Alabama Chapter of the National Emergency Number Association

Minutes April 27, 2000

Call to Order and Welcome:

President Dick Pierce called the meeting to order.   President Pierce led the pledge of Allegiance.  Mr. Brad Smith of Escambia County offered our invocation.  New members and guests were introduced.

Mr. Roger Humphrey of Cullman County presented the minutes from the January meeting.  Mr. Bill Meadows of Lee County made a motion to approve as submitted.  Mr. Seth Phelps of Baldwin County seconded the motion.  All were in favor and the motion carried.

Mr. Roger Humphrey submitted the financial report.  Mr. Phelps made a motion to approve as submitted.  Mr. Meadows seconded.  All were in favor and the motion carried.

Committee reports were requested:

Mr. Phelps reported that the Legislative committee was having a problem with Bill 604 (ex.  Contracting with other agencies for dispatch).  This was due to negative influence of the City of Hoover.  Alternative language had been offered regarding a vote of the original district and the establishment of an ECD within an existing ECD.   At this point, it appeared that this offer was unacceptable.  Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Phelps asked that each ECD contact their Senator regarding this bill.   There was a suggestion to exclude Jefferson County if necessary.  There was also discussion regarding board appointments.  Mr. Faulkner suggested that this too should be reviewed within this legislation.

Mr. John Ellison of Shelby County reported as the National Liaison Chair.  He reported that there were training classes available via Internet and conference calls.  The cost was competitive and considered a good value.  Mr. Ellison also reported that the National Office had a new office “home”.

Mr. Ellison reported that NENA’s “Report Card to the Nation” would include Shelby County and Baldwin County.  Out of ten agencies nationwide, Alabama was well represented.

Mr. Richard Holt reported for the Minimum Standards Committee.  He reported that the minimum standards had been approved by APCO at the February Meeting.  He discussed that he and Ms. Pat Hall of Dothan had made several presentations including the Police Chiefs Association and the Alabama Fire Chiefs Association.  Each presentation had resulted in positive feedback.

The question arose as to why not make compliance mandatory?  It was discussed that this was the eventual “goal” but in the mean time voluntary compliance was more easily achieved.  It was discussed that the standards had already been set whether the agency was compliant or not. 

Mr. Holt also asked that anyone who had not responded to the Minimum Standards survey, please do.    It was asked that this information be resent to agencies that had not responded. 

Ms. Hall reported that Ms. Janice Lewis of Butler County had been appointed to the Minimum Standards committee.

Discussion was held at to providing affordable training via Internet in order to achieve agency Minimum standards.  Discussion was also held as to the State EMS contact.  Ms. Hall reported that she had talked to someone of the Southeast Region EMS.  Mr. Brodeur offered to assist with this contact.  Ms. Hall reported that she would try to get on their next meetings agenda to discuss the standards.

Ms. Debbi Higgins (BellSouth) of the Database Committee requested that each agency that needed a MSAG to RSAG comparison contact SCC.  President Pierce questioned as to why he had been required to pay for a Database Snapshot since his ECD provided information to SCC.  Mr. Ellison stated that he had made a formal protest about the cost but did not get a favorable answer.

President Pierce asked that Mr. Larry Duncan of Jackson County and Mr. Jerry Jackson of Calhoun County continue serving on the Historical Committee.  They both agreed.

Ms. Kelli Brasher of Shelby County reported for the Conference Committee.  Discussion regarding the dates with reminders to book rooms early was held.  Committee chairs were reported as follows:  Kelli Brasher- Conference Chair, John Ellison- Education Chair, Bill Brodeur –Exhibitor Chair, Chris Heger- Promotion Chair, Seth Phelps- Shrimp Boil Chair.  Ms. Brasher reported that her agency would handle registration this year.

