Rock Island Today

Rock Island County Emergency Telephone System Board April 2.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Anderson, Beswick, Gault, Meyers, Ramsey, Seiver, VanKlaveren

BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Landi

OTHERS PRESENT: Summer O’Leary, Moline Police Department; Chris Johnson, Milan Police Department; Matt Franks, Timothy McCloud, Rock Island Police Department; Nick Camlin, Curt Champion, Rock Island County; Chelsea Noe, Arsenal; Tracey Screechfield, Stacey Bollinger, SECC; Tom Helbing, FirstNet; Jim Uskavitch; Rich Schipper, Wayne Mooney, Christine Cary, Bi-State Regional Commission

1. Approval of the March 5, 2024 Minutes. Beswick moved that the minutes of the March meeting be approved as presented. Anderson seconded, and the motion was approved. Anderson discussed one of the motions from the March minutes that assigned the build teams to create a comprehensive list of all our issues with CentralSquare, and we would simultaneously approach John Kelly for legal advice. She stated when she checked in with Seiver on the progress, she was informed that Gault had some additional information, and Seiver decided to hold off on contacting John Kelly. She inquired as to what the additional information was. Seiver stated Gault communicated two concerns: one was contractual and the second dealt with prioritizing the CS Pro issues. Because of the latter, Seiver stated he wanted to discuss it further with the Board. Gault stated he believed the State’s Attorney’s issue is resolved; it was decided in RMS that we are moving forward with the annual subscription fee. Secondly, he stated he met with O’Leary after the meeting and determined there is nothing wrong with the Attorney Portal. Gault contacted Seiver and told him he was uncomfortable having O’Leary contact CentralSquare and demanding money or contacting John Kelly when there isn’t anything wrong with the portal. He went on to state that O’Leary and Stacy Houzenga have created a list of issues with priority levels. Anderson stated she thought it was supposed to be a generic comprehensive list, not specifically dealing with the State’s Attorney or demanding money from CentralSquare. Seiver stated his recollection was that was the basis for stating we were only interested in a one-year extension of our current contract, and we wanted them to address that issue. Our threat was that we would begin the resolution process in the contract, and the attorneys would get involved. Seiver stated he made the call to put it on hold and bring it back to the Board this month for discussion. Anderson reiterated her motion was intended to gather information and ideas from the attorney and generate a list to discuss at this meeting, not take action. Gault stated there is more clarity now, and the most troubling issue is the large case files. It was first reported in November 2022 and has not been corrected. We can now narrow down the demand from John Kelly with regard to breach of contract or inappropriate delivery of service dealing with the fact we cannot get large case files out of the system.

2. Election of Slate of Officers for 2024-2025. Chairman Seiver opened the floor to nominations for officers for 2024-2025. He stated there are three positions to be filled, Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary. VanKlaveren made a nomination to keep the slate of officers the same for 2024-2025 as they currently were for 2023- 2024. With no further nominations, Gault made a motion to close the nomination process. VanKlaveren seconded and the motion was approved. Seiver called all in favor of the slate of officers currently serving, continuing to serve for the next year. All members voted aye, and the motion carried.

3. Financial Reports. Cary distributed the April Accounts Payable totaling $236,050.27; however, after the RMS meeting, there was some concern if we should pay the LexisNexis invoice, since not all departments are live. Gault stated he thought they were not going to bill us until all departments were live. VanKlaveren made a motion to take CopLogic off the slate of bills for this month, as it needs clarification on whether we are supposed to pay it now or wait until everybody is on board with DORS, and put it on next month’s agenda. Gault seconded, and the motion carried. Cary presented the amended bills list totaling $233,235.27. Gault moved that the April accounts payable be approved for payment. Beswick seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously by roll call vote. The following financial report was presented:

POOL Balance: $ 2,448,000.00

Checkbook Balance: $ 479.50

TOTAL $ 2,448,479.50

Mar ‘24 Surcharge: $ 317,705.62

a. Budget FY24 – Gault inquired about the March 31 budget sheet and wondered if we were to receive revenue from the Barracuda budget line, since it came in 426.8% over budget. Cary explained this was the quote for email filtering and backup that was approved at the February meeting. Schipper stated the quote came in higher than we expected it to be. Gault also inquired about the category hardware/software under $1,000. Schipper explained we took an educated guess on what we thought it would be, but because that category will flex from year to year, this year we were too low. Gault asked if the Board would support expanding these categories and a few others. Cary stated the budget committee met a few times over the past month to create the proposed 2024-2025 budget and agreed those categories need to be expanded. Cary went on to say we ended the year under budget at 89.2%, and we received 20% more revenue than expected. Gault inquired about the Crowdstrike licenses, and asked if they were reflected in the receipts. Schipper stated, since we are on the state agreement, we don’t see any charges for Crowdstrike. Gualt made a motion to accept the reports from FY24 to include the full year and quarter four as presented by the budget committee. Beswick seconded, and the motion carried.

