation site and were in agreement that the space would be adequate. Further, there has been consideration given to requesting funding from local Foundations.

VHF Frequency Utilization Discussion
This item will be placed on the October Agenda for discussion in view of the fact that Public Safety Director Frank Post was not in attendance today.

Mass Notification of Emergency Alert System Report
Larry Utterback advised the Committee that Emergency Notification is Project #9 of the 5th District Regional Homeland Security Planning Board's 2006 Homeland Security Grant plan of work. Emergency Management programs within the 5th District that did not have an emergency Public notification system in place were advised to contact prospective vendors for demonstrations of their product, select a vendor whose product best fit the program's need and return that selection to the 5th District Planning Board for approval.

Representatives of the three PSAPs and the two Emergency Management Programs in Calhoun County were invited earlier to attend scheduled demonstrations by CodeRED, Dialogic and Reverse 911. The CodeSpear product had been demonstrated some months before.

After side-by-side comparisons, it was determined CodeRED would provide the level of service desired at a cost effective rate. Mr. Utterback has provided a cost comparison matrix for review.

Mr. Utterback provided the members with a memorandum regarding the County-Wide Emergency Notification System indicating he had hoped to receive the endorsement of this Committee at this meeting which would allow him to continue with the purchase of the equipment through the 5th District Regional Homeland Security Planning Board. Further, Mr. Utterback commented his intent is to visit as many councils and boards within the county as possible to provide information to them regarding the High Speed Outbound Notification System.

Mr. Purcell asked Mr. Utterback who was going to pay for the system and was told the first year ($37,500) would be paid by the Regional Homeland Security Grant, noting that VanBuren County is the fiduciary for the Homeland Security Grants. Further discussion followed as to whether an RFP was necessary and was the Calhoun County Purchasing Department involved in the selection process and if not, why not?

Mr. Utterback advised they were not and he did not believe the District Emergency Management Planning Board required that process. They were told by the 5th District Regional Planning Board to go ahead and select the system they felt would best suit their County and provide that information to VanBuren County. Mr. Utterback indicated both he and Mr. Zoss agreed on the Code-RED system.

Mr Purcell indicated it was highly unusual for a Regional Planning Committee not to encourage uniformity with purchases inasmuch as it generally resulted in savings. Also, Mr. Purcell inquired as to what other systems other counties are using? Or, are planning to use. Larry indicated that Kalamazoo is considering a "hybrid "system - not sure of name.

Battle Creek Dispatch Update:
Jill Fish indicated that their telephones should be all done by the end of the week. Bids are going out from the Architect. Further, reported that they will be testing 307 Dispatch Applicants the end of the month.

Calhoun County
315 West Green Street
Marshall, MI 49068
Phone: (269) 781-0700
Fax: (269) 781-0140

Click here to contact the webmaster at Calhoun County
with your comments/feedback on this website.

Click here to report technical problems with this website,
i.e., broken links, pages not found, etc.

Several photos included in this
web site were provided courtesy of Scene Magazine.

DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript

Site Use Policy

Site Design/Development by