04/23/2013 Firstnet Board Meeting Transcript

PLEASE NOTE:  This is an unedited capture of the captioning from the live webcast on 04/23/13.  An edited transcript will be available soon.

  >> Good morning  board. Secretary Blank thank you  for joining us this  morning and all of you attending  video, welcome. It  is our [ Background  Noise ]. It is our  fourth meeting and before we  get into the formal agenda let me  tell you what we will  do today. Of importance to the  board is we are going to announce  the  general manager. That's an important event in the  history of this board. We're excited  about that. We have a number  of resolutions we need  to discuss and hopefully approved  and we have key presentations one  from DHS on  the issues around telecommunications  in Boston. I think we need to take  those learnings into our process  and incorporate them into  our designs for  the system. Suzanne Spaulding will  be covering  that report. From DHS. We have  Jeff Johnson who will  cover extensive activities and outreach.  We have a lot going  on there. With the states and cities  and communities. Where we  relate to each of  those. -- Will work on  a meeting in San Ramon with  a network group. Van [ NULL  ]  will report  on training that took place in Oregon  so those of us who  are involved in this process understand  the issues [ Background Noise ]  deal with. Craig Farrill will give  us a report on  that worker -- on network activities  and RFI that has just been released  on devices. And  Peters Suh will give us an update  on the [  Indiscernible ] apps engine and  how we hope to evolve that in the  future. That is kind of what we  hope to  cover today. But before we get into  the meat of that agenda there are  a couple  of things I want to take care of  administratively.  You know this board  was offered an  interesting challenge. We were appointed  as a board and  we had no management, we had no  budget, we had no plans, we had  known nothing. And yet we had one  of the largest and most complex  telecom projects in the history  of this country to  deal with.  And so what it forced us to do as  a board is become a  management team. And I don't think  any of us quite realized the extent  of that -- how extensive that effort  would be. But I want  to say to the video  audience that this board has really  stepped up. We  had people step up  to be chair  of efforts and teams whether it  was outreach or  engineering network were communicating  with the states  and cities or selecting management  or whatever. So I want to first  of all thank the board because you  truly in the last five or six or  seven months have done a  remarkable job keeping  this project on schedule in the  absence of any management or  support people to make all  that happened.  So bored, thank you. 

 

The reason I mentioned that  is today we are going to announce  a general  manager. And to me that is transitional  because it moves us from a place  where  we've been into a place where we  can begin operating as a  traditional board. And the general  manager  I think you'll discover will build  out his management team very quickly  and will be coming  operating normally as we move true  time and hopefully sooner rather  than later.  >> It is with some  pleasure that we will make that  announcement today but before we  do that I  would like the board [ Background  Noise ] to recognize someone who  stepped  up early and became the acting general  manager and has missed on -- done  a  tremendous job and that is Craig  Farrill. I'd like  to board -- I like the board to  honor him with a resolution this  morning and did you read that. 

 

[ Background  Noise ] 2012 the FirstNet board  adopted  a resolution to designate its member  Craig Farrill aspirate net acting  general  manager. Whereas Craig Farrill has  served in that capacity with great  diligence, skills and enthusiasm  whereas the FirstNet board has now  hired a permanent  general manager. Now therefore be  it resolved that the FirstNet board  hereby extends formal appreciation  to  Craig Farrill for his extraordinary  service and dedication as FirstNet  acting  general manager. Is there a second  that motion? 

 

All  in favor? 

 

Greg, we are indebted to you.  Thank you very much. [  Applause ]. 

 

Let me introduce the  new guy.  Bill D'Agostino. I want you  to know that he started his career  as a  repair man so he's walked the streets  in telecommunications and he's been  a construction manager, for  15 years, he's worked in the  virus industry. And most  of all, he cares about  public safety. He thinks  this project is extremely important  and he's willing to dedicate his  efforts and his talents to  making sure this project works.  So Bill, we want to thank you for  coming in and  joining us. I'd like to ask Tim  Bryant who headed the  selection group to give us  a report on how all  of this came about. 

 

Thanks Sam. Good morning Bill.  I think probably the  first short response here  is that it really took a good number  of the board members and frankly  a lot of support from a lot of folks  and I'd like to recognize  checked out and Teri Takai forgive  me as board members as a committee  and is a working group to interview  the candidate and had an  enormous amount of help  from NTIA and the department of  justice who helped in the process  we went through almost 3  dozen candidates. We sifted down  and  met almost a sure dozen of them  in person after having done that  we reported a number of candidates  onto the -- on to you, Sam, so you  could talk  to them. I think I speak for the  committee check and Terry that we  found in Bill a person with an enormous  amount of passion for the mission  which is FirstNet and I  think when -- after we looked at  the technical criteria and the background  and education and the job backgrounds ultimately  what we came down to was the person  that had a passion for  this mission and we think we found  that person in Bill Agostino. I'm  very happy on behalf of all  the people on the group to help  select Bill to welcome Bill  to FirstNet.  Bill, welcome. 

 

Thank you very much. It's an  honor and  a privilege to have been selected  to be here with all of you today.  I'd like to thank  the board for the incredible work  they've done to maintain the momentum  and I echo chairman  cans message in terms of the commitment  and the efforts  put forward. It's remarkable where  we are today. I look forward to  continuing to sustain  that progress. I'm really excited  to be here. And the rest is yet  to come. 

 

 Thank you very much, Bill. Secretary.  Mike , we are pleased to have you  here and receive  your comments. 

 

I'm delighted to be here. I've  been delighted to watch Things have  evolved over the last  nine months . I want to thank Kevin [ Indiscernible  ] for everything he's done in keeping  this board on track and pushing  us as far as he can. I also want  to thank Larry Strickland  the continues to do a lot of the  connections between the Department  of Commerce and the board. I also  want to echo thanks to Craig for  the work he's done and to  welcome Bill. It's good to have  someone  in place. Thank you for bringing  your experience to this board and  I look forward to  seeing all of this move forward.  I should recognize Randy lion who  is the CFO. Since you last that  he  has, board and he is a longtime  friend at the department of comments  -- commerce. He is been involved  with the Commerce Department budget  for much of that time. He knows  the  federal government and how it operates  very well. And thanks to all of  you for being here for all that  you've done. I want to step back  for  a moment and think about the past  eight days which I think  really have emphasized the importance  of what this board is doing and  why we need FirstNet and what it  will do forward. We have the last  eight days had two good examples  of your  resume among America's first responders  after the tragedy in Boston Marathon  last Monday. A number of first responders  responded quickly both on-duty and  off-duty and save lives as  a result. The president met with  a group of them on Thursday when  he flew to Boston  after the service and that you displayed  risk  and compassion and you displayed  duty and you displayed courage and  when we see that kind of spirit  there is something  about that that is infectious. It  makes us all want to be  better people. That if you know last Wednesday  night at fertilizer plant in West  Texas several firefighters and emergency  respondents are risk their lives  trying to put out a fire after that  explosion happened. I read that  one  of them was a volunteer firefighter  in a neighboring town who led to  the middle of his DOT class to help  because  he knew help  was needed. 

 

Our  -- affected the tragedy and  I think first responders who are part of  it. The president has made it clear  that the federal government will  continue to work inside this  community but [ Indiscernible ]  how would the important  work is [ Indiscernible ]. You are  building a nationwide when work  that will allow our responders  to share information when and where  they needed. Unfortunately we live  in  a world where the when and where  will happen probably more often  than a any of us want to. I  have a good impression you are also  at a good start here on this board.  I was pleased to see all  50 states as well as the five territories  applied  for NTIA grant this year and NTIA  is in the process of reviewing the  applications and plans to award  grants. The fact that every state  wants to participate I take as a  statement of how much  they all brought into this process  and want to be part of it and we  all know it's  really important to come up with  something that all states can buy  into and participate in. This money  that they receive will be used  to help save government structures  and personnel  and educate potential [ Indiscernible ] and  start collecting information on  available infrastructure and not  equipment to support the new network  with the sons. I know you are making  progress  and Sam testified in front of Congress  knowledge long ago about  that progress. Ultimately first responders and  public safety workers in more than  60,000 state and local and tribal  and federal agencies will have a  network that they need to  save lives when your work is over  and we owe them nothing else.  I know you are all busy people and I know  you have a lot of work to do today  and I want to thank you again for  your time and your service on this  board. You are displaying your own  particular form of courage and compassion  and  civic duty. With regard to the Boston  first responders. By  ensuring that we are  moving forward. Let me stop and  I understand we have an  announcement about where FirstNet  is going  to go. 

 

Thank you Madam. Secretary.  You we have a fun announcement. Not only do we have  a new face on the general manager  side that we have a new logo  for FirstNet. It is  my privilege to throw that out here  for you to see. Before we did that  we thought we would take a few minutes  and sits through some of the  development here. Capturing the  spirit of FirstNet in an image  is is -- is not a small job and  we had a group of members who got  together. I'd like to  thank them. Bill and Kevin and Paul  and Sue and I came together to put  this logo together with help from  public safety and folks outside  the organization here. Wanted to  show you some of  the developing things real quick.  We will show you how the artist  converted from a bunch of words  to an image. I think it's an  important step. Our  logo needed to capture the spirit  of FirstNet and talk about  a national wireless broadband network  and how  it empowers and enables public safety  to do its job. And the criteria  was to make sure it revealed the  kind of strength and breadth and  dynamic nature that we  feel FirstNet should bring to public  safety and that it represented an  organization that serve the  public safety. So we came up with  some of these attributes quickly.  That we like to  think of as we went around the organization  looking for what is FirstNet about.  I'm not going to read these  to you but I will posit second and  this will be on the website if you  would like to get these  information later. 

 

We definitely are  an organization that has been diverse. We've got  standardization to drive it. We  are 7 x 20 14. Building a  national network that serves public safety. So we  put together some of the characteristics  we were looking for. It's hard to  see on the chart the definitely  wanted something that was nationwide  and something that  drove strength and was symbolic  and lasting. And scalable for us  as we put this on the side of tracks  and letterheads and products in  the  future. Logos is and I'm sure --  artistic endeavor in involves bringing  symbols and graphics together in  a way that communicates emotion  and also message. We did  a couple three stages and we will  walk through these quickly. The  first was to bring  up some initial designs. Some different  ideas and see which ones of  those resonate. You see different  ideas here that we  began with. 20 to begin with. Got  called down to about eight. Further  down to  about three. That added  detail here. If you'll notice in  the number one there you  see the -- added to the mark. And  the star is starting to change as  the input was given there. That  we sought further detail when we  change the flame and the  sheriffs badges. Finally, we arrived  at  this logo. I will take a few seconds  to talk about the symbols. The three  main organizations that we  serve  law-enforcement, fire, and Emergency  Medical Services,  around this side here. What is  interesting is the symbol for communications  which is in the origin point --  you notice that the information  is originating from  the origin. If you remember your  geometry the  XY axis is the origin. So the information  is heading out to all three agencies  and  law enforcement has a combination  of a sheriffs badge and a  police badge. We found out  over time there is Five Star or  six starts or eight stars and all  kinds  of badges. Interesting. But at the  end of the day we felt like this  logo  was fun and the board has approved  this for use  on vehicles .  So we are very pleased to announce it today. Chairman Ken and Secretary. said this  will be the logo  going forward so thank you for the  time today. 

