CITY OF FULLERTON
TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP
MEETING MINUTES
October 30, 2008
9:00 A.M.
CALL TO ORDER Vice Chair Stover called the meeting to order at 9:04 a.m.
ROLL CALL Members Present
Fred Canfield Harry Lamberth
Mike Carter Thad Sandford
Helen Hall Ed Smith
Larry Iboshi Paul Stover, Vice Chair
Members Absent
Roger Burtner, Chair
Madusha Palliyage
Carl Samantello
Staff:
Ofer Amrami, Network Specialist
Rob Ferrier, Assistant to the City Manager
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Vice Chair Stover asked if there were any additions or corrections to the minutes of October 9, 2008. With no changes, Thad Sandford moved approval of the minutes. The motion was seconded by Fred Canfield, and the minutes were unanimously approved.
DISCUSSION ITEMS
1. Creation of an educational/municipal (institutional) fiber/wireless network,
FullertonNet
ISMS Evaluation Plan Update
Mr. Ferrier reported that the contract with ISMS had been signed and returned to them, and that a project kickoff meeting has been scheduled for November 10 at 9 a.m. in the Redevelopment conference room. The purpose of the kickoff meeting will be to identify the relevant parties of the City and two school districts with whom ISMS will need to interface, and to review the project's scope of work.
Vice Chair Stover recommended that the committee members take a look at ISMS' website, which he believes is very informative. The website is www.IS-MS.com.
Mr. Iboshi asked if the study will support the high school district in their planning. Mr. Ferrier indicated that the end result of the study is to be a document which each of the participants can take to their policy making bodies relative to whether or not they want to move forward with an I-Net.
Mr. Stover recommended that at the kickoff meeting the ISMS group be made aware that the participants are in a fluid situation, and if something comes forward during the study process that would be relevant to the school district, ISMS should bring the information forward perhaps earlier than waiting for the report to be presented.
Anaheim/Earthlink Radios Update
At the previous meeting, Ms. Hall had been asked to make the necessary inquiries as to whether or not it would be possible for Fullerton to purchase the Tropos radios that were left on poles in Anaheim. Ms. Hall reported that the radios in Anaheim are owned by Earthlink, and Earthlink has walked away from the equipment. Anaheim is leaving the equipment on the poles. It is not known whether another company might come in and use the equipment. As far as purchasing the radios, because there are too many unknowns at this point in time, such as: if Earthlink is in bankruptcy, would we have to deal with the bankruptcy referee; what would the costs be for retrieving the equipment even if we could purchase it, such as a cherry picker, labor, liability insurance, etc., it was decided that it would be less complicated to just go ahead and buy new radios to replace the two that are not working in the downtown area. Ms. Hall indicated the cost would be less than $2,000.
Mr. Iboshi noted that he had previously requested that bandwidth not be restricted for users, the TWG had agreed, and Ms. Hall had implemented that request at the direction of the TWG. He asked if perhaps updating the software to limit user access time might improve service. Fullerton's Network Specialist Ofer Amrami indicated that limiting access time would only result in more user complaints to City Hall because a user might be in the middle of downloading something and his access might be terminated because of a time limit. Mr. Amrami suggested that perhaps funds would be better spent on a newer system that's faster and more efficient. He noted that the downtown network is still a "b" network, but commercial networks are now "n" – that's the network that is emerging, which is much faster. He suggested they could also upgrade to a "g" network, and provide users with more bandwidth.
After a brief discussion it was decided that at this point in time the only action to be taken by Ms. Hall will be to replace the two radios that are not working. Mr. Stover suggested that if there is additional money available, perhaps another radio could be added to the network.
Anaheim's DHS (Department of Homeland Security) Funding for Fiber to Airport
Ms. Hall explained that in 2006 Fullerton implemented a new 9-1-1 records manage-ment system for the police department. Anaheim purchased the same software. For EOC (emergency operations center) planning purposes, Fullerton and Anaheim entered into an agreement allowing Fullerton to place a server and 9-1-1 workstation at Anaheim P.D. and allowing Anaheim to place a server and 9-1-1 workstation at Fullerton P.D. This will provide backup (redundancy) in the event of an emergency that might cause the failure of either city's 9‑1‑1 systems. Anaheim received a $353,000 Homeland Security grant to help with the redundancy for the EOC. Since Anaheim was also going to be laying fiber to Fullerton Airport (Anaheim has helicopter landing rights at Fullerton's heliport), Ms. Hall met with the City Manager and Engineering Director to discuss the feasibility of Fullerton laying additional fiber at the same time Anaheim has its trenches open, essentially piggybacking on Anaheim's fiber. Anaheim has offered to pick up the cost.
