By TJ Kennedy, FirstNet Deputy General Manager
On behalf of the FirstNet Board and staff, I would like to thank the public safety community for their service to the nation as the 2014 Public Service Recognition Week comes to a close. Local, state, and federal first responders deserve the best tools to do their jobs, and FirstNet is committed to building a nationwide public safety broadband network that will deliver cutting-edge communications capabilities to them.
Earlier this week I met with the FirstNet staff to thank them for their service and to review the progress that we’ve made in building the FirstNet culture and organization. We talked about how FirstNet is unique in that we are an independent authority that works hand-in-hand with public service professionals at all levels of government. The FirstNet team takes public service seriously because it’s a reflection of the important public safety officials that we serve; many of them are on the frontline of emergencies and other life-threatening events on a daily basis.
FirstNet now has 53 federal government employees on staff, including those on detailed assignments from other agencies. I would like to thank our federal agency partners for their generosity in detailing some of their best employees to FirstNet with strong backgrounds in law enforcement, rural communications, and homeland security issues.
The roster of talent at FirstNet is deep and diverse and it will continue to grow so we can execute our mission. We have strategic and business planners; public safety subject matter experts; technical and network design experts; legal and regulatory gurus; and communications specialists, to name a few. The majority of our staff has worked with local jurisdictions, federal agencies, states, tribes, and rural communities on public safety and communications issues. We have complemented our full-time government staff through a competitive contracting process that has added more than 20 contractors to our team with technical, communications, and program management expertise.
FirstNet is currently based out of the Department of Commerce building in Washington, DC, and soon we will be moving to our new headquarters in Reston, VA. In the meantime, the FirstNet staff is taking advantage of this opportunity by building relationships with other agencies and individuals in the department. Earlier today, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker met with a group of staff from the department, including some FirstNet employees, to thank them for their service and to get their feedback on the workplace environment.
I am excited to see us moving forward quickly with an experienced and growing staff, a strategy to guide us as we execute on our program roadmap, and robust partnerships at all levels of government to help execute our mission. We also have a dedicated and determined Board providing us guidance as we develop a nationwide broadband network for public safety.
Thank you.
-TJ
