Rock Island Today

Rock Island County Emergency Telephone System Board met May 7.

Here are the minutes provided by the:

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

OTHERS PRESENT: Matt Franks, Timothy McCloud, Rock Island Police Department; Scott Ryckeghem, Margo Sparbel, Stacy Houzenga, QComm; Chelsea Noe, Arsenal; Stacey Bollinger, SECC; Jim Uskavitch; Rich Schipper, Christine Cary, Bi-State Regional Commission

1. Approval of the April 2, 2024 Minutes. Anderson moved that the minutes of the April meeting be approved as presented. Beswick seconded, and the motion was approved.

2. Financial Reports. Cary distributed the May Accounts Payable totaling $145,797.01; Cary stated FirstNet was larger than normal because we are paying February, March, and April. February’s check was voided in the amount of $1,970.19 and reissued this month. She also mentioned that the Blackhawk credit cards were approved, and we would be canceling the American Express in the next few weeks. Ramsey moved that the May accounts payable be approved for payment. Meyers seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously by roll call vote. The following financial report was presented:

POOL Balance: $ 2,254,000.00

Checkbook Balance: $ 37,875.05

TOTAL $ 2,291,875.05

Apr ‘24 Surcharge: $ 0.00

3. Retirement. Seiver stated Chief Landi retired and wished him well in retirement. The Mayor of Rock Island will make a recommendation to the County Board Chairman who will then bring his selection to the County Board for concurrence. Seiver noted the remaining vacancy for a rural Rock Island County appointment should be filled at the next County Board meeting as well.

4. PSAP Reports.

a. County – Meyers reported 10 full-time TCs, 2 in training, and that they are now fully staffed.

b. Rock Island – Franks stated they hired 2 dispatchers for a total of 13 dispatchers in anticipation of a retirement in June.

c. QComm – Ryckeghem reported no issues for QComm. They hired 3 that will be starting on Monday, and they are currently 1 under full staff. The new hires will have a week orientation and then complete two weeks in the classroom with Houzenga. Once they finish the classroom training, they will return to their trainers for training on their shifts. Ramsey wanted to let the Board know East Moline had a homicide late Saturday night, and he commended QComm for the job they did and asked Ryckeghem to pass it on to the dispatchers. He stated that what they did helped them solve the case, and he appreciated their work. Gault concurred with Ramsey’s comments, and stated he couldn’t say enough about the service they received at all the PSAPs, but especially QComm. He stated their work was appreciated.

d. Arsenal – Noe stated they are at 5 fully-trained TCs, 1 in training, and 2 in the hiring process. They are still allowing her to over hire. She reported no roll overs to QComm since the last meeting, and nothing is currently scheduled.

e. SECC – Bollinger reported they are down a couple, but working through it. He stated SECC is still interested in working with Rock Island County on rolling out a Text to 9-1-1 campaign. Seiver asked where we stand with Text to 9-1-1, and Schipper stated a small committee was formed. Schipper stated Mooney has done some research and distributed fobs for Texty. Mooney is at the Engage conference this week, and he would follow up with him upon his return.

5. Secondary PSAP Reports.

a. AMT EMS – No Report.

b. Medic EMS – Andorf stated everything was good.

6. Technical Report.

a. Firewall – Schipper reported that our firewall provider, Palo Alto, had a vulnerability exposed on the dark web. He stated QComm and Milan are fine, but RICOMM, Sheriff’s Department, and MEG showed vulnerabilities. He worked on the Sheriff’s Department firewall this morning; it took about 3.5 hours due to some unforeseen issues. He stated he thought he could reduce the time slightly and will be performing the update at RICOMM on May 9. The ETSB core firewall at RICOMM will be down from approximately 4 a.m. to 7 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.

b. CAD Update – Houzenga stated O’Leary, Anderson, and herself have been going through some of their processes, putting in safeguards for permissions for usernames that have access to the system. She stated they identified early that the ability to merge name cards was a high level of risk because it would require a significant manual process to undo. She stated they have done a lot of educating from committees to departments, developed a training document, and made themselves available to train employees that are granted that level of access. She reported they did a permissions audit and found 96 usernames had permissions to merge cards. They sent an email to the chiefs and system admins notifying them that they would be removing that permission from existing groups and create one group that would house that permission. Houzenga went on to state that they realized there were 25 usernames that had all permissions checked. Out of the 25, only 8 of those users were real people, the rest were generic usernames. They stripped permissions from those users, and the 8 real users were moved to the system admin group for their agency. She stated that it is possible that a user may notice they have lost an ability to do certain things, and if that is the case, they need to report it to her, O’Leary, or Anderson.

c. Sirens – Schipper stated as of April 16 the sirens have been automated and are now activated by polygons. If you haven’t heard them, it is only because the events that are being tracked have not been within the polygons. Meyers stated there is an EMA Festival in August or September, and she will mention they need to speak about the sirens again and provide more education.

7. Other Business.

a. July Meeting – Cary stated the July 2 meeting is during the National NENA Conference. She asked the Board if we could move the meeting back to July 9. Schipper stated he wouldn’t be at the meeting on July 9, but Mooney would handle the technical report. The Board agreed to move the meeting to July 9.

8. Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 10:25 a.m. The next monthly meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. at the Rock Island Police Department. 

https://www.rockislandcountyil.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06042024-984