 

The secretary come up  with Bill and let's get a picture  in front of  the logo.  >> [  Applause ]  >> I can do this  without you.  Come on.  >> Thank you  very much.  >> I  am leaving.  Good luck.  >>

     Again, thanks. We applaud  the effort. Let's move into the  normal part of  the meeting. Do I have a motion  on minutes if we have two sets of  minutes  to approve. 

 

From the February and March meeting. 

 

Are  there issues and can I have emotion? 

 

 So moved. 

 

 Minutes approved. 

 

Also we have a resolution on  the state  of Texas in essence because it was  funded through DHS and we would  like to have it as a [ Indiscernible  ] recipient. Would you read the  essence of that resolution? 

 

Therefore made the result  that the will hereby direct board  members [ Indiscernible ] to negotiate  on behalf of FirstNet  the agreement, state of Texas to  use  700 measured broadband spectra measure within  Harrison County two for the development  of nationwide interoperable public  safety broadband network. This  one shall conduct  such negotiations and consultation with DHS regarding  any matters related to the Department  of administration branch fund that  support the  project. Litigations with the state  of Texas shall last no longer than  90 days after the date of this  resolution. However, such negotiations  may be extended for a brief period  of time on mutual consent  of FirstNet and the state  of Texas. The lease agreement will  not be finalized until it was approved  by  the board. 

 

Are there any issues or questions  about this resolution? 

 

Do I have  emotion? 

 

Second. 

 

All  in favor? 

 

Thank you.  Motion passed. 

 

We have a number of presentations  this morning. We  all watched with  some trepidation at the conclusion  that the Boston Marathon and what  happened there. One of the things  that struck me was  the importance of digital downloads  and the solution to  that issue. And what I'm talking  about  here is video and cameras and other  digital devices have played into  the solution. And guess what, that is what we  are about. We are building a network  that allows [ Background Noise ]  capability and digital downloads  and uploads to help  public safety carryout  their mission. So to me as I watch  that whole episode and the tragedy  surrounding it I said  to myself we are doing  excellent work for future  public safety and all the more reason  we should dedicate ourselves to  this effort. And make sure that  we get this network up  and functioning as soon as we can  and as economically as we can. So  to me Boston simply reinforced my  whole personal commitment to see  we get this job done.  I've asked  Suzanne Spaulding of DHS because  they been very close to what  happened there to give feedback  and some insights  as to what they  have learned to help us in  the task. 

 

Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank  you for  this opportunity to talk with FirstNet.  You are right. The lessons we learn  from this  incident should inform the work  of this group  and already has demonstrated how  important it is  an appropriate of development of  implementation of FirstNet will  be for all of our public safety  officials and for all Americans.  So we have still very  early obviously in the after  action analysis what  went well and lessons to be learned.  But we have reached out to our colleagues  in Boston both to offer  our support and to get an initial  situational awareness. And what  we learn from those preliminary  discussions is that the  mission-critical LMR that was used  by the first responders worked well  and allowed them to display the  confidence that we saw. In their  response to these incidences. They  were able to achieve  interoperability between the various  local responders  that came. The state responders  and also they had in place the means  the government to integrate  the federal spotters as the investigation  move forward and  wrapped up. It's a testament to  the city and the state and the region  and the kind of work they have done  over the years  in preparing for these kinds of  events  and incidences.  They anticipated their equipment  needs and personnel and training  and the kind of governance and procedures  that they would need for incidents  like  this. Identify -- were to identify  resources they had at all those  levels and how to leverage  federal resources. As an example  of this the city of Boston step  forward and became a demonstration  project back in 2010  for the implementation of the national  emergency communications plan. And  as a result  of that we worked with them. We  at DHS worked with city  of Boston in their ride to the  2010 Boston marathon. We did a  careful analysis of the communication  needs there for  that incident and Boston worked  to take our recommendations and  implement them. And as  a result  they focus on better integrating  communications into the overall  of that commandment control. One  of the things we saw as a result  of this  -- as they prepared for it  this year's  Boston Marathon that statewide communications interoperability  coordinator served as the incident  communications leader for the marathon.  And that kind of governance structure  is much the  technical  equipment and the careful planning  and procedures is part of what allowed  them to not only be prepared in  advance of the marathon but to be  agile and adjust in the wake of  the attacks and make the changes  that they needed  to make. Moving forward these are  precisely the kinds of partnerships  and planning efforts that FirstNet  will need to develop an order for  this nation public  safety broadband network  to be successful. Having said that  all of that worked we are where  there were still failures. In the  communication. And the bottom line  is that cell phones and the  LMR worked but there was latency  issues and significant problems  arose as chairman pointed out with  that  essential delivery -- big data  packages particularly the videos.  The group to be significant and  important. In the resolution at  this event. And so these  kinds of [ Indiscernible ] need  to be better understood. We will  continue to do that analysis. They  are precisely the challenges this  group was established to  help address. [ Captioners Transitioning  - Please stand  by ]  >>

 

we will transmit that  assessment to this group very shortly. We  have shared a draft Park and the  chairman will submit the final report  very shortly. That is our report  Park Mr. Chairman at  this time. 

 

Thank you, Suzanne  area much. 

 

Any questions that anyone would like to ask  us? 

 

Jim? Would you give us the  outreach update? 

 

 Thank you, Mr. Chairman  Park members of the board. We are  waiting for our slides to come up  why we  realign the projector. I think that  I will just start off by saying,  Mr. Chairman, that today is the beginning of building out our permanent mark  on [ Inaudible ]. Ends -- and FirstNet, it is  such an important role to do  outreach,  to do structured listening. To put  our stakeholders and are public safety in the governmental units who represent  the public safety responders. Put  us in the position to tell them  what they need and the network so  that we can pour that into the network.  As we all know, this is  the first network of its type dedicated  to public safety. Mr. Chairman,  we wanted to get the general manager  on board before we picked our permanent teams and put our  general manager in the position  to select his team. I think that process starts now. However, we do get a little bit of a jump  on that. We have begun adding our first full-time employee  to FirstNet,  and that was added to outreach.  We are glad about that.  We have also employed some contract  assistance to help us with  our outreach and to help us with [ Inaudible ]. Mr. Chairman,  I'm going to flip through rapidly these topics, and with the goal of having anyone  that wants to detail , they can pop onto our website  and harvested  there. Let me go ahead and get into  the first slide. Of the word back that we are managing  in the outreach, there are essentially  13 verticals. The first is the outreach  and stage and territories.  We are pleased to announce that  we are launching the regional meetings  that are aimed at the states . There will be six meetings scattered  across this country. They begin  May 15th and 16th within our reach and Washington  DC area, and the states conspicuous --  contiguous to this area. That will  be followed and overlapped by individual  meetings with the states. We  are in the process now of beginning  to reach out to  the points of contact in each state.  That outreach had to wait until  we knew who they were are -- who  they were, which was part of the outreach process.  Our message today will be simple:  First  -- FirstNet wants to consult with  you and your state and your key  stakeholders within your state so  that that can be poured into the network. That will happen  beginning -- lovably about  late May to early June . All of our initial visits must  be completed by August 1st year  there he quickly now , you will see us start to move  here. We have contracts in place.  We have contract assistance in place. We have the staff and we have  it lined out to go. 

 

Next slide please. I  think that I just covered the  outreach. The one detail about regional  meetings, it will be offering each  state the opportunity to bring 10  people. That will be five from the  state proper and five invitees that  they believe are important to helping us see what they're  postdate needs are for local government, tribes, and other stakeholders. The important Apple be a day  and a half workshop. There are six  modules in weeks -- and each workshop. We will have, of course part  output keynote presentations followed  by substantial listening and peer  to peer communications but also  flows back in. One of the consistent  things that we are hearing, Mr.  Chairing -- Mr. Chairman, is why is FirstNet moving so slow  in the next thing is why are you  moving so fast. It depends  on who we are listening to. It is  very clear that we need to spend  time talking to our stakeholders about what we're doing with the  time that we are spending, and frankly  up to this point but we have been  doing  -- building organization, and it  is now time to listen. 

 

Next line please.  Here are the dates that we are looking  at. We will kick off here in the  Boston area, then  in the Denver -- and the DC area,  then Denver, in San Francisco,

     Boston Memphis. Where you see the  bye week for our board meeting in  Boulder, we will be that --  doing some vendor involvement in  Boulder. Started about than, it  will be our individual state visits. 

 

These are the consultation workshop  regions. To  our knowledge, these do not match  any other regions that have been  established. It is possible that at  someone's request, we could make  a modification or an adjustment.  That for planning purposes, these  were the areas that we selected. 

 

 The SLI GP grants have been on the streets. The most  important pickup for that for FirstNet was for the nomination  and the identification of point of  contact. These point of contacts  listed in each of the territories  will be FirstNet's primary strike  well we communicate with these --  state and what we need to communicate  with the state. That is where we  will focus all of  our outreach. 

 

Mentioning the individual state  visits , this will be an enormous undertaking.  It will involve not only our staff , that it will also involve the  Board of Directors. Because there  are 12  board members and 56 visits, it  means for all of us that we are  going to make a commitment of about  five visits each. That has to occur in roughly 70  days. Our goal in working with her staff to date is to build questions so that we  make sure that we are harvesting  them from nation needed by our  engineering team. We are listening  to the kind of information that  is important to the states, and  then we are properly identifying  the groups that we need to talk  with and that we are articulating  that in our outreach message when  we are asking to go consult with  the state. 

 

The local government vertical  is important as an element for us. We know  at first step that while we build  this network dedicated to public  safety, that at the end of the day,  it is going to be police officers,

     firefighters, and emergency medical  technicians that are using our network  at the street level. That means  that we have to do outreach to the  cities, to the counties, to the  menace -- menace of maladies that  employ the majority of safety  -- public safety responders across  the country. While the wall , which  enabled and enacted first that does  not require us to do that, we believe  it is an important aspect of our outreach and are listening. 

 

We have been engaged at the  conference level while we built  our strategy , making sure that when large groups  of public safety responders and  stakeholders get together, that  first that puts a board member or staff member in front of that  audience to make  ourselves available to the questions  and to make sure that we are listening. We had to  outreaches in the local government  area that were significant. One  was to the US conference of mayors  and Mark --  on March 1st, the second was the  national Association of Counties  here we are -- we held a legislative  conference.

