Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee

1. Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee SWIC May 19, 2011

2. PSIC Project Update • Monthly Expenditures • Southwestern Utah • $114,660 • Weber Summit • $42,690 • San Juan County • Spent over $115,000 but has not yet submitted for reimbursement • UCAN assisting to cover match requirement

3. PSIC Project Update $6,697,642.27 Spent $3,377,618.73 To Go

4. Attendees Lance Davenport, DPS Steve Proctor, UCAN Doug Chandler, DTS Travis Sylvester, DTS David Hopkins, DOT Gordy Coles, DTS Jake Hunt, UCAN Sid Groll, DNR Jeff Winterton, Wasatch County S.O. Mike Higgs, So Salt Lake Fire Department Kent Robertson, So Salt Lake Fire Department Ken Imber, Salt Lake Airport SCIP Workshop

5. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Purpose • To provide a forum for the Utah Statewide Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC) to: • Revisit the Utah Statewide Communication Interoperability Plan (SCIP) • Clarify the purpose and role of the SIEC • Reach agreement on regular strategic planning check-ins moving forward

6. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Outcomes • Agreement on Utah SCIP initiatives’ priorities to reflect the current day status of interoperability work in Utah • Agreement on strategic planning check-in schedule

7. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Purposes of the SIEC • Coordinating Body: • Serve as a coordinating body by bringing together all of the relevant stakeholders to share: • Information • Tools • Knowledge • Best practices • Make decisions and promote efforts that effect communications at a statewide level • The SIEC should continue to push local government representatives to keep coming to the table to strengthen interoperability, even without Federal funding.

8. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Purposes of the SIEC • Funding Facilitator: • To distribute remaining limited funding to local entities strategically. • As one participant observed, grant dollars have been the most effective tool in bringing people to the table to collaborate on communications interoperability. With less grant dollars available as an incentive, the SIEC will need to carefully consider the potential impact of its funding allocation decisions on interoperability collaboration from local entities. • To approach the legislature with funding requests as a coordinated entity. • To educate legislators on the needs of the State, bringing end users to tell legislators the story of “boots on the ground” needs. • To get legislators to buy-in to a consolidated funding model because sharing resources can at times be more expensive than getting separate resources. • One participant stated that, “The current funding model is the choke hold on all of us.” The funding model will continue to be a challenge when the State moves to broadband. • To leverage existing State resources (sites, towers, and buildings) when possible. • Consider how to leverage existing resources while managing cost-recovery obligations. • One participant made the following observation: “Does the SIEC know what resources are available?” • To invite Federal agencies to the table. • There is a lot of Federal land in Utah, and many Federal agencies that operate on this land are non-interoperable with the rest of the State. In fact, often the State has to pay the expense for the Federal agencies to access State and local radio systems. • These Federal agencies operate on a different frequency and opening gateways to fix the problem quickly ties up repeaters. • A participant made the following observation: “Interoperability on a Federal level is a bigger problem than interoperability on the State level.”

9. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Purposes of the SIEC • State Training Curriculum Coordinator • Create a training curriculum for statewide use • Could potentially use different Waveform Audio File Format (WAV) files or DVD formats for distributing training across the State. • Colorado’s Statewide Interoperability Governing Body (SIGB) is developing a training curriculum and might be willing to share its plan with Utah. • Colorado’s training plan is not system specific; it trains across resources. • Potential training content: • Training should be designed to incorporate dispatchers and cover topics like: radio talk group usage, basic radio usage, and education on talkgroups and zones.

10. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Role of the SWIC • Participants agreed that Scott is like a missionary of the SIEC whose role is to inform and make others aware of what is going on in interoperability around the State. • Scott also serves as a liaison with Federal agencies on behalf of the SIEC. • Scott’s focus for the coming year should be on the following: facilitating funding for statewide communications interoperability, obtaining legislative representatives on the SIEC, continuing overall statewide interoperability coordination, and helping to drive education and outreach efforts of the SIEC.

11. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Priorities for Immediate Action: • Obtain Legislative Representation on the SIEC: • Meeting attendees agreed that it would be ideal to have two legislators, one representing the House and another representing the Senate, on the SIEC. • Ensure that the right people are selected from legislature to serve on the SIEC (i.e., those who will come to meetings and who will go to bat for the SIEC). There was agreement that the SIEC could influence who is appointed to the SIEC. For example, several members of the SIEC are members of the Governor’s Cabinet and serve on numerous committees with legislators. These members can both provide feedback on which legislators the SIEC should pursue and can then help get those legislators onboard.

12. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Action Items: • Get legislative representatives on the SIEC. • Use Scott’s radio tabletop exercise to introduce new legislative representatives on the SIEC to the interoperability issue. Modify the SIEC’s statute in order to incorporate members of the legislature on the committee. • Explain to legislators that not funding interoperability is like funding half of a 9-1-1 call. • The SIEC is chartered through legislation, therefore the charter will need to be changed by the State legislature to add members to the SIEC. • Responsible Parties: • Commissioner Lance Davenport and other SIEC cabinet members, including Steve Proctor, will help with this.

13. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Action Items: • Conduct Quarterly Strategic Planning Sessions: • Participants discussed three questions to gain clarity on the SIEC’s strategic planning process: • How should the SIEC conduct strategic planning? • How often should the SIEC conduct strategic planning? • In what format should the SIEC conduct strategic planning?

14. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Action Items: • It was agreed that the SIEC should conduct quarterly strategic planning sessions to step back and take a critical look at its work and progress. It was also recommended that the SIEC conduct Communications Interoperability evaluations and assessments based on incidents that occur around the State. These assessments will provide current State information to help guide the quarterly strategic planning sessions.

15. SCIP Workshop Recommendations • Action Items: • Evaluations and assessments: • The NECP Goals are a good first step in evaluating and assessing the current interoperability status and subsequent progress across the State of Utah. • The recommendation was made to incorporate reports from real-world incidents around the State into the strategic planning meeting (presenting the information as illustrative of current interoperability progress). • One potential challenge that might arise when asking counties and localities to talk about their incident response successes and challenges is that they might feel the need to present their performance in the best light rather than feeling comfortable about speaking candidly about the problems and challenges encountered.

16. First Evaluation/Report to the SIEC • Sheriff Orme from Juab County • Implemented a Communications Plan to support a multijurisdictional effort at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes over Spring Break • Interoperable Communications Support provided by: • DTS – Strategic Reserve Trailer • DEM – Mobile Command Vehicle • DPS/Comm – Dispatcher to run event

17. COML/COMT Program • Motion to support a COML Program • 68 Individuals have taken the COML Course • Unsure how many taskbooks have been signed off • 15 individuals have taken the COMT Course • 4 Taskbooks have been signed off • Aaron Beesley Utah Highway Patrol • Justin Watters Utah County • Bob Craven Division of Emergency Management • Justin LeClare Department of Technology Services

18. COML/COMT • Training Exercise 4/22/2011 (brown bag) • Conducted a communications training exercise in conjunction with the Little Sahara Event • COMLs used the existing Incident Action Plan to develop a Radio Communications Plan

19. COML/COMT • Training Exercise 4/22/2011 • COMTs implement the radio plan • Served as technical advisors to the COMLs in developing the plan • Set up gateways for 800Mhz 150MHz communications • Mobilized and deployed portable radio caches ensuring accountability

20. COML/COMT • Develop a network of COMLs ensuring that each Homeland Security Region has at least two COMLs that have taskbooks signed off • Develop a process for signing off taskbooks • Develop a central body (SIEC Subcommittee) to organize quarterly training and taskbook completion throughout the state • Work with APCO to provide communications training at conferences for responders and technicians in addition to dispatchers • Publish monthly or quarterly newsletter to all COMLs COMTs highlighting events throughout the state (AARs and Lessons Learned), technical information (Ask Gordy Coles) and training opportunities

21. COML/COMT • Challenges • Who pays for this? • When a communications asset is deployed, billing is an issue • My COML is too busy holding a hose to build a Communications Plan

22. SWIC Projects/Presentations • Utah APCO Conference • Utah Healthcare Preparedness Summit • Governor’s Public Safety Summit • COMX • COML Courses • Brigham City • St. George