PRESENT: B. Blanchard, G. Totman, T. Joseph, M. Lane, J. Lalley, P. Penniman

STAFF: S. Whicher, County Administrator; J. Hanson, M. Shakarjian, Planning Department; L. Shurtleff, J. Miller, Fire, Disaster and EMS; W. Skinner, Public Information Coordinator; U. Mukherjee, Administrative Services Coordinator

GUESTS: B. Mink, Chair, Board of Representatives, D. Kiefer, Board of Representatives; L. Withiam, E911 Operations Committee; B. Wilbur, Ithaca City Fire Chief; J.Vitale, Sheriff's Department; K. Lansing, Cayuga Heights Police Department; Michael Collins; Edmond Ryan 

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting opened at 12:07 p.m.

ADDITIONS TO/DELETIONS FROM AGENDA

Ms. Blanchard proposed the following addition to and deletion from the agenda.
ADDITION: Update on potential litigation and relationship with Towns regarding siting towers.
DELETION: Cingular 911 Routing as Mr. Wood is unable to attend this meeting.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF MARCH MEETING

It was MOVED by Mr. Joseph, seconded by Mr. Lalley and unanimously adopted by voice vote of members present to approve the March 27, 2001 minutes with the recommended changes.

COMCAP MISSION STATEMENT*

Ms. Blanchard distributed the draft Project Mission Statement and requested the members' views on it.

It was MOVED by Mr. Totman, seconded by Mr. Joseph, and unanimously adopted by voice vote of members present to approve the Public Safety Communication System Project Mission Statement, attached and made a part of these minutes.

CONSOLIDATED 911 SCHEMATIC DESIGN PHASE

Ms. Blanchard spoke on the need to have a clear idea of the building and costs. She referred to the proposal from Egner Associates. She said the Working Group will become the Building Committee comprised of herself, Mr. Totman, Mr. Whicher, Mr. Shurtleff, Mr. Winch, Mr. Wilbur and Cpt. Vitale. There will be a meeting of the 911 Building Committee, which represents the day-to-day users of the new facility, with Egner Associates on Monday April 30th at 9:00 a.m. at the Scott Heyman Conference Room. The Working Group will meet at 9 a.m. on Monday May 14 in the same location.

UPDATE ON POTENTIAL LITIGATION WITH TOWNS

Ms. Mink joined the meeting at this point. Ms. Blanchard spoke of the possibility of litigation by a consortium of Towns and of a meeting with Town representatives on April 30 at 5:00 p.m. at the Town of Ithaca to discuss the issue. She said she would be away and would not be able to attend the meeting. 
A delegation from the County comprised of Ms. Mink, COMCAP Committee members and other Board members will attend the meeting. Ms. Mink said it was important not to get embroiled in deep discussion but to listen to the Towns’ presentation. She also said that the issue involves a matter of principle and any talk of inter-municipal cooperation is irrelevant. The County has already attempted to explain its position to the Towns. Mr. Joseph said we should try to put aside extraneous issues like Involved versus Interested Agency status.

D. O. T.  PROJECT

Mr. Hanson said that the option on the Hanshaw Road property has been signed by Cornell. A meeting to discuss financial arrangements for DOT relocation is being arranged and will be attended by Senator James Seward, Gordon Reimels, Resident Engineer for NYS DOT for Tompkins and Cortland Counties, Jon Edinger, NYS DOT Regional Director, Syracuse, Ms. Blanchard, Mr. Wood and himself.

SEQRA PROCESS

Ms. Shakarjian said public comments have been received and she was in the process of finalizing the Scope for the draft EIS. Many helpful comments were received and a lot of information is being added. Mr. Joseph was of the view that SEQR should be a planning tool but, in this case, the SEQR process has begun even before the project was defined. He would like to understand more about this. Ms. Kiefer shares this viewpoint. Ms. Blanchard stated that it is important to keep in mind that the actual project entails the development of a solution to the County’s communications system problems; it is not just about putting a bunch of towers at different locations. As the SEQRA process unfolds, the preferred solution will emerge. She further noted that, in her experience, this was the very best way to use the SEQRA process as a planning tool. She further noted that it is unfortunate that, as a general rule, only negative impacts are identified by SEQR as per its very structure.  Because of this limitation, the positive impacts of projects are often overlooked.