    

 

The outreach with the tribes,  this is a particularly challenging  a reas. As you know, tribes are sovereign nations. However,  the legislation, when it was crafted , had us dealing with the tribes  as part of our state process. There  will be outreach to the tribes.  That will become are stations with  the tribes. But it will be constructing  within the conversation that we  are going to have with the state.  We have not talked about it yet  at this board, but this is going  to take the dedicated effort and  partnership with our partners at in TIA, Department of  contest -- commerce , DOJ, all of these  groups that there are groups have tribal relations  today, we're going to make sure  that we are reaching out and  connecting with all of the important  stakeholder tribes.  The next one is a public safety  users. Again, as I mentioned in  my comments, a majority of the public  safety responders, they are employed  by  units of local government. Like  politics, all first response is  local. It is important that we reach  the users , and that they see the value. And  that we have listened to  -- public safety responders as we  begin to construct a network that  is certain [ Inaudible ]. Certain  things that we have done in terms  about reach, these are things that  are already accomplished. You will  see on the list that between the  major County sheriffs, national  sheriffs Association,  the Wisconsin and EMS Association, 2500 attendees. Public  safety conference. A believe we  have another slide there, Peter.  That is just a sampling of some  of the out reach and lectures that  we have done when we get large  meetings have -- of  public safety responders. The public  safety advisory committee, of --  as we have referred to it here as  the

     PSA see, it is an important group.  It is an important group to remain  take -- to maintain mutations were.  This has been a statutory challenge  for us and that when they were formed as a PSAC, we actually leveraged safe calms existence into her public  safety advisory committee. The actual  way that the PSAC was formed limits the communications  that we have with them, and I would  like to thank the Department of  Commerce and  NTIA legal staff that is helping  us work through some of those challenges . This group is led by chief  Harlin McEwen. We have a five person  executive committee on the PSAC. Yesterday in our board meeting  we heard  Chairman McCune talk about the five  assignments that they have today. I am very optimistic that they  are going to engage those assignments -- with a great deal  of fortitude. This is a hard-working  group of professionals representing  our government.  >> That last slide, I think, touched  on a very important  visitation between the PSAC executive committee. They  were met --  they met with the engineering  team and had an opportunity to get  a  firsthand glimpse of the work  that has been done. They gave our engineering team  an opportunity to hear questions  from them. This is a group that -- with a tremendous amount  of history and a tremendous amount  of insight. There were talk directly  to the engineering team about functionality,  about some of the concepts that  we are considering, and it was just  nice to have them there. I think  that they felt it was as valuable  as we felt it was valuable. We are about to engage the  federal users vertical. How to  put this  so simply, the federal government  and its response components will  be a big part of this. I have been reluctant to  stand up the federal vertical until we  had mailed -- nail down the statutorily  required communications with our  states and with our territories  and with our tribes. Now that we  have that , it is now time  to reach out toward federal brothers  and sisters and trying to figure  out how we're going to engage the type of government and first  step. -- and FirstNet. The board  members have been very helpful,  that we will be talking later on  today about her role in that. Just making sure that this works. I think the only  thing that I want to add about that  is between the federal government as users and  the federal government as the owner  of infrastructure, and  local government as users and the  owners of infrastructure, they can  dramatically impact our cost  model for building out this network  by creating partnerships. It is  very important to us that we engage  every aspect of city local government, and every  aspect of state government. I would  like to think Sarah for her  work in engaging Congress. As you  note on the board, one of our objectives  is to transmit our mandatory reports,  which was completed. The chairman  then testify before Congress in  the same period of time. We have future reports that are  due to Congress, and routine communications  as our  Congress keeps an eye on the progress  of FirstNet. It is one of the awakenings  that I had coming from  local government. My context has  always been focused on making  sure that we have transparency with  our taxpayers. It has been a bit  of an adjustment for me to really  realize Congress' role. @firstNet's level, our transparency  is with Congress and their transparency is to the taxpayer.  It is an important relationship  to make sure that we are doing what  we can in advance, to inform Congress  about our part  progress. What we find challenges,  to go back to the hill and  explain what our challenges are.  To make sure that this organization  is transparent to Congress and  thereby transparent to the taxpayer.

    

 

The second is the median branding. You sell some of  our work as it relates to our logo. To make sure that we  have presence in the media. The  presence in the media is an important  component because our customers, who were the public  safety community, they read the treaty press, and they read and  watch all of the aspects of what  the media brings. They really are  a helpful component to FirstNet. They help keep us  on track, and they help  us communicate important challenges  and achievements to public safety .  >> Sue Swenson, for members  of FirstNet, she is  not here today. I think the important  thing that we want to communicate,

     V top is Sue Swenson's project.  It has been an enormous undertaking. I think that we are currently  in the negotiations phase of the  top, and we have made  a tremendous amount of progress  trying to make sure that each V  top recipient makes a meaningful  contribution to first -- FirstNet's  learning, into her visual architecture.

    

 

In the application development,  we have Peter and Bill would've been working  on this. We have made tremendous  advances in terms of getting a feel for the kind of apps that are in  the marketplace. Yesterday,  we receive  a detailed briefing from peters  on the applications process and project. I think that  we have arrived at a place, very  broadly stated, we have arrived  at a place where we  know that apps are going to be an  important part of our product offering.  It is an important -- it is an important  lever at the street level to enhancing

     productivity. It truly is a force  multiplier at the  street level.  Peters, I would like to thank you and Director Keever for all of  your work. This is an important  part of our future.

    

 

This vendor outreach component  has been a bit of a challenge. This  is an area that we would like to  do more. Frankly, as  we built up the state outreach component  in our  outreach to local government, this  one has been a little more fragile than we would choose. With  that said, the beginning of the  PS TR meeting held in June 4th -- in Boulder Colorado, we're going  to have a substantial opportunity  to communicate with her  vendors. As well be the first major  kickoff with the vendor community  in the conversation with them. In  addition, we have a host of -- I  believe the last one was released  last Monday  -- we're in a very formal way, we  are seeking feedback from our vendors.  Where literally asking vendors,  here is the talk of the area. Tell us what you know and help  guide us to the most productive  response in the space. RFI's are an efficient and important way to listen to  our vendor community, a while I  wondered -- well I understand it is frustrating, some people  would like to pick up the phone  and call a spot but from it structural  perspective, RFI's or responding RFI's are the  most effective way to communicate  to FirstNet, and I believe that  we have 16 RFI's in  the commute -- in  the queue. 

 

17. 

 

And total, our structured listening  program is going to be very robust  very quickly.  >> In terms of the technical community,  I think that this vertical really  speaks to the importance of the  very large academic  community. The technical community that exist that may not be vendors. They  are users. There are system operators  and they are people that have experience in public  communications. Make sure that we  create a portal for listening is an  important part of our effort. 

 

It is also important that when  you are building out a nationwide  network, when you -- we need to  take our national standards and  to  consideration. The 3 G progress  -- prod jack that we are involved in, we  need to make sure that our standards  are involved into the other standards.  Not only that, but when you start getting near the Canadian and Mexican

     borders, we have interference issues.  We have other countries that have  deployed systems and communication  along their borders as we have.  And as we have built out this network  in the clear 20 megahertz of space that have been allocated  to FirstNet, as you get close to  the borders, there is interference  they are.  This will involve the United States  State Department. This will involve  the SEC, this will involve FirstNet  and our partners at in TIA as we work to make -- at NTIA, and we need to make sure they are fully  -- free and clear to offering that  does add to our international component.  I would like to recognize Derek  or, and the public [ Inaudible ] in  Boulder Colorado. Their work has  been invaluable. They have been  great advisors and pre-consultants. I think that I  can speak for the commercial network  providers that have joined the board, and I reflect the sum of  their thoughts after being a PS ER. I had no idea that research  -- resources like this existed,  and these are world-class  researchers and we are proud to  have them in public safety. I am  proud the first net -- FirstNet  has reached out to them and engage  them, and I would like to think  Derek on the record for help opening  and establish this.  

 

I think that wraps up our presentation.  Mr. Chairman, I will take any questions  from you or anyone else. 

 

Any questions?  >> Jeff, I want to take this opportunity  to thank you and the committee for  the addition from the first Slide  we saw in  Boulder to the slide  and the [ Inaudible-low  volume ] because we  believe that local government has  to be seen , as you hurt concerns in Boulder  and it is been addressed, and I  just wanted to go on record and  thank you for  making sure that that was [  Inaudible-low volume ]. 

 

Thank you. 

 

Sam Hocker just want to echo  Mayor Webb's comments, this -- Jeff, you know this very will  purpose is not going to work and put -- without [ Inaudible  ], and we're going to  need this to make a success. Again,  I thank you for all of your efforts. 

 

Thank you. 

 

You have comment? 

 

On reflecting on those comments,  it takes me back to first principles. You heard a lot  of activity but from an engineering  sense, if you don't understand user  requirements, your project well  not succeed. I just want everyone who  is viewing this meeting today do  you understand that we realize  that, and I think that you sought  reflected in the kind of efforts that  we're going to make to outreach  to states, cities, and other  so-called verticals . I learned a new term this morning.

    

 

[ Laughter ]. 

 

To make sure that we understand  user requirements. I think the other  thing that should be said on this  outreach effort is that there are many of you who are vendors and well  be participating in this effort . You have valuable information  to give to us. We understand that. I want you to understand that  the early months of this effort  -- we have do you understand what  our program is going to look wet,--  look like . What our planning is going to  encompass. We are getting there.  We are getting there very quickly. I think in the future , you are  going to see a lot more opportunities  to interact not only with the board,  but with the management of FirstNet. 

 

Jeff, thank you.

    

 

70 meetings -- 56 meetings and  70 days is

     [ Inaudible ]. [ Laughter ]. 

 

Okay. 

 

He is on a  roll. 

 

Around the subject of making  sure that all of the commercial guys  understand a little bit more about  public safety, chief Mike Dyke from or out --  organ had a little demonstration for our directors  and network types from engineering  and network  to come up and experience a burning  building. Chief, I would like for you to  report on that emerging project. 

 

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Numbers  of the board, again, might name  is Mike Dyke from fire and rescue, in the Portland area of organ. We heard so -- we  serve a population of about four  to 50,000 people. We did have an  opportunity to host the first [ Inaudible ], and I'm happy  to say we didn't lose anyone. Up  If we go to the next slide, we had  an opportunity to expose your technical committee to what is it that the fire FirstNet does, of  we held this 30 hour merge into programming fire and EMS on M arch 4th and  5th.  -- with the committee. We actually  have a template where we do something  like this. We call it our community  Academy where we bring in electoral members in the community and bring the minute show that what  we do. That that -- that includes  a classroom meeting,

     hands-on drill, an overnight stay  in a working fire station with a  group, and there was one important  hedge that we had for this group  because of the nature of this visit.  We wanted the  FirstNet engineers to have an opportunity  to experience live  fire training. That required  conversations with their position, waivers to be signed  hot the turnout clothing, the breathing  apparatus, and I  guess it would be an understatement  to say their eyes were a little  baby first day as to what they were  getting into. It was in a great  -- it was a great opportunity. During the Academy, we expose the  engineers to drills,  active engagement.  With large for a large portion of  what the fire and EMS agencies do with EMS.  We can operate a full-blown cardiac  arrest scene Occam and we had them  not only engage in the activities , significant motor vehicle collision  with extrication so they had to  use the heavy hydraulic tools to  cut a car part to get one of the  FirstNet engineers was the patient.  Remove them from the vehicle and  package them for transportation  to the hospital. We did run  through live fire behavior training and scenarios. With all of the different things  that we have discussed,  all of  it while we had them equipped with  one of our Alomar radios, and they had to  engage on that radio. They were  called. They had to respond. Sometimes  without gloves on . Sometimes with it -- heavy firefighters  -- fire fighter gloves on. Limited visibility, high heat hot working on the phone line.  It was a fully immersed engaged scenario and the types of work  that the firefighters do in the  country. 