b. Budget FY25 – Cary presented the FY25 budget. She stated we expanded a few categories that had overages in FY24. Also, the category “outside contract” was increased to reflect the wage adjustment Bi-State approved that will go into effect on July 1 along with budgeting for a third IT staff member. Gault inquired about the Arsenal contract and asked if we are in danger of losing that revenue. Schipper stated Noe was informed that the Army wants control over NCIC access on the Island. They are planning to phase out access through the State of Illinois, which means no queries will go through the state anymore; they will all go through the federal government. Schipper stated there would be no way to integrate the systems because there has to be delineation between the U.S. Army network and the ETSB network. He stated he would reach out to Cindy Barbera-Brelle and find out if the state has an opinion about having an Illinois PSAP using a third-party or a non-state managed LEADS/NCIC. Schipper also stated there will be a challenge dealing with roll over, and would they be prohibited from running any LEADS queries for the Arsenal because that makes dispatching almost impossible. Seiver stated his understanding of the issue specifically addressed is dealing with criminal history through NCIC, and it did not address the other issues of running plates, licenses, etc. He stated we need clarification if they intend for it to be extend farther. Schipper reported in the old CAD there was a switch where you could exclude NCIC. He stated he would check to see if that option exists in CS Pro. Schipper circled back to Gault’s initial question and stated he doesn’t believe we are in danger of losing the Arsenal contract because of all the other services we are providing. Ramsey asked if this is specific to the Rock Island Arsenal, and Noe stated it came from headquarters, so it is national. Seiver then brought the discussion back to the financial report and the proposed FY25 budget. VanKlaveren made a motion to accept the FY25 budget. Ramsey seconded, and motion was approved unanimously by roll call vote.

4. PSAP Reports.

a. County – Meyers reported 10 TCs and 2 in training. Once they complete training, they will be fully staffed.

b. Rock Island – Franks reported 11 full time TCs, and they have two conditional offers out.

c. QComm – Seiver stated QComm staff is at the QC Disaster Conference today. Sparbel filed the following report: They currently have 22 TCs, 3 in the hiring process, and 1 more coming.

d. Arsenal – Noe stated they have 4 fully-trained TCs and 2 in training. She stated she was approved to over hire, so if they lose someone to retirement, they won’t fall short. Interviews were done a few weeks ago, and three people were selected. There was one QComm switch over last weekend, but nothing currently scheduled.

e. SECC – Screechfield stated they still have 4 in training: 1 finishing, in June and the others in October. Once they are done, they will only be down 2-3 TCs. The Director position closed on March 3; they are hoping to have decisions made by mid-May, but HR gave no concrete answers at the last board meeting.

5. Secondary PSAP Reports.

a. AMT EMS – No Report.

b. Medic EMS – No Report.

6. Technical Report.

a. Firewall – Schipper reported that he has a mandatory PaloAlto firewall update that must be applied by April 7. His proposal is to do the four required updates to RICOMM on April 4 from 3:00 a.m.- 6:30 a.m. This means no access for all agencies to CSPro, LEADS, IVRS, Recorders, and ProQA, and no internet for RICOMM and some ETSB WAN equipment. He stated 911 will remain in service and unaffected. The update at the Sheriff’s Department will be at 5:30 a.m., and there is only one update. Schipper stated he wanted to make the Board aware and asked for a consensus to move forward with the four updates at RICOMM and the one at the Sheriff’s Department on April 4. Seiver asked for a motion of consent, Gault made the motion. Meyers seconded, and the motion was approved.

7. Other Business.

a. Video Wall Upgrade for QComm CTI Proposal – Schipper stated the core video wall components at QComm are at end of life. It was purchased in 2018, and there is no upgrade or repair path for it. The CTI quote is for $74,976, which fits in the FY25 budget. The quote includes one year of support from the time they complete the project. Schipper asked for a motion to accept the CTI proposal in the amount of $74,976 to upgrade the QComm videowall backend system and all the components, Anderson moved. Gault seconded, and the motion was approved by roll call vote.

b. Blackhawk Bank & Trust Credit Cards – Cary proposed moving away from American Express to Blackhawk Bank & Trust for ETSB credit cards. She proposed all three employees receive a card each with a credit limit of $30,000. Anderson asked if there was an annual fee and the APR comparison between the cards. Cary stated the American Express cards carry an annual membership fee of $450.00 per card, and the APR is 29.9%. Blackhawk has no annual fee and an APR of 12.99%. Beswick stated he thought it was a good move, since we already have a relationship with Blackhawk Bank & Trust. Seiver asked for a motion to approve Cary to move forward with the application and authorize those card limits at $30,000, VanKlaveren moved. Meyers seconded, and the motion was approved by roll call vote. Seiver stated after those cards have been approved and activated, we will cancel the American Express account.

c. SECC Text to 911 Public Awareness Discussion – Bollinger stated a few years ago we brought Text to 911 to our community. Screechfield stated SECC hasn’t done their public awareness campaign yet and wanted to discuss the possibility of a joint campaign, since we have the same message. Schipper stated he was concerned if we were prepared for the influx of Text to 911 calls once the campaign is released. He stated RICO ETSB needs to decide how to prepare for the influx of messages; we need to have a policy going forward. Seiver nominated Schipper, Mooney, Cary, and Anderson to work on this. Schipper stated his intention would be involve the PSAP managers and see how they feel about Text to 911. He asked if the Board was interested in increasing our presence in the Text to 911 space. Seiver stated policy-wise we need to be there, and the right way to roll out the message would be to do it collaboratively. Schipper stated once we have a plan, we can talk budgeting, strategy, and marketing.

8. Public Comment – Screechfield stated every year Bettendorf has done a proclamation at their city council meeting during telecommunicator week. This is the first year that the Scott County Board and the City of Davenport will be doing a proclamation as well. She stated national TC week is April 14-20. Seiver asked if we should do a formal proclamation for each PSAP. Anderson said she thought that was a good replacement for how we use to handle TC week.

9. Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 11:15 a.m. The next monthly meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. at the Rock Island Police Department.

https://www.rockislandcountyil.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_04022024-968