NYSTEC TASK 7: MICROWAVE SHOT ANALYSIS

Ms. Shakarjian said NYSTEC engineers met with Mr. Wilbur to conduct a field assessment for South Hill Fire Station # 5 and their report will be available soon. A survey drawing showing the shot analysis in the immediate vicinity of the SHFS#5 was circulated.

NYSTEC TASK 8: FCC LICENSE UPDATE

Mr. Whicher said all licenses have been put in a database and details provided to FCC. NYSTEC is also finishing their analysis. Immediate steps for timely renewal are being taken. Bush Electronics of Syracuse wants to swap certain frequencies with the County and SWN has applied for 800 MHz licenses across the State.

REPORT ON STATE-WIDE NETWORK (SWN)

Mr. Whicher said he had a meeting with SWN in Albany yesterday and it was positive.  The Attorney General's approval is required before a contract can be signed with Motorola, the SWN’s preferred vendor. SWN is open to the idea of involvement with the County which might take one of the following forms:
? Infrastructure – which would involve co-location of towers
? Interface -- which would involve sharing some aspects of the system
? Complete integration – which would involve linking all communication systems

He said NYS would pay all costs in case of complete integration. He said coordination among the State, the private sector and the County is not easy. It appears the County would have to move faster than SWN is prepared to move, however, the financial impact on the County can be minimized by cooperation with the State. Ms. Blanchard requested clarification that in case of complete integration, the County would fill in the gaps between mobile and portable coverage. This was confirmed by Mr. Whicher. Ms. Shakarjian said she is in touch with tower companies and talks are under way on co-location opportunities.

RFQC PROCESS

Ms. Blanchard distributed a handout on Evaluation Criteria Summary: Tompkins County Public Safety Wireless Communication System Request for Qualified Contractor (RFQC) and requested members to look it over. She said this is a variation of a performance-based proposal and a NYSTEC representative will explain how the system will work at the May COMCAP meeting. She explained that in case of the standard RFP approach, vendors have to decide whether to respond at all in view of the risk involved. For this reason, qualified vendors are often lost in the process. The RFQC helps overcome this problem by allowing potential vendors to respond to a description of the project and provide sufficient information to allow for selection of a preferred vendor. There are a number of evaluation points along the way – the process is a lot more detailed than the RFP. 

WEATHER SERVICE TRANSMITTER

Mr. Wilbur distributed a memo from Mr. Withiam, Chair, 911 Operations Committee addressed to Ms. Blanchard, Chair, COMCAP Committee regarding endorsement by the 911 Operations Committee of the acquisition of a National Weather Service Broadcasting Station for Tompkins County. He said there is no local weather broadcasting or alert capability and the NWS would provide 24-hour weather information and alerting services. He requested the County's approval of the use of County facilities (tower and transmitter building) for inclusion in the grant proposal being submitted by the City of Ithaca for this project as the local in-kind contribution. A draft letter to this effect from Mr. Whicher addressed to Ms. Roberta D. Purcell, Telecommunications Program, Rural Development, US Department of Agriculture was distributed to the members. The group was of the view that the County's approval should be conveyed through a Board resolution.

It was MOVED by Mr. Joseph, seconded by Mr. Lane, and unanimously adopted by voice vote of members present to recommend to the County Board for authorization of the use of County facilities (tower and transmitter building) for inclusion in the grant proposal being submitted by the City of Ithaca for acquisition of a National Weather Service Broadcasting Station for Tompkins County. 
 

OTHER/OLD BUSINESS

It was MOVED by Mr. Lane, seconded by Mr. Lalley, and unanimously adopted by voice vote of members present, to hold an executive session on the Towers Project regarding potential litigation with Towns immediately after this meeting.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 1:33 p.m. The next meeting will be held May 22, 2001 at noon in the Scott Heyman Conference Room.
 

Submitted by Ujjal Mukherjee, Administrative Services Coordinator.

 

The mission of the Public Safety Communication System Project is to develop a countywide communication system that meets the needs of public safety officials and other governmental entities by providing the maximum level of portable coverage at the least cost with a minimum impact on the environment.