 

After we got them through that, we also sent them out to work and one of our fire stations  with an on-duty -- on-duty crew. They were taken to the  fire station. They responded to  incidents throughout our service  area for the rest of  the night, and they actually spend  the night, they a with a part --  a with the crew. Many of them got  up multiple times all my. They got  to experience everything that firefighters and EMTs in the  country experience. They also had  a nuke -- a unique opportunity to  sit down with some of  the firefighters and EMTs,  and they talked about very low keep -- they talked in a very low-key, friendly environment about responding  with the communities across the  country, and what types of things that FirstNet provides that makes  us more effective and providing  that essential public safety service  that we provide. They said  -- they said they got a lot out of  that. 

 

During there's day, they got -- we showed them all of the apparatus technology that we put  into play in our response vehicles, and I  would characterize what we do as

     TBF&R is on the front edge of technology.  We sit -- we showed them mobile  command technology, EMS field  technology and how much technology  is influencing whether --  weather emergency medical services are provided on the field.  Deployment analysis and standard  of cover help with the fire services  in America art based on risk,  travel time, essential factors such  as those. We went into the backside of our IT infrastructure,  and we actually talk to them about  how we interact in the field, the  mobile, the records management systems.  It all ties back to her databases . Enterprise GIS is a large component  of public safety nowadays.  Connecting all of the data samples  in the layers that provide essential  information. 

 

Technology  and how we fill healthcare reform  is being discussed in the country  is being -- beginning to involved and how  important this is. Fire operations  in her dispatch centers they actually  serve -- we let them tour our dispatch  center, which is a regional  center, they have -- they dispatch  for over 19 agencies. The take away -- I would've  been happy of the  take away was don't play with matches.  But the take away -- the takeaways were actually,  I think, very,  very important.  The day after, we went through the  whole hands-on training, the classroom  portions. They wrote all night at our stations, and then towards late morning, we reassembled and had a bit of D brief. Their takeaways were that there is a clear industry  need to create greater data connection. They assume that the items that  we had, the 12 lead EKG's and the  other electronics already transmitted  that essential information to hospitals.  In many cases, it does not. There  is a need for purposeful application  development  in the fire and EMS industry, and  it should include private industry

     and FirstNet. The industry environment  is not conducive to friendly hardware and integration. Ruggedized hardware  development will be a key . Voice infrastructure may be overlapping  or two redundant and not field and  an effective manner.  And a byproduct of a region that  is not necessarily develop and gathered  overtimes of the coordination and  [ Inaudible ] in our country --  I should add that we did put this  to -- but together this handout  that we will make available to you  if it is -- if  it has not already been sent to  you. FirstNet as clear on the need  to provide services across a broad  geography, and this will require  multiple technology solutions including  satellite services in areas of our  country -- even in  our own service area, that we do  not get good coverage  and the opportunity to have satellite  surface for this technology would greatly enhance our ability. You know, we also  got some takeaways from  the impressively talented team of engineers. We had the opportunity to ask  our own questions about what is  going on in the industry with FirstNet and how we can benefit.  Based on the input and a violation by the  engineers, they talked about how  our network is established in our  boast -- how robust  it was. We talked about the urgent  right now, with our own systems  in many countries -- and systems throughout the country,  and the need for replacement and  the timing with FirstNet and how the government can potentially  hold off for  telling what person that is going  to propose . We would encourage you and the  technical team that we are available  to be a test for the opportunities that FirstNet wants to develop . We have a very  clear understanding of what the  future in voice  and data will become.  We simply want to coordinate multiple  systems and how we [ Inaudible-low  volume ]. It was a wonderful opportunity. They all  left smiling, and frankly, the communication did  not stop after 30 hours. We have spent many different occasions  communicating over the phone and  over e-mail to  try to feed information to the technical  team to help you make -- you to have the information  on what is going on in public safety  and first responsible -- responders, at least from  our region. We think it is very  representative of what is happening  across the country. I was happy  to -- I am happy to entertain any questions that you  or the board might have. 

 

Any questions? 

 

One comment that I heard from  one of the attendees is what do  you do if you are in a room filled with snow, you  can see, and you do not know where  the door is? You must've put  a lot of challenges before them . 

 

We did. 

 

They figure out that you get  on your radio. 

 

 Get me out of here. [ Laughter ]. 

 

It was a great experience for  the engineers of FirstNet, and you can be assured  that  the [ Inaudible ] that we built  into the requirements of the system. It is good for everybody. Thank  you, Mike. 

 

And I might add, if you or the  Board or anyone has an opportunity  to want to replicate this training,  we are  always happy to oblige. 

 

Thank you very much. 

 

Any other questions or comments? 

 

Jeff, I thought for sure that  you would have a comment. 

 

No, sir.  >> Thank you, Mike. Job will done. 

 

We have asked  Paul Fitzgerald to give us a report  on what I think was a very significant  meeting. And Sam Ramon, one of the engineers,  and PSAC, who is advising -- at -- advising us on the  needs for public safety and in  in other ways helping us communicate  the objectives of first that so  that  -- FirstNet so that we can build in  a timely way what is happening with

     FirstNet. 

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

 

We are the  public safety advisory committee  established under [ Inaudible ]. The intent of PSAC is to work with the first  -- FirstNet board on areas of building this network. As  you know lock our -- you know about our involvement with trend  that -- PSAC we were  happy that the committee was invited  to California to sit  down with those who began to design  and work with us on structuring  this network. The public safe treat --  public safety of visor he committee advised -- involves five individuals. There is  the chair, and therefore vice chairs, Paul [ Inaudible ] of the

     public safety of ministration, Bill  who is with the fire industry, US  conference of mayors , Tom sorely, of the national government  Association is Heather [ Inaudible  ]. As we were at the  two-day meeting , March 25th of March 27th, I am  really look -- I really was impressed with  the information that we were given  and the exchange that I seen  between our PSAC and the individuals . It was outstanding information.  I was really impressed to see the dialogue and  exchange going back and forth on  FirstNet and the consultants back  to PSAC.  I think there was even a commitment  on the part of Craig Ferrell. I  think this -- there was -- I think him for continuing this  on a monthly basis. One of the issues  that I thought was unfortunate was  right when you start to engage our PSAC meaningfully, there  seems to be another roadblock was -- roadblock was put down to limit  the access and how our PSAC was being prevented  in a meaningful way from being involved.  Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I have  a motion that I would like to make . I will pass a copy of my motion  along to the board members to look at while I read this  motion. Resolve: FirstNet recognizes that the plan  for development of a public safety  and broadband network presented  to this board may not gain toward  the Outlook  safety committee because among other  reasons, a, the development -- the  plan was developed with FirstNet  understanding become located  process, on the public safety agencies  contemplated in  public law 112  -- 96 pursuant to what first that  has been to the  public safety broadband network  will be created -- will greet  be created by  the law. The plan was flawed in  its development structure located in the face of possible  conflict of interest it -- or the parents about  -- thereof that has not been publicly  disclosed. The plan was development  -- developed largely  or entirely  from a commercial wireless point  of view and not by board members  of the public safety point of view. The plan will develop -- was developed largely by  its consultants who were not engaged  in a greater transparent objective  manner as required by the law for  the qualifications and relations  with public safety communication that have never been disclosed  or demonstrated to  the board who have prior relationship  with certain members of the Board,  in terms of the commercial wireless  world, not the public safety community and to our paid an amount do you have never  been disclosed to us before as a  whole. C. The plan  was developed without material input  from the public safety advisory  committee that despite its role  as been provided has  been essentially sidelined. F, the  plan is been submitted to the board  without any presentation of any  analysis of alternatives to the  heavy dependence upon commercial  -- commercial wireless carriers  as part of the plan.  G, the planet so far along in its  development that it is not apparent  that the process with states and their public  safety agencies contemplated by  law, the consultation process,

     could practically alter the direction  or even the details of that plan . Age, the plan is so far along  in its development is it is  not apparent that the right of the  state to Bill their on radio access network within their borders without  having searched that --  FirstNet bill that ran, is not properly constrained. FirstNet  recognizes that for the plan  -- for the development of the public  safety broadband -- broadband network presented  to this board to enhance the support  of the public safety community property  plan, it is necessary to have  that plan subjected to the independent  review and to reform certain processes according to  which Bert met  -- FirstNet operates. Therefore,  the following actions shall be under  taken:  A, the committee of the  board well be presented to review  the development of a public safety  broadband network from a platelet -- public safety viewpoint or  review committee. 

 

The, the review committee shall  be composed of members of the board  who do not development -- or planned to the board, and who are free  of all conflict of  interest and what not present the  appearance of a conflict of interest.  C, the review committee shall review  and analyze from a public safety  standpoint an alternative to the  plan resented to the board. The review  committee may [ Inaudible ] in relation  to  other bodies of knowledge, communication,  technology, operation, and practices,  and broadband technology to assist  it in its work and such assistance  shall be secured in a fair, transparent,  and objective manner as required  by law. E. The review committee  may engage counsel to assist in its work, and such assistance  shall be secured in a fair transparent  and objective manner as required  by law. Avenue, the compensation  of any providers  on the review committee shall be  borne by the first -- FirstNet and  fully disclose to all board members.  G, search that shall not finalize  any plan for the development of  the public safety broadband network. Unless and until one, there is

     quarter review committees and presented  to and fully considered by the board , into, the consultation process  is undertaken and completed after