Mr. Roger Humphrey reported for the Huntsville LATTA.  He reported that an Advisory Committee had been established.  He reported that their LATTA meeting was held in conjunction with the OGM meeting each quarter.  Mr. Humphrey asked that Mr. Ernie Blair of Huntsville-Madision make the Advisory Committee report.  Mr. Blair reported that while in some states “ALI dipping” was legal, in Alabama it was not.  He discussed an instance where this would have been potentially life threatening but due to the BellSouth Tariff, he could not get the information.  Mr. Blair reported that as this was a universal problem, they (Huntsville-Madison) would be willing to begin the legal work and incur some of the cost to work on possible legislation.  Discussion was held that this should be a matter for the PSC rather that a Legislative action.  Ms. Higgins reported that in a case of legitimate need, her department would be willing to help with location identification.  Mr. Blair agreed to get with Mr. Phelps regarding this subject.

Under old business, Mr. Brodeur reported that it appeared that there was some “abuse” of the Language Line Service.  Mr. Brodeur reminded everyone that when the service was made available statewide to the agencies, it was only to be used for 9-1-1 emergency calls.  He reported that due to the large bill amounts, it appeared that some agencies might be using this service for other means (interrogation etc.)  He also reported that some agencies were delinquent in payment.  Discussion was held, motion made and withdrawn same (Brodeur) regarding late payment.  It was decided that late payment and/or fees were unenforceable.  Mr. Jim Hayes of the City of Hoover reported that he knew that they had contributed to the collection problem and that he was authorized to state that they would be withdrawing from this service.  More discussion was held as to posting any late paying agencies on the Internet.

President Pierce reminded everyone of the National Conference in June.  He asked if anyone would be willing to handle coordinating a shirt for Alabama attendees.  Ms. Jo Tranter of Huntsville-Madison volunteered to handle this project.  Deadline to order is May 4, 2000.

President Pierce discussed new business regarding newly elected officers and the election process.  Due to the change in by-laws, current officers would not serve a full term.  It was discussed that the election process would remain as is.  This will allow for an election of the President and several other officers this year.  Mr. Art Faulkner was appointed as the Chair of the Nominating Committee due to tenure.  As the by-laws state, nominations will be made from the floor in the July meeting.   There is nothing in the current by-laws that would prevent current officers from “running” again this year.

Mr. Ellison reported that Wireless Carriers going “live” had become a nightmare.  He asked that the Database Committee work on a plan to establish standards for all submissions by the Carriers.   The intent of the standard would be to provide the Carriers with a standard protocol for addressing, location, routing and descriptive information. 

Mr. John Garner of Tritel (formerly 9-1-1 Director in Shelby County, TN) and Ms. Jean Martin of Southern Linc reported successful testing in their respective areas.  Some discussion was held as to the fact that some carriers were already implementing standards.

Ms. Sharon Thomas of St. Clair County asked had anyone had problems with the current equipment due to the Pseudo ANI (or token #) used by some carriers.  She had been informed that a “patch” to make her equipment “work” with these numbers would be approximately $30,000.  No other agency reported this issue.  It was recommended that the equipment vendor be contacted.

Mr. Faulkner discussed the fact that in December of this year (and every year) BellSouth conducted their annual audit of the number of lines in each ECD.  At that time charges are decided for the following year.  He reported that in this audit would be included the Pseudo ANI of each wireless carrier.  The cost as of now is a one time fee and $97.00 for 10-1499 lines.  He offered the solution that rather than load each carrier ECD by ECD, load by Tandem and route to the correct district. 

Under current State Law allows an ECD to contract with other ECD’s to provide 9-1-1 calls this should not create a problem.  It would also allow smaller ECD’s to receive Phase I which otherwise could be cost prohibitive.  Mr. Ellison pointed out that this solution could be used for a CLEC as well as Wireless Carriers.

Mr. Faulkner asked that a Task Force be appointed to review this situation.  President Pierce asked that Mr. Phelps, Mr. Faulkner and Mr. Ellison serve on this committee.  Mr. Faulkner stated that if anyone wanted to read the existing Tariff, they should reference Section A13 subsection 27.

President Pierce reported that our next meeting would be held July 27, 2000 at the Huntsville Airport.

Meeting was adjourned.

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