By Dave Buchanan, FirstNet Director of Consultation

As the third largest state in the nation and by far the most populous, California’s Initial Consultation Meeting with FirstNet was structured to meet the needs of the diverse and vast Golden State.  Instead of the normal one-day event, California gathered more than 175 stakeholders and several FirstNet staff in Sacramento for two and a half days to share information and identify needs.  

California is practiced at responding to many types and sizes of disasters, which set the stage for the state’s public safety community to convey a tremendous amount of information and best practices to FirstNet on the first day of the consultation.  Mark Ghilarducci, the Director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, emphasized the need for public safety to have a dedicated data network to obtain that common operating picture among all disciplines and allow for a timely and efficient response that will improve public safety and save lives.  FirstNet Board member Kevin McGinnis shared FirstNet’s progress and the opportunities it will create for public safety as a way to inspire the attendees to share their unique needs during the initial consultation.  

Day two highlighted the strength of partnerships and coordination throughout California.  Panels on rural communication challenges and interoperability represented the depth and breadth of the organizations that are working hard to identify the unique needs of the state.  A variety of organizations participated to share their detailed knowledge and their specific challenges, needs, and hopes for the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network ( NPSBN), including the California Highway Patrol, multiple tribal nations, a rural mayor, a local fire chief, a sheriff search and rescue director, the president of a state emerging technology organization, and the Department of Defense.  The California Public Utilities Commission also presented some of the detailed data collection and analysis they had been conducting that will provide a valuable additional layer of detail to inform the development of the state plan.  The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications project also shared lessons learned.

Day three of the Initial Consultation Meeting was a half-day session that focused on the unique needs of the state’s 109 federally recognized tribes.  There were many informative and candid conversations about the challenges of data collection, meeting tribal coverage objectives, leveraging existing tribal assets, and being respectful of culturally sensitive sites and lands.  The tribal leadership and public safety representatives provided constructive ideas for how to meet the needs of the tribes.  California confirmed their commitment to work closely with the tribes to collect their important data.  The dedicated time in the agenda to address tribal needs allowed for a greater depth of understanding and clarification among all participants.

California also presented use cases from recent public safety incidents to demonstrate the possible benefits of having a dedicated public safety network.

Use Case Panel: Rim Fire

• Paul Troxel, Dispatch Services Manager, Placer County Sheriff’s Office - Moderator
• Eric Erhardt, Lieutenant, Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office
• Don Boland, Director, California Utilities Emergency Association (CUEA)
• Anne Kronenberg, Executive Director, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management
• Dore Beitz, Board Member, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians
• Charlie Cullen, Police Technical Services Director, City of Palo Alto Police Department
• Keone Kali, FirstNet, Region IX Outreach Lead

The 2013 Rim Fire was among the most significant wildfires in California history, taking more than two months to contain and burning more than 400 square miles of remote and treacherous terrain in and near the Yosemite National Park.  Besides threatening local and tourist populations and the natural environment, the fire also had potential impacts to the Hetch Hetchy dam and reservoir that supply fresh water and hydroelectric power to the San Francisco metro area, more than 120 miles away.  

Local communications infrastructure that served over 2.6 million customers was lost in the fire.  Equipment providing satellite capability was deployed in that area, but within a day it was consumed by the fire, with the smoke and the forest also blocking some signals.  Not only were the first responders operating with minimal communications between the front lines of the fire and the command post, but the San Francisco utility managers had no direct communication to know whether the city would lose some of its primary water and power sources.  Commanders resorted to making the 90-minute drive between the fire and the command post to obtain updates, which took time away from other critical duties.  

For the command post, some of the best information was provided by individuals who stopped by on their way out of the area.  Without constant and clear information, evacuations were hard to manage.   In addition, there were certain populations that needed to be medically evacuated, but the state had challenges with sharing the list due to the communications issues.  While there was a reverse 911 system in place in most of the area, not all local providers were subscribers.  There was also a challenge handing out radios and maps to people who were unfamiliar with the area.

A vital partner in the incident was the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, whose reservation land was threatened by the fire.  They were given a seat at the Emergency Operation Center and participated in many decisions since they had to orchestrate their own evacuation in the area.  They had the additional challenge of notifying many of the tribal employees who were not a part of the tribe.  This illustrated the benefit of counties working together with tribes to protect all citizens.  The tribe also helped by allowing their hotel to be used by the incident management team and providing resources, including radios.

The critical communications issues and delays during the Rim Fire could have been reduced with a public safety broadband network.  The consensus among the panelists was that the NPSBN could have been a life-saver in this situation.  The network could have helped communications with outside agencies that entered the area to help with the response, as well as with video, mapping, high-bandwidth applications, and daily social media messaging to affected residents.

Use Case: Orland Bus Crash

Craig Johnson, California Emergency Medical Services Authority

The Emergency Medical Systems Authority works with 33 agencies throughout the state’s 58 counties to coordinate medical response and communications interoperability among the medical responders.  The state’s goal is to have interoperable communications and health information exchange (HIE) among all 3,600 ambulances, 60,000 emergency medical technicians, and 20,000 paramedics.  The interoperable communications gaps include having many different radio channels and an inability to transmit data, voice, and images over the same network.  Ambulance teams also need more paramedicine and telemedicine capabilities, which could be possible through a dedicated public safety broadband network.

These needs became all the more evident during a 2014 multiple fatality crash on a remote section of interstate freeway in California.  With the incident occurring in a rural location, medical, law enforcement, and communication assets were limited, and the accident required a nine-county regional response.  One of the major issues was tracking patient location. At the meeting, there were discussions about how a NPSBN could have helped by providing direct communication between ambulances and doctors while en route to the hospital.  

There was a strong sense at the end of the Initial Consultation Meeting that it was the beginning of a true partnership between California, FirstNet, and the tribal nations.  Karen Wong, the California Single Point of Contact, closed out the consultation by thanking everyone for their participation and pointing out that the partnerships among the attendees will make California stronger. 

The level of detail that California stakeholders provided during their initial consultation will also go a long way to inform their state plan. Thank you to Karen Wong and her entire team for a very productive initial consultation and for so many valuable panels and presentations.  It was a very well-coordinated event.

-Dave