     state have received there program  funding and have made adequate time  to secure any required support  for preparation for the [ Inaudible  ] process. Completed a  needs assessment and that drive , the development of state plans  and  to be ran and contemplated by the  law. H. FirstNet shall seek advice  from PSAC whenever such advice may  be necessary, useful, or proper. This advice have the  disclose probably to all board  members of this board substantially,  contemporaneously, and disclosed  to the public, to the extent -- and after time required by law  or when this board discloses or  otherwise requires it as being  proper, FirstNet -- FirstNet shall  not seek advice from the  PSAC  regarding the concerns of legal  requirement for the exposure of  that advice.  I. First I shall comply with the  process for the development of public  safety broadband network set forth  in the wall and with the requirements  of the law and all other applicable loss and  regulations including, but not limited  to requirements relating to the  procurement of goods and services  and constitutional and competition  in relation thereto, and the requirement  and best practice as it is relating  to the openness of the proceedings  and the board and the availability  of information and documentation  to all board members of the  public safety broadband legal process.  J. FirstNet will not seek an acquisition  from the [ Inaudible  ]. Committee of the Board shall  be appointed to examine a report  to the board as a whole the questions that FirstNet has  to date -- the  legal process including but not  limited to the requirements relating  to the procurement of goods and  services and the members of that  committee, the legal process committee,  shall be directors who  have not been engaged in a procurement  of consulting services or -- for  FirstNet to date or an working with  consultants . L, other members of this board  shall be probably provided with  all documents, financial staffing  list, cost, and pricing  information  purposes place, technical plants,  financial plans, strategy reefs,  analysis of whatsoever time  -- k ind, and all of the documents  bearing upon the plants, operation, financial positions or results,  or interference with FirstNet, including all drafts, inversions and comments  thereon. And as a matter of  of comment, all  financial, staffing list calls, pricing information, business plans, technical plants, financial  plans, strategy breeze, analysis  of whatsoever kind, and all other  documents bearing upon the plans  operational and financial position for FirstNet  without limitation including all  drafts and preliminary versions  and comments if any thereon . Hereinafter prepare drafted made  or developed shall be probably  made available to all board members.  And, all board members have  equal and unrestricted access and  scope and timing to offers documentation of any kind or  character. And oh, a committee of  the board shall be praised -- presented  to examine and report to the bold  -- board as a whole weather board members have been getting equal  or open access to all FirstNet documentation of any kind  or character, and if not, why  such access has not been provided. The members of that committee shall  not being -- shall not include directors that refused your access  to document our eye other doctors  or have been involved in determinations made not to share documentations  equally with other dropped  -- directors and shall certify that  they qualify as members of that  committee and are not precluded as herein provided.

    

 

I ask  asked that my motion be  seconded.  >> Do I hear a  second? 

 

I will second board purposes  of discussion. 

 

Paul, I want you to know that it is my opinion  that if I ask for a vote, this  motion would fail. So what I'm going to do is ask some member of the board  to table this motion so that between now  and the next meeting, we can have  a full discussion of it and vote at the next meeting. 

 

Mr. Chairman, upward like to  ask to be heard in support of my  motion.  >> Proceed. 

 

I'm also passing around the statement  for my part support of the  motion. 

 

Mr. Chairman. This is Ed rental -- Reynolds.  Sis -- since this was not on the board agenda, could that perhaps  be reviewed -- e-mailed to me so  that I could perhaps review it ? 

 

Yes, it will be her. 

 

This is Sue  Swenson. Perhaps to me as well. 

 

 Continuing.  >> You have a soft copy that can be

     sent to the board members? 

 

Yes. Can you send it to my blackberry  right now? 

 

No. I do not have that.

     [ Inaudible-low volume ]. 

 

I will get with you after the  meeting. 

 

The board members are asking  to review it now . 

 

If you want to take a copy of  what you have and download it and  send it, I would suggest that you  do that.  >>

     Okay, Paul. Proceed with your statement. 

 

Thank you, was the chairman.  I make my member -- and make a motion  as a member of the board but also as former  president of the national sheriffs  Association and member of the public  safety alliance and a first responder. In those [ Inaudible ],  I have a special and unique point  of view among

     [ Inaudible ] regarding public safety  broadband user. As a -- as a user  of the network, well as -- I am  a member of the first tab or, I'm  not a Washington politician or a  Washington [ Inaudible ]. I am and  well always be first and foremost a member of the public safety community. I am interested by my public safety  colleagues across the nation to  represent them faithfully  with my vote and voice. Nothing  to be more important to me than  to serve them with integrity, honestly,  and righteousness. As a metric --  as a member of this board, my pledges  to continue to take every action  possible to ensure that FirstNet  always advances  equality of Public  safety communications to the development  of a nationwide interop verbal public  safety broadband network. I make  my motion to further that to the pledge. I ask all of  you as fellow first nap board members where are  the checks and balances? Where is  the openness and transparency process -- promise of a  the law which  created this agency? Where certain  public safety were members being sidelined by industry members  of this board without --  again, I ask each of you.  I don't know what -- if I don't  know what we're doing, out the members  of public safety members who --  for  him, I sat in any  chair, I will meet -- how will I meet there needs. 

 

For those of you  who these concerns are new, I suspect  that you have no answers. And an  answer is surely required. I  won now might -- layout might concerns  which are reflected in the content  of this motion. By first concern  relates to the company startup  planning documents that I received  last Friday. For the reasons that  I have expressed to my motions,  the plans presented to the board  for the development of a public  safety broadband network  is fraud. I am not saying is necessarily  a bad plan. But I do say  that the -- it is a process by which it was developed undermined  its ability to be supported by public  safety. Is 400 page plus start a  plan, which by the way I saw this  weekend requires one, an independent review from  an outside body, into, testing alternatives , and three, was importantly, a team of serious public safety  input before any plans is consented  for consideration of the board.

    

 

My second concern relates to  the role of the piece that Dirk  and my view, more effort is met  -- expander making sure that no  advice is received from the feedback  that would have to be public this -- disclosed by this board that  is spent trying to hear or get a piece act out or involve  them in and -- and  our activity in any way. 

 

For my review, the PSAC  is presented as a  necessary ease  -- evil. His troubles me to my core.  How can we be designing a public  safety broadband network without  public safety front center. Why's  everyone sitting -- sitting quietly  while commercial numbers of this  board push public safety and  in the community and set and watch  the work. Whose network is this  anyway? This board cannot turn on  the [ Inaudible ]  for us to disclose the information  that they give us. Up we are not  listening to her public safety advisory  committee as we plan our network,  a we are not listening to all of  the public safety members on this  board, who are we listening  to? If we are opening to hearing  the advice of public safety, then  we should show it in our daily commitments  with PSAC. If we are not going to  show -- my great  concern relates to the matter process  and the need for transparency. Mind  you, the likelihood of the adoption and use of  public safety for the public safety  broadband network [ Inaudible ] in large part of  the public safety  in the process  and follows by FirstNet in relation  to other matters and development  Tatian of plans and designs that  the public safety broadband network. In my view,  the process  thus far employed by FirstNet  are killing our credibility. It  appears to me that directors of  the for example, I have not had access to financial and  for -- financial information. Other  directors must have that information  since we're paying for services.  I do not know what the consultants  looking for [ Inaudible ] or what  being poor -- are being paid or  how they were hired. Other directors  must have a knowledge. I have not  had access to the agreement pursuant  to which they're working. Other  directors must have that knowledge.  The board of first that has meetings  and conference calls where they  -- with a form of directors that  are not treated as board made --  board member -- meetings, are not  disclosed in are not subject to  the public observation.  These met -- these meetings are [ Inaudible  ] while other information as taking  place at a public forum. I want  all of my colleagues to see what  we're doing. A work hand-in-hand  with Outlook safety alliance for  quite some time to see this network  create -- created and I will not  sit by and watch a build by my board of her colleagues and  convert -- and  conjunction with there public vision rather than a [ Inaudible ] [ Inaudible ]. I represent to you  that I will focus on the issues  that I raised today for the duration  of my membership of -- on this  board. Each of you can expect that  I will not be muffled, sideline, pressure to  back down or circumvented. No one  on this board wants a public safety  broadband network to succeed more  than I do. In making this motion, I am neither perceived -- pursuing  any agenda or seeking to further  any interest than those of  the public safety community. I appeal  to you for my support -- for the  support of  my motion. 

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

 

Wellington?  >> Paul, I'm a little taken back by  the motion. I  know yesterday  we had a spirited discussion as  we have -- as we have on -- and several of our  meetings as it relates to our work  sessions. I guess the times that -- at  the time that we become a member  of a board, I look at it  as building a Manhattan project  ear if you look at that, it is for  the military. The best quality  minds were brought together from  all across the country.  for the  development of a project. I see  the telecom people coming together in a similar fashion . @build something forth -- to build  something force  first responders. Manhattan project  was going to save a lot of lives  with regard to soldiers on the ground.  They were part of the discussions. They were rude -- [ Inaudible ]  they were produced by the best quality  man's -- minds of the unit states.  I think we are in a path that we  have the same thing. I also feel  that we are blindsided because I  spoke in yesterday and supportive  your edge [ Inaudible ] about town hall meetings. I also thought  that we have a certain kind of rules  of engagement and how we process  and do things openly in terms of  working together. I feel a little blindsided on this.  I think this motion,  Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion  to table. I think it is something  that needs to be  -- is a wrong motion, runtime,  wrong place. 

 

I would second the motion to  table of. 

 

Any other comments?  >>

     Kerry? 

 

I'm just trying to thank you  for the opportunity to see. I think  one of the challenges that all of  us have had as we have worked  through the board, I think the point  that you made when you opened up -- we are creating something which is new. It is something that has not  been experienced in terms of trying  to provide these kinds of services  across the board. Therefore, it  is going to be a set of movements  and actions where we are all learning  how best to bring together a huge  technology project like this with  the needs of so many diverse individuals that will actually  be using the service.  Paul Ocker I certainly think that  is important that you  have an opportunity to express your  views and certainly the individuals that you fill you  represent. But I do think it is  important for me to stick up for  the [ Inaudible ] I felt that the group has been  very open in terms of talking about  the technology solutions, and  soliciting input in terms of the  kinds of things that we all felt  were needed. I  think there is a process by which  we provide that input, and in that  input comes back to us with suggestions  and recommendations for what her  snatch should look at. I felt like that process has been  underway. I think that  the work that Jeff and his team  have started in terms of the outreach  process and  running the information and organize  way is a big step forward. I think  that we are all in the process of reviewing the start  of documents. I think that yesterday  was a great chance for us to get  an overview of it, and I have not  had the sense at all that that with  that document there was going to  be any resistance regarding the input on it. I felt  that it was something that actually  gave us a first step . Seeing what the totality  wasn't  being able to comment on it. I guess  I am also concerned . First of all, I think that in  some of the tone of the document , I think it speaks not only to  the commercial focus here that comes  from the commute --  commercial sector who has a lot  of experience to provide, but also  to the rest of us that also feel  like [ Inaudible ] regarding  responsibility. We felt that we  have worked and the board, especially trying to be very active in  terms of -- speaking for myself, working with Jeff  on outreach and working on the selection  committee. I have to say that I'm  a little put off because I feel  it is also directed some of us as members of the board.  With that, is term -- Mr. Chairman,  my suggestion would be that again,  clearly I respect Paul's feelings and his responsibilities,  but I do feel as if this is going to require significant  more discussion. There are always  areas in which we can improve. We  are learning as a board, and those  are important things for us to do.  I think it is important , before certainly I can make any  decisions on the myriad of items  that [ Inaudible ] that we have further discussion. 

 

Bill? 

