DuPage County Emergency Telephone System Board Policy Advisory Committee met Sept. 12.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
1. CALL TO ORDER
8:15 AM meeting was called to order by Chair Timothy Hayden at 8:15 AM.
2. ROLL CALL
PRESENT: Hayden, Baarman, Dina, Hermes, Herron, Johl
ABSENT:
Attendees:
Director Linda Zerwin, DuPage Emergency Telephone System Board, non-voting Member
Matt Theusch, DuPage Emergency Telephone System Board
Eve Kraus, DuPage Emergency Telephone System Board
David Poetz, Motorola System Manager
Bill Balling, DU-COMM (Remote)
Kurt Bluder, Hinsdale Township High School District 86 (Remote)
Bill Holmer, Carol Stream PD (Remote)
Jimmy Lahanis, Darien-Woodridge Fire (Remote)
John Lozar, DU-COMM
Bob Murr, College of DuPage (Remote)
John Nebl, OHSEM
John Sullivan, Addison Fire
Pete Vassios, Wheaton Fire (Remote)
Pda, unidentified
Andrea Lieberenz, Addison PD, Secretary
On roll call, Chairman Hayden, Vice Chair Dina, Member Baarman, Member Hermes, Member Herron, and Member Johl were present, which constituted a quorum.
3. CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS - CHAIR HAYDEN
There were no remarks from Chairman Hayden.
4. PUBLIC COMMENT
There was no public comment.
5. CONSENT ITEMS
A motion was made by Member Johl, seconded by Member Herron, to combine Items 5A and 5B. On voice vote, the motion to receive and place on file the minutes from the August 22, 2022 meeting and the Radio Maintainer Report and forward to the ETS Board carried.
A. Approval of Minutes
A. ETSB - Policy Advisory Committee - Special Call - Aug 22, 2022 9:00 AM
RESULT: RECEIVE AND PLACE ON FILE [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Pat Johl, ACDC Fire Rep
SECONDER: Steve Herron, DU-COMM Police Rep
AYES: Hayden, Baarman, Dina, Hermes, Herron, Johl
B. Radio Maintainer Report
1. 21-22-66 DEDIRS Monthly Maintainer Report
RESULT: ACCEPTED AND PLACED ON FILE [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Pat Johl, ACDC Fire Rep
SECONDER: Steve Herron, DU-COMM Police Rep
AYES: Hayden, Baarman, Dina, Hermes, Herron, Johl
6. PARENT COMMITTEE APPROVAL REQUIRED
A. DEDIRS Recommendation Memo
Chairman Hayden said he looked and it looked good to him. Ms. Zerwin reviewed the changes that were made, including training information, the deployment plan, the in progress ETS Board agenda, the finalized date for the IGA, and the addition of phonetically pronounced numbers. She said Item 7, which states that ACDC will pilot the revised fire dispatch talkgroups for ACDC fire agencies, was added. Ms. Zerwin suggested mapping out everything that is coming with all of the other systems that need to be updated. She said a timeline will be needed to make sure it coordinates with the systems being refreshed. Ms. Zerwin said Phase 1 is getting pushed out and it is compressing quickly against Phase 2.
Vice Chair Dina said he has not had the opportunity to bring this to the DU-COMM Fire Chiefs sub-committee operations meeting, as they are not meeting until September 15, 2022, and would therefore like to put off approval of this memo. Ms. Zerwin said this could have gone to Board on Wednesday, but it was not posted since it was going to be talked about today. She said this does not impact Phase 1 or the ability to roll out. If this memo is tabled, it goes on to the ETS Board's October agenda. If it is finalized between now and then, it can go to them before the meeting for review. Vice Chair Dina said he does not want to delay the deployment of the Police radios.
Member Herron said he is taking the memo to the DU-COMM Police Ops meeting on September 22, 2022. Chairman Hayden advised the next PAC meeting is September 19, 2022. Member Herron said his will most likely not be ready by then. Chairman Hayden asked if they can be finished by October 3, 2022. Member Herron said he can.
Ms. Zerwin said the memo is now several months old. When these concepts were started in January and February, there were still six months, and Phases 1, 2, and 3 seemed reasonable, but now they are compressing. A beta test might not be done because of the collapsing timeline. Phase 2 and 3 might be pushed closer together. The radio consoles need to be upgraded as part of the encryption, and they have not been purchased yet. A discussion ensued about the timeline. Ms. Zerwin said if it is agreed that nothing is preventing Phase 1 from continuing even if the memo is delayed, a little time can be bought.
Ms. Zerwin continued her review of the changes that were made to the memo. She said most of the strikethroughs are just clean-up or grammatical issues. There was some language clean-up in the STARCOM Customer Prefix section. Finally, in the Ops templates for Phases 2 and 3, there were some naming conventions added. She said if there are no objections to all these changes, the memo is fairly complete.
Member Baarman said he is concerned about changing the names of a talkgroup for one set of agencies and not the others, as all agencies should be the same. He would like to see the beta moved to Phase 3 to ensure the fire radios can be deployed as soon as possible. Ms. Zerwin said the whole point of beta in Phase 2 was a test of what will be done in Phase 3, so there would be no point to moving to Phase 3 because it is in the Phase 3 plan. She said it may all roll out at one time.
