The Advisory Board met on August 21st in Sacramento. Here are the highlights of the meeting:
- Legislative Update – Berdan informed the board that AB 1717, the Pre-Paid Wireless Surcharge bill was set to be voted on by the Senate in the next few days, and then it would go to the Assembly for concurrence. There were some amendments to the bill that had not been published at the time of the meeting, but subsequent to the meeting the amendments were released. There were no substantive changes to any of the 9-1-1 funding language, but is was good to note that they did define the fact that monies collected in the MTS 9-1-1 fund would be transferred to the SETNA. Previously the language stated that the monies in the MTS 9-1-1 fund would be subject to legislative discretion. Berdan also informed the Board that SB 1211, the NG 9-1-1 bill, was breezing through and he expects it will also be approved by both houses and sent to the Governor.
- FirstNet – the Board received a presentation from Sue Plantz on the status of FirstNet. There is a workshop scheduled for August 26th in Rancho Cordova to educate the first responder community on FirstNet, and what needs to happen before the State Consultation that will happen in the first quarter of 2015.
- 9-1-1 Branch Update – Bill Anderson provided an update on several projects:
- Text to 9-1-1 – the pilot projects were completed in the Long Beach area in April. Butte and San Bernardino Counties have indicated that they want to deploy text to 9-1-1 in their PSAPs. The 9-1-1 Branch is working with the vendors to find additional funding for deploying text to 9-1-1. Karen Wong would like to see a text to 9-1-1 mentoring program to assist PSAPs in moving towards text to 9-1-1.
- 9-1-1 Education and Awareness Program – 5 PSAPs are currently piloting the new educational material. Bill passed around posters and pamphlets.
- NG 9-1-1 – The 9-1-1 Branch is finalizing a Request for Offer (RFO) for a consultant to develop a transition plan. Bill has asked that the 9-1-1 Policy Workgroup be tasked to coordinate with this consultant.
- NG 9-1-1 Pilot Projects – The Mendocino and Pasadena projects are taking a step back and looking for a new CPE vendor. TCS was the original vendor, and they are looking at Airbus/Cassidian. The Ventura Hosted project has completed Stage 1 testing, and will start processing calls in September.
- Long Range Planning Committee Update – the committee will be presenting proposed language modifications to the Warren 9-1-1 Act to the Advisory Board at their next meeting.
- County Coordinator Task Force – the task force is working on identifying training needs of the county coordinators and assigning mentors to those that need assistance.
- Rear Admiral (ret.) David Simpson, Chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau made a presentation on several topics – NG 9-1-1, Wireless Location Accuracy, and Text to 9-1-1. For details on his presentation, check the 9-1-1 Branch’s web site.
The next Long Range Planning Committee Meeting is scheduled for October 21st, and the next 9-1-1 Advisory Board Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 19th. Both will be in Sacramento.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me: Chuck Berdan, smokeaterconsulting@gmail.com or 916-756-7059.