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Being one of the  communications folks mentioned in  this, I have to say that it concerns  me that in item be, it mentions that we  are functioning with possible conflicts  of interest. I  have to ask that we have a Department  of Commerce legal review of every point in this because  in many cases it impugns my personal integrity  as I have been involved in many  of these activities. I can't live with that nor do I think many  of my other colleagues who have  been involved and  the development of the work thus  far can as well. I would please  ask you to have that legal review done as well.

     

 

Mr. Chairman, first, let me apologize  for coming in late. I was speaking  to the IE CP  agency . It was a long-standing commitment  that I had this morning. Many  of the people who are very important  to the work that we are trying to  undertake here. I walk  in -- I apologize, and I walked  in while you were reading the proposed  resolution itself ear I would send -- I would speak in support of tabling  at. I think that Paul obviously  raised a lot of significant issues, and I think it was certainly --  for me, I think that we're being  helpful to all of us if we have  an opportunity to review his report.  I am speaking in support of tabling  the issue. And I would ask that  the question be called  at an appropriate time. 

 

Chip Mr. Chairman, if I may.  >> I am a member public safety. I  have spent 34 years and public safety. Listen, first --  FirstNet, has its growing pains.  Not everyone we have done so far  is perfect ear and by the way,  I think to some lesser  degree, Paul brings up some important  issues that I think the board is  already making an effort to address. Again, from my seat, from public  safety, I do not see anybody  on this board who I do not have confidence in and that does not want my trust. It certainly is a legitimate concern to try do you understand

     -- do you understand -- and your desire to understand a  better. Again, to a lesser degree,  those are legitimate concerns  that I think we can talk about.  But again, when it comes to the  issue of personal integrity and trustworthiness, I am completely comfortable with  the makeup  of this  court Dierks. 

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too is a member public safety.  I have dedicated 35 years of my  life as a fire to them first  responder at every level. I do not  share these of -- share in the support  of this [ Inaudible  ]. I don't share his suspicion and  our motives but -- And I do not share his observation  that this is commercially dominated.  I feel engaged. I feel listened  to. I feel, as evidenced by the  fact that we have a fire chief  here today, that told us the story  about a team of engineers that went to his entity and immersed  themselves and my profession to  make sure they understood the requirements.  I feel  the commercial members of this board  have engaged. They  have listened. They have reached  out. They have tried at every turn  to be open and transparent.  They and you have my full trust  and confidence.  I understand,  Paul, that you want information  that you are not getting, and I  cannot speak to  t hat. I know the  chairman will be responsive to that.  I can't speak to that. What I can  speak to is this, the tonality of  this motion makes  it sound as if public safety has  reservations about this board. That  is not true.  Paul does, and he made the motion.  That is his right as a boardmember.  I know he's frustrated. I get it.  But I do not want a member of that  board -- I do not want a member  of this board to believe that that  is a [ Inaudible ] of public safety. I am public safety. And I believe that we need to  go out and find public safety to  listen to and review  the decisions that we make. I am  public safety and I sit here. I  have a clear unimpeded view of every  aspect of this operation that I'm  interested in. I merely have to  ask for it.  I think to reach beyond that and  to level an allegation of this nature , especially without an opportunity  to remedy, is not appropriate , and while Paul and I have known  each other for a lot of years and have tremendous  respect for him, I could not disagree  with him more on this motion. 

 

Thank you.  >> I will let all of the [ Inaudible  ] the herd here. 

 

And our second meeting, we talked  about this. The actual tension that  really exist and  a group of folks like this board,  people come from very different  backgrounds. With commercial, while it's true

     -- folks may develop projects and  in a different way, public safety  folks may develop responsible -- responsible. We made that a  [ Inaudible ] of reality [ Inaudible ] as something that  we need to deal with. 

 

We have heard issues of  transparency raised , this certainly raises it with  a sharp edge. It I do -- I  believe it is sharper than it needs  to be. I have to say that at this  point in time, the efforts  of the chair, the efforts of my  fellow board members, I am very  satisfied with the direction that  we are headed in in dealing with  issues of transparency and making sure that our work is  understood and making sure that the information that we are  dealing with when we make our decisions  is shared with the public safety  world ear I am very optimistic .

     -- about our near future and our  far future. I also do not share  the degree of concern that  Paul has as reflected in  this motion. I look forward to tearing  it apart and analyzing the specific  issues, which he has raised so that  we can get past it . 

 

Any other comments?  >> From my point of view, I can understand  the issues of not communicating  properly. But I am very troubled  by the allegations of misconduct . Tony, you  are going to have first -- have  to help us here, but I want those  issues dealt with immediately in  some way, whether  it is counsel and commerce or whatever. I want those issues dealt with front and center now so that  this board can understand whether, in fact,, the allegations  are true. Would you help me  put together some way to get that issue addressed? 

 

Sure. As I said, I have not had  the opportunity to review this . I walked in in the middle of Paul's  presentation, but I will take a  look at this. We have been -- [  Inaudible-low volume ]. I'll  accept the motion to table. All of those in favor say aye, I.  Opposed?

    

 

No. 

 

One no. 

 

Next on the agenda,  crag, you are going to give us a  brief network update. and an overview on [  Inaudible ]. 

 

All right. 

 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. While it is warming up  here on the screen, if any, of you have been interested  -- I want to make sure that the  community of public safety  was aware that FirstNet, a week  ago Monday, issued a request for  information with respect to mobile  devices. Today, we're going to give  you a click heads up and an  announcement of four -- further announcements  of that type. If you are interested  in seeing the announcement per se,  you can go on to the fed biz ops .gov  website and key in the words wireless  devices for FirstNet there tie  that to April 15th , Department of permits, and you  should find itself was --  the solicitation number that you  see here on the screen. If you have  direct questions that you are interested  in receiving input or have questions  about the particular request for  information, Glenn to men is available at devices RFI  at first that .gov. The phone number  is (202)482-1470. As chief Johnson mentioned, we also have been  working diligently over the last  four months to bring together  a set of 17 other areas that we  will be asking for information from  the industry. We are in a listening mode here  at FirstNet and planning the various  pieces of the organization . There are seven that you see on  this chart that you -- that we're  going to be presenting first. There  are five RFI's, and  in the  core network area, there is one  in the satellite area one in the  department ship  area. These are being issued under  the federal acquisition rules, which  we are following to the latter. First, it will be  core assistance. Evolved packet core network systems, transport  data and so on. These will  be the first group that will be  coming out. Additionally, deployment  partners such as noble network operators  and other operating partners , radio access systems, satellite  network covering -- covering  systems, operating support systems,  user operation systems, and general  services such as system integration and program management. This is a sizable piece of work , and we will  be issuing these over the next few  months. The first seven  here will appear in the next couple  of months, and hopefully the entire  group by the end of the summer if  all goes well for us. This is just  an announcement today. Heads up that these are being developed.  And as they are entered -- being

     introduced, they will appear on  fed biz ops .gov, and there will  be additional habitat -- advertising in the Federal Register to  make people aware of these. This  process will be continuing as  we continue our state consultation  efforts. Many of us on the network  team will be out in the state consultation trips visiting the states for the next  several months as we join Chip Johnson  on that at -- ever. 

 

Mr. Chairman, that is my report,  and I look forward to the receipt  of this first RFI . Responses are expected late in  May. 

 

Thank you. 

 

Thank you,

     Greg. 

 

The final presentation today, [ Inaudible ] is going to give  us a report on the apps  development.  >> Proceed, peters. 

 

What I do is provide you where  we are on apps. Print -- Pratt  thought process and [ Inaudible  ] overall. One is we are recalling  focusing on a version .-dot five  on the storm. By working  with application [ Inaudible ] to  showcase existing apps.  As chief talked about as the experience  was put forth, it was eliminating  too many of us about applications  that some of the first responders  are using today overall. Will  touch upon that in a bit. I think  there is opportunities for us to  see, based upon what they are telling  us right now, and how we can help  them in that process. With as being  said, if --  it is not a necessarily complete  solution, but the second path that  we are working toward is developing  an RFI followed by an RFP. The attendance  engage persistent suppliers and  ends -- and  integrators. Phase one is really  looking at the detailed requirements.  Again, I will talk about that as  far as where we think some of the  most critical areas are going to  be to really focus in on and make  sure that we understand requirements ,  operations, and design of that a  rea. Followed up by that is the  architecture and buildup for what  we call the one .-dot zero of  that product. On the path one side,  the be .5 -- V  .-dot five . One of the learnings that we have  -- this is not alone with the the  time that we spent with  the chief, but time that we spent  with other first responders. Any  first responders or Young's using  commercial back -- devices today.  They're using there are  personal devices to get information  in that area. We have opportunity  to help them in the process today.  The advantage today -- the advantage  of that is moving more quickly as  I talked about first and it is by  exposing and accelerating the [  Inaudible ] for public safety today.  The key disadvantages, we  do not have a complete solution.  This, again is why we are talking  about a pair what --  girl up  half opportunity. This block diagram  here's what I first showed to the  board in December. The intention  here is looking at the distribution  of applications and focusing on  a bit of light security. For the  intent -- the intent would be for  having -- with a new  [ Inaudible ] situation and commercial -- apps  on the [ Inaudible ]. Law enforcement,  fire and rescue, EMS, and eventually  communications overall. Again, our  view is that there is apps that  are being used today that could  have some value. Again,  through a lot of the interviews  with per -- first responders and  discussion, there showing some of  those apps that are  being used. But the interesting  bit for that is the discovery of -- of those apps is somewhat random.  It  is by word-of-mouth. It is how  they hear or talk to various people.  There's an opportunity for first  met to organize those things. Some  of the public safety apps that are being  used today. This is not endorsed  him for all of these, but to show  you some the people have repeatedly  talked about is the fire application  that has gotten a lot of attention  from risk rice for CPR notifications in that area.  Another situation that is significant about Paul's point  is they have integrated for  some of the fire and rescue teams.  There is opportunity for us to work  with them in that area. And of --  and you can limit -- [ Inaudible ]. 

 

As chief was talking about, the  simulations that they're going through, won his car systematics. One of  the things that we learn from that  is one first verse ponders, particularly  fire going to a specific situation or if for some reason that would  have to cut into a car, currently  the processes  looking at hardcopy manuals. Importunate  but with the first responders  said, some of those are a year-old  plus. They are not the most up-to-date.  The opportunity to leverage that  is can we take that information  and make it online and make that  available, which Q I G does. Why  the hazmat is a hazmat they solution,  it again caught , gives us General Information that area.  We have a nice app that shows you  just -- for first  responder, and put in where the  wind is blowing at what speed so  you can look up potential evacuation  areas as well. These are commercial  applications that are available  today. The properties is one  that looks at medical prescriptions.  Of your looking of fire and rescue  where 80% of the calls are EMS related, it will give you the EMS response  -- at perspective. Looking  at [ Inaudible ]  it is helping them already. The  intent is saying that there are  a lot of apps that are already out  there. Can we provide, if you well,  a way of organizing and providing  the distribution ? The opportunity is to partner  with existing stakeholders today.