7. DEDIRS PORTABLE AND MOBILE REPLACEMENT
A. Bi-Directional Antenna for LTE
Vice Chair Dina said with the new radios having FirstNet LTE capabilities, and the fire codes stating that the same radio coverage must be used inside a building as is used outside, or else bi-directional antennas (BDAs) must be placed inside those buildings, there are a couple of options for the building owners and fire prevention bureaus. Those options are STARCOM BDA and LTE BDAs, specifically First Net. If STARCOM coverage is lost when walking into the building, it will switch over to the LTE, and there would be BDA coverage throughout the building. Vice Chair Dina continued by saying they would like a statement from the ETS Board stating that DuPage ETS Board agencies use FirstNet LTE and STARCOM on our radios and each agency's fire prevention bureau would have the option to require either a STARCOM BDA or an LTE BDA. Vice Chair Dina asked Mr. Sullivan to further elaborate.
Mr. Sullivan said fire prevention bureaus, building inspectors, and fire inspectors are not radio experts. His fire prevention director asked him what they are supposed to tell the building owners. Since the public safety radios are supported by the ETS Board, it would be helpful to have a statement from the ETS Board that states, "this is what a public safety radio operates on in DuPage County", with a potential recommendation for a BDA system. He suggested also including contacts for FirstNet-approved BDAs and Motorola STARCOM-approved BDAs. Mr. Sullivan said with the advent of FirstNet being in all the public safety radios, LTE BDA is more advantageous. Testing in switching over from STARCOM to LTE is working well; it is a good, mutual agreement to come to with our building owners in respect to the cost they will have to burden to provide coverage. Mr. Sullivan said the minimum is to provide to our fire prevention bureaus and inspectors is a simple document that says, "public safety agencies in DuPage County utilize STARCOM and FirstNet, and here is how you can get a FirstNet-approved BDA or a STARCOM-approved BDA" so that fire and building inspectors can give it to the building owners. He mentioned different towns are on different versions of the code, and some do not include BDAs yet.
Member Herron asked what the difference is between LTE and FirstNet. Mr. Sullivan said the FirstNet authority, which is a federal agency, has a contract with a private company, AT&T, to build out the band 14 coverage today. At a minimum, band 14 coverage would help the radios. If the building owner was to put it in an LTE BDA, they would have options.
Member Herron also wanted to know if this is something that the County does. He inquired if it is a policy that is provided. He said as a non-home rule municipality, he has tried to get BDAs mandated, but he is not able to. Mr. Sullivan said it is retroactive to all buildings if the latest building code is adopted. Member Johl said it is up to how your municipality adopts a code. If they adopt it as how it is written, it is required in all buildings. Mr. Sullivan said Addison Community Development and Addison Fire Protection work together to use the same code.
Vice Chair Dina asked if it will work for a town that does not have the APX radios and has not activated the LTE feature. Mr. Sullivan said BDAs are never one size fits all. Building owners just need to know what is being used and then it is up to the agencies to recommend the system to the building owners. He said the goal is compliance; to have building owners to work with us so we have coverage.
Ms. Zerwin said it is expensive, and ETSB cannot make it mandatory. She said the State's Attorney could be asked for a recommendation on how to word the statement. She said it should also be seen by County Building and Zoning personnel to make sure it is doable and how it should be phrased. Ms. Zerwin said after the language is complete, it should go before the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference. Vice Chair Dina asked who will write up the language. Mr. Sullivan said he and Addison Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Mike Toika can work on it.
B. Training Slide Deck for Portable Users
Member Hermes advised that Ms. Kraus sent out the slide deck. Member Hermes said she tried to prepare for all phases and responders. She advised she omitted the GPS portion in the General Overview section but will add it. She advised the yellow portions on some of the pages indicate the notes she took while Mr. Poetz was presenting it to the group. Member Hermes said she knows the Smart Messaging is not rolling out with Phase 1, but Mr. Poetz thought it might come out at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. Mr. Poetz agreed to that projection. Member Hermes advised that the deck is also applicable to PSAPs, as they will need to know how to use the new radios. She said there is a PSAP component for Smart Messaging in case a PSAP wants to send out a photo to the users. The deck was sent to DU-COMM's training coordinator for their review and input for training.
Ms. Zerwin said Glendale Heights will probably receive the training first; it will be sent with their radios. She also said Member Hermes did a great job in whittling down the 1,000 or so slides that first came from Motorola.
8. OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
9. NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Nebl said over the weekend they had two teams deployed, one in Peoria and one in LaSalle County, for an exercise, and each team was assigned an APXNext radio. They stayed on their OHSEM 2 talk group, and it was great to be in contact with them without tying up a state-wide talk group.
10. NEXT MEETING:
A. Monday, September 19 at 8:15am in Room 3-500A
11. ADJOURNMENT
Vice Chair Dina motioned, seconded by Member Johl, to adjourn the meeting of the Policy Advisory Committee at 8:51am.
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