Mr. Amrami explained that the original focus of the grant was for Anaheim to connect to Fullerton Airport. However, the focus shifted from the airport to connecting the two cities. Anaheim had originally asked DHS for $600,000. The grant was approved last week for $353,000. The main part of the project will be to connect the two cities. If there is money left over, they will continue to the airport. A map of the proposed route for the fiber was distributed to the TWG members for their information. Mr. Amrami pointed out that Anaheim and Fullerton would be looking for the easiest, least costly way to accomplish the routing of the fiber, which will be mostly overhead. He indicated that the only areas that are actually conduits are under the 91 freeway (Fullerton recently laid in a 3-inch conduit spare in one of their recent projects). Anaheim has fiber reaching to La Palma. They will tap in from there, go up Brookhurst to Valencia, then split the two lines. One will go east on Valencia to Highland, then north into City Hall. The other will go to Commonwealth and then west to the airport.
Mr. Amrami also noted that the second page of the handout was a diagram of the downtown security camera system which will be completed mid December. Fullerton laid 60 strands of fiber in the street for that project, but will only be using 12 strands for the cameras. The remaining strands are for future use. Anaheim's project will eventually connect to the downtown camera strands.
Mr. Lamberth questioned why the fiber would be running as far west as Brookhurst when the Anaheim Police Department is on Harbor. He asked why the route does not come up Harbor to Fullerton and then west to the airport. Mr. Amrami explained that it has something to do with Anaheim having two police substations, east and west. Mr. Amrami pointed out that this is Anaheim's project. They are paying for the entire project, and they will run the entire project, but Fullerton's inspectors will be overseeing that part of it located in Fullerton.
Mr. Stover questioned the rationale for choosing Valencia. Mr. Amrami explained it was the ease of use – overhead – as opposed to Commonwealth, which has an underpass and would require opening the street. And the reason for Highland is that conduit already exists there, under the bridge.
Mr. Ferrier pointed out that it would not be a good idea to open up Valencia since the City recently spent $8 million of federal money to put in street improvements on Valencia.
Mr. Amrami noted that the proposed route is not final. It is the route that was agreed to by Anaheim and Fullerton. Anaheim still has to do site surveys to confirm the feasibility of the route chosen. This project is in ongoing development stages. Ms. Hall noted that the DHS grant requires that the project be completed within one year.
Mr. Stover thanked Ms. Hall and Mr. Amrami for all of their efforts in working with Anaheim on this project to secure Fullerton's interest in adding additional fiber to the City's system.
2. Emergency Preparedness Information Update
Mr. Ferrier briefed the TWG on the upcoming (November 13th) Golden Guardian drill (Southern California Shakeout). He explained that it is a real-world exercise with the simulation a severe (7.8) earthquake. This drill will activate the City's EOC (emergency operations center) at a remote location (in this case Fire Station 6 on Rosecrans). The purpose of the drill is to test the city's response in the event of a disaster, and to determine any inadequacies, if they exist, and develop improvement strategies if needed.
At the previous meeting, Mr. Stover had asked Mr. Ferrier to inquire as to whether or not members of the TWG might participate in and/or observe the drill. Mr. Ferrier reported that he had checked with the City Manager who explained that because this is a real exercise, civilians would not be allowed.
Mr. Stover reminded the members that if they were interested in finding out more information about the event, they could check www.shakeout.org, and if they are interested, they can sign up to participate as an individual, a family, a neighborhood group, a CERT group, a school, scouting group, college, business, faith-based organization, medical, local government, museum, etc. Mr. Stover suggested that the TWG sign up as a group. He emphasized that the TWG should be made aware of such an exercise, and the TWG should determine what level of engagement, if any, there should be for the TWG. Mr. Stover also expressed concern that, to his knowledge, there was very little publicity regarding the event, and he believes the TWG should have been informed of this event well in advance.
Mr. Ferrier indicated that he was not sure which government agency was master-minding the event, and he could not speak to the number of government agencies which will be participating, but he pointed out that Fullerton staff take an event such as the Golden Guardian Drill very seriously. He noted that every city employee is a registered disaster worker, and the Fire Department is tasked with ensuring that city staff are prepared and trained to perform their assigned roles in the event of an emergency.
Mr. Stover recommended that the TWG members go through the CERTS (Community Emergency Response Teams) program as a group, and suggested that the CERTS training be added to the agenda for the next TWG meeting for further discussion, to work out a date that might be convenient for everyone to participate in the training, which to his understanding takes place on Saturdays.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Orange County Registrar
Mr. Stover mentioned that he recently had occasion to access the Orange County Registrar's webpage (ocvote.com) and was quite impressed with their site, which includes video clips, voting system info, electronic systems, etc. He spoke with their IT representative who indicated that Orange County is ahead of the curve across the entire country in dealing with voter fraud. Mr. Stover suggested it would be an interesting field trip for the TWG to visit the O.C. Registrar for a tour of their IT operations.
ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
ISMS/Time-Warner Kickoff Meeting Update
CERTS training
Field Trip to O.C. Registrar
PUBLIC COMMENTS
None
OTHER COMMENTS
None
ADJOURNMENT
With no further business, Vice Chair Stover adjourned the meeting at 10:28.
Next meeting scheduled for December 4.