     That is -- to start an outreach  through the various [ Inaudible  ] and it is regarding lever --  liberty -- [ Inaudible ]  for that. The benefit for that is  it will give us better scale and  scope on the average of those areas. Two is that we can use them from  an insight of review rays from the key stay have --  stakeholders. It is our belief from  both sides, the first responders,  they can let other first responders -- first responders can provide what they are  -- that it would be very helpful  if you made the adjustments to these  applications there. Obviously. The  other bit is looking at  increasing those partner opportunities.  From our perspective, I know that APCO is looking to was -- launch a website that will have  some first responder apps in there.  I think that is a great opportunity  for FirstNet to look at APCO another

     key solutions. And I have talked  with the Chiefs and talked about  how to we respond to other first  responders, to get that information, to get that information for V. 5. This is a very rough mockup.  Although we are using commercial  apps that are out there today, is  that we create a registration process  and there. The  intention will be to start capturing  information so that we do not have  some -- what we do  have security processes and process.  If there are apps that require security,  they're going to be tired --  tied into the first responders existing  applications that you would use  there. It again, they give us [  Inaudible ] . To, it provides a front-end for  us that shows is he upset shows  is the apps that are built for purpose  were specific group or a region  or local municipality in that area.  We can, have discovery of that be  much cleaner overall. From a  process perspective, one of the  things that we worry about is that  we do not create too much burdens to the local  municipalities and their existing  process. For us, again, captioning  is from the [ Inaudible ], that have print  operations that are in use. Our intention is part of the next  step is to capture that information, make sure that you are leveraging  that. 

 

Again,  one, we do not want to overburden  first responders going to that area.  With that being said, that is not  necessarily the and all, be all  for that . You have a few [ Inaudible ] done  from an operating security side, mid-level securities as well. And  the V.5, weekend tab if they are level one security  side as a starting point. Again,  getting the guidance from Terry, he gives us a starting point  and then it gives us a roadmap for  building the other security that  it has something to play. Obviously,  levels to, three, and four with  this security requirements suggested  many  different type of device security  levels Burka gives us a roadmap  and let us know how were trying  to build that out. 

 

As I said, the application the -- these are  applications that are providing  value today and I think it is important  to try to leverage that as much  as we can. It is public information  apps that are out there. As I talked  about before, I think there is a  lot more that we can do and need  to  be. The path, to --  too, is looking at an RFI -based  they solution. The RFI is really  looking at -- in  our minds, the major opportunity  to for FirstNet is taking data from  local states, federal databases. It is not just  putting it in a mobile front-end,  but also looking at the data, connection  them there making sure that  you have to  -- getting it to the right people  but making the user interface very  important. It is spending time with  law enforcement agencies and stuff  like that, they are enormous pressure . They are under enormous constraints . Providing information that is  too burdensome and that solution  is going to be a problem.  And in  that case, they will probably not  use a. We need to look at user interfaces.  The one .-dot zero talks about how we can build on  that and you said across the board  that -- board in that area. The  invention -- the intention of phase  one is looking at the requirements  been does. Again, we have requirements  at the Loews -- local unit  -- municipality, state-level, and  federal level. We have to look at  how do we make sure that one is  not burdensome to another. In that -- and that -- in my mind, you can only go out  and gather that information in detail.  From that, then you can really design with the architecture  and development is of that area. At the end of five, I give -- this  is what I call the additional platform.  I want to be frank with the  board on this when you're doing  the outreach on all of this, you  have to be mindful that there might  be fatigue and reach out requirements  and things of that nature. We have  to be very sensitive of that overall.  Again, I cannot underscore enough  in my opinion to get up -- [ Inaudible ] for designing the  right system. To that in, in this, -- and  this diagram, it is building out  the whole solution. If you look  at it, in my potential opinion, the two critical areas  -- and I put that a black -- is  the authentication that I  talked about previously and how  do we look at that as well as the ATI  side. How do we take -- API side -- on we take information  from DOJ, EMS and  how do we marry that to a local  municipality area as well. If you  think about it,  if I look at V.5, you have  the top row as using the public  data that is already out there.  There are some agencies that have --  backend systems are made online.  That is great. We should leverage  that. This is not about redesigning  appeared that should be  taken what  is already been done and  moving it forward as quickly as  possible. Again, one of the other  things that has been impressed upon  me through the discussion that I  have had already is it is not only municipality AAs information that is important it  is what is next to them as well  that you want to tap and. First responder has that information  across the board regardless -- regardless  of what agency they belong and.  So, we --  mailed multiple net units appellees  -- and I talked about prior, taking  the federal information and marrying  that a gain. If we designed  this correctly, this should not  be for databases that should be  showing. If you think about a scenario,  that person is going through 4 different

     clicks in that area. Again, spending  some time with chief Dykes team,  they go through this preplanning process when  they are going at responding to  a plan. We have to deliver that information in a preplanned process.  If there is a law-enforcement person, we have to provide that  in a click -- easy click one or  two process that is easy for them  to respond for. We need to work  from it -- we need to work from  a technical perspective and from  a use -- from the user site  side  overall. In summary, program I would  update to the board is we are moving  forward with  the V.5. It is taking existing developers  and stakeholders, leveraging them  for apps that are already out t  here. Our intention is getting  feedback from the apps, start getting feedback from the apps  that we have and getting that across  the board of building in the process.  At the same time, we  also need to develop an RFI and  an RFP, looking at, again, the requirements,  and focusing in on what I think  is the most complicated process,  the operations of that, in the back insistence -- assistance that you tie in there.  You're looking at access, form  -- performance, and that it works  and they're existing processes,  in that area. That is the update  for the board. Obviously, as we  come to decisions and things to  that -- of that nature, we present that to the board through  Google as required. 

 

As I get this, one option is  to get online quickly with what is out there and began  to  [ Inaudible ] that and learn. And  through developing that, we will  be developing the [ Inaudible ] system? 

 

That's right. 

 

Tam? 

 

Want to congratulate  Bill and peters on this. I think  it is the right approach for public  safety. I think the way you do this  is you go at a gradually . You let the users help define  things for you and then move forward  from there. We do not need to reinvent  the wheel. You're willing to take  anything out there that works, and  I think that is the right approach.  I think that you guys see a [ Inaudible  ]. Any other comments? 

 

Kerry? 

 

One of the things that I want  to mention as an area  that we're going to need to, I think,  talk about in the future in that  is the actual data sharing that underlies these applications.  The applications and of themselves [ Inaudible ] short of the examples that Peter  talked about, which are using publicly  available information. One of the  challenges the public safety community  has is standard formats for  that, sharing of that. I think that  we all know there is been a need to do some standardization.  I just want to mention that we are  going to need to address that going  forward. I think that  the public safety folks who are  familiar with that can be a big  help and just revealing the issues and the difficulties we have had  so far with what we're able  to do. And maybe talking about how  we can push that weight forward in parallel with thinking about  the application people. The applications are going to be valuable to us  until we get the [ Inaudible ]. 

 

The one way that I think about  it is the traditional apps that  we are all familiar with that we  are -- that we download, into our  smart phone . But the other challenging areas  going to be access to government  information wherever it exists in our -- on behalf of the first  responders. That might be a more  complicated issue that is essential in developing the  abstract coffee. 

 

We talked about that. That is  a big challenge. Any other comments?  >> Thank you all for attending. Meeting  adjourned. 

 

 We are going to have a [ Inaudible  ] briefing. Let's take about 10  minutes and report back for  that effort.  >> [The session is on a 10-minute  recess.  Captioner is standing  by.] [ Event concluded ] him

     him him

 

Question for Chairman Ken. During  a recent capital here -- capital Hill appears, in exchange  with Representative Welch, when

     speaking of challenges, you mentioned  the Federal acquisition roles. I  wanted to follow-up with you on  that to see -- do those  issues persist and have you  sought any clarification of the  rules?

    

 

Have you discussed with  Congress speeding the boards work  with respect to -- 

 

Yes. I think that it is  my opinion -- and I think it is  shared by the majority of the board  that  in general, the federal overlay  of requirements will increase our  cost and increase the time expected to deliver the system. Some of the requirements and  federal regulations do not seem  to fit the categories of a project is  complicated as this one. At least  in my view, [ Inaudible ] was designed if you  want to make an individual person  -- purchase.  If you want to buy 100 vehicles,  there is a precise way to do that.  You issue RFPs. You get them.  You evaluate them. It  is decided it is decide -- which vendor  is successful, appealable.  If you are out buying 35,000 cell  sites, doing that 35,000 times is  not practical -- reasonably

     practical in building a nationwide  network. You need some flexibility in your purchasing arrangement. Now, we have a committee of the  board supported by NTIA personnel who is working on  a proposal that we hope  will get administration support  and congressional support to give us targeted relief simply  to allow us to  more effectively accomplish our  task.  That is ongoing. 

 

Operator,  any questions on the phone? 

 

No questions at this time. 

 

In the room?  >> I am curious at what  you have learned from the. SPEAKER8Aspect about  the key challenges and -- 

 

My apologies. 

 

What have you learned from the  State outreach that you have done  at this early stage about what the  key challenges will be in getting  buy-in from all of them going forward? 

 

Jeff, do  you want to take a  first correct of --  on that? 

 

Thank you but Mr. Chairman. Some  of our initial outreach with the  governors -- primarily at the meeting  with the national Governors Association,  they shared their  concerns about local management  of the network, and our design team  has heard that and is reacting to  the need to have this network  locally managed. Another concern  that they have that we do not have  a strategy for yet but that we have  noted it is something to solve is  that there is broad concern for  the poorest of emergency responders  in terms of the agencies and responders  that do not have the feel -- ability to buy  the most basic protective equipment.  They are concerned that we will  address how we will provide services  to them, how we will avail services  to them. That was a real learning point for us. We do not have  it solved, but  we definitely have it on our list  of things to be solved. I think  the second point is that they wanted  to be assured that we were going  to visit them. That we were --  that these would be one-on-one meetings  that would improve candor and the  depth of the Cumbre station. And  we want to make sure that we had their desire and need to meet them  one-on-one and to listen to their  needs to make sure that it is open to our  requirements. 

 

At least he feedback that I heard  was Number 1, we buy into interoperability . We want to be a part of a  nationwide network. Number 2,  local control of my operation , and Number 3 I want  to be a part of how you engineer  my state there I think those were the kinds of  learnings that I have gotten so  far.  >> I also want to echo what Jeff has  said from a technical  perspective. We have also heard  a lot about the  world areas. There are many, many  unserved areas that have no radio  coverage at all. Satellite component that is part of the suggested compact here is critical for those  parts of the country, and that can  be upwards of 25% of the US land mass that falls  into that area. It is a significant  amount of land. We are looking at  the unserved and underserved parts  of the area. The coverage perspective  is another thing. As we have talked  to dozens of public safety folks,  they also want to be sure that we  are using the documents that they  have provided over the years . They have built several documents  which are quite wonderful. They  have all of the detail that is needed  to build on a  first-class public safety network.  We have thousands of pages of requirements,  and as you will see in all of our IFI work, every public safety network that we have  been given has been faithfully reproduced  in those documents and has been  asked for and every RFI. We have -- you will see all of that and  put in there. There are no commercial  requirements and that document,  only public safety requirement  E rik. 

 

Operator, we're hearing  we are  hearing from reporters that they're  having difficulty ends -- asking  questions. Can you give them  instructions again. Reporters on  the call, if you are not able to  connect, please e-mail me to question. 

 

I do have one question on the  phone line. Please press  star want to ask a question. I do  have a question from Saber Wilkins. 

 

This is Sandra  with part of communication's magazine.  I just wanted to see if, based on  some of the concerns that were brought  up at the meeting, if you can outline how the board does plan to work  with the PSAC on how their will be integrated  into the board with its members . 

 

We have scheduled a once a month  meeting between the network planning group and PSAC. Presentations were made on the  status of the engineering effort , and feedback is received from  PSAC members which is taken  by the engineering group and incorporated  into their design efforts. We recently had one of  those meetings which Paul Fitzgerald attended  where a full and open discussion of all of the network principles that we are still establishing were discussed and feedback was  given. We expect that in the future , we will continue those meetings. Hopefully, they will  be productive. Any questions in the room?  >> Paul Fitzgerald said you have a  400 draft plan that you reviewed  yesterday. Is that plan the operational, the business,  the technical and all of that, and  you want to speak to the criticism that you  are reviewing the draft plan before  you have gone after the states,  they listening tour, that is one  of Paul's criticisms . 

 

Greg, do you want to take the  first part of that, and then I will  comment. 

 

Yes. What we have produced is  not a plan but is an update on a  design process . We have developed financial models  your we have developed business concepts. We have developed  network architectures . There is no firm plan. We are  waiting for state consultation and -- amperage is up 80 in active  consultation right n ow, and that  is our primary role in the design  group. We are at the same time gathering  a lot of information from the vendor  community. But at  this stage, what we did was update  the Board on our first quarter,  and the progress we have received  to date . But I would not construe what  we have done as a plan . 

 

You had said in December that  you hope that the business plan  could be presented to the board  at this meeting. Is center -- is  there an update on when you hope  that plan can be reviewed and approved  by the Board? 

 

There is. We were very much looking  forward to Bill coming on as a new  general manager and getting a --  and getting --  giving a general manager to bring  the team together and also review  the plan. I would say our next  opportunity well likely be the August  board meeting, but I will leave  that to the chairman and others  to decide.  But that will probably be the first  opportunity peer consultation will  be closing, first round anyway,  in July. We look forward to having  more information at the time . 

 

I have a question via e-mail  from Brooks directed to Mr. Fisk does -- Mr. Fitzgerald. 

 

What is happening doubly lead  you to believe that the [ Inaudible  word ] is captioning the board. 

 

My motion in State of the motion  refer to themselves. I  will refer all questions to the  chairman.  >> Chairman again does not agree with  the motion. I guess is my answer. 

 

And by the way, what I am most troubled by our the misconduct charges in this motion , which he provides no evidence. I guess that bothers me the  most. 

 

Okay. I have another question  via e-mail from Howard from communications daily.  I wanted to  follow up on the questions  raised by Sheriff Fitzgerald since  he is only a handful of two active first responder was  -- responders on the board. Is it's speak to [ Inaudible ] in  the community that the board needs  to address. 

 

I will ask fellow members  from public safety to answer the  question.  >> I think in response to that, that I  do not see  the same level of concern and public  safety that apparently Paul sees. Whenever you involved in a process  like this in  and the process takes  time to mature, there  is a lot of things and a lot of  issues that help -- that happen  out there and a lot of things get  said there  I am not getting the same thing  or the same sense that Paul is,  and, a gain, I am -- I've been a public safety from  us 34 years now. I'm comfortable  but the process is moving will . Anything that you ever do  can always go better, but I think  that this has been effective. I  think we're getting to where we  need to be. I do not have the same  concerned that Paul has, certainly nowhere near the level of concern  that Paul has. Just for my perspective,  my other hat  in the NYPD, I can tell you that my agency , and, in fact, the City of New  York, is completely comfortable  with the process so far with FirstNet  and has every intention of working  very closely with FirstNet. I'm  just not seeing that kind of concern.  >> I do have another question from  the phone line. 

 

Hold on one second  please. 

 

I would echo chief Dalles comments.

     As an active EMS service chief,  I think that I am quite aware  -- particularly in the public sector communications world, how  folks and EMS  are looking at first net and developments . I am not seeing that -- a level of  that type of concern. I think that  we have wrestled with how to effectively  incorporate the work of the PSAC  into the sports work , and we know that there are some  legal challenges within that year  we are addressing those, and I think  that we are making progress with  that here I believe the chair of the PSAC is comfortable  with that as well. -- and the discussions that I  have had with them. 

 

I am not seeing the level of  concern that Sheriff Fitzgerald is seeing. 

 

This  is Jeff Johnson. I, to, -- too, and not seeing the concern  and the fire committed to. In  the last couple of months we've  talked it -- talk  to the largest fire chiefs in America  to broad audiences of the fire community and given  them an update. In the fire community,  they feel well heard,  will represented, and connected  to what we are doing. We are just  not seeing that level of concern. In terms of -- I can't speak to what  Paul is seeing and hearing, but  I can say that in the fire community,  we are very comfortable with their  level of representation and their  level of input. 

 

Let me just make  one final point here. One of the things that we need  to keep in mind is we can serve public safety best if we engineer, build,  and operate a robust network that allows public safety to revolutionize how they do their business. That is the goal. The goal is not to communicate  with a segment -- public safety that feels like  they have  not been heard. The real goal is  to get this network built, engineered , and operating within a budget , within a timeframe , within the parameters  set by Congress. That  is how, in my opinion, we can serve  public safety. I think me, a long with every member of  this board, has been focused on  that. It is not that we have been  perfect jerk our communications  have not been perfect. As I  said before, we were not constituted to be operating  management. We were constituted  to be a board. We are changing that  with Bill and Senior minute -- senior management is going to  follow. I would expect our communication  channels would be a lot better. 

 

Let's keep in mind the goal here  is to get this network engineered  and built so that it can serve public safety. 

 

Operator, we will take a call. 

 

 Sandra. Go ahead please. 

 

 This is Sandra Milliken with mission-critical  mitigation. At a couple points during  the meeting, you mentioned different  engineers on staff that were in  the file immersion experience and  some of the applications. I wondered  if you can give an overview of the  engineers that are helping FirstNet . Are they full-time employee, are  they contractors?  How will did that staff work with  you throughout the process? 

 

I'm going to ask Greg to  comment on that, but the issue that  we addressed early on was we did  not know where we were going to  be headquartered . We didn't know who the general  manager would be, and it was our  point of view that what we ought  to do is hire temporary people on short-term  contracts . But  people who were highly talented  and had a history of success in  this industry. People who had built systems around  the world. That is what we did.  We hired people with vast experience and network ,  network engineering, network construction  and operation, and pulled together  a team of less than 15 people. I  think that is right. They have produced in a very short time documents that show us the path as to how we can build  this network . The idea now is that we have a  general manager who will begin to make decisions  on where  work will exist and we will move  toward a more permanent Calvary of employees.  That gives you a  little background of how we got  to where we are. Greg, do you want  to add anything to that? 

 

I would be happy to, Sam. As  Sam said, we have four areas that  we are working in. We work on the  network side and receive all of the input on  the network side. We have a business  group that looks at  business modeling, planning, it  we have a group in market research  that is doing all of our vendor  Outlook  -- Outlook and vendor requirements.  And that we have our state consultation  team that is actively preparing  all of the questions and input for  the state. So we have a four track  parallel process  with the team that we have. The  call since -- the consultants that  are used are experts, as set -- Sam  mentioned, and their selected area.  We brought the man because we --  they have a unique experience world-class.  I would put them up against anybody  worldwide as some of the  highness  -- I is people, most integrity, ice people in the  business. We have also combined  that with several experts in public  safety . Are keep things at this point  are to gather all of that and develop -- creative solutions for public  safety and come up with network  architecture. We have been working  that from the beginning. We have  temporary contracts and months in duration, and we  are in temporary facilities,  developing interim plans. That is  currently what we have underway. 

 

We will take one more question  in the room, and then we will wrap  it up. 

 

[ Inaudible ] with state line  a gain. Talked about Boston. But  I'm also curious about how communications  functions and West , and then with Boston, am curious,  if you could speak to what  potential applications and the full capacity of the ultimate  national system when it is up and running , and offer in a situation like  Boston. 

 

LT  is data-driven. It allows you to  put megabits on the ground across  the entire United States.  If you think back to your first  cell phone, could you have predicted the abs -- the  app structure that exists today?  You could not. The reason that you  could not is because of the innovation

     in the marketplace. When people  see problems, they solve them. In  some ways, I see our mission is  to lay that capability across  the United States, and the  innovators within public safety will come up with incredible ways

     to improve their operations, lower  their call  cost, or save lives. And so  what I was thinking about when I  was looking at the TV coverage of  Boston was we made the right decision. We're  going to to put into place an infrastructure  that is going to allow video transmission . It is  going to allow downloads of camera  information. Downloads of pictures  of people, all kinds of things that  I think well benefit public safety and emergency  situations. The whole  experience just suggested to me  that Congress had the right  idea here , foreseeing the needs of public  safety and of course our group is here to deliver that vision.

    

 

Sam, if I may eared. 

 

I think you hit the nail on the  head. Let me just give you one night -- example of how a network like  this will support -- we talk about first response being  local. We also want to take advantage  of the resources global of Public  safety. This is one small example.  Bomb squads. Alston bomb squad,  FBI bomb squad, NYPD bombs what's, bomb squads  all over the country, it is a very  close knit group at one of the advantages  of a network like this was to have  the ability of stream live high  definition video of the device  as it is being acted on by the local  bomb squad. The advantage there  is these devices to 1 degree or another follow a  certain architecture or design pattern. To be able to take advantage of  allowing us , say, for example, every bomb squad  in the country to walk the -- to  watch that action being taken in  a situation like Boston, been able  to watch that life is a huge example of public safety to support the  analysis and the action needed to  take -- to render the device  safe. That is one example of how  this network well change the way  public safety does its business. 

 

Another small example from the  EMS world in situations where -- whether  it is West Texas or Boston, where  the -- where you have dozens  and dozens of people injured in  a mass casualty . We have  incidents today where I can monitor  20 [ Inaudible ] on  this cell phone simultaneous it  -- simultaneously but  you have to have a broadband to  do that. You can hone down on that  patient, see what the vinyls --  vital sides are and send someone  to them. Monitoring hundred and  60 patients in Boston, we need more smart phones. 

 

With that, we will wrap it up.  If there are any follow-up questions,  please just send me an e-mail.

     [ Event concluded ]