By Dave Buchanan, Director of State Consultation
Yesterday, FirstNet joined over 170 public safety communications officials from across Washington State to hold their initial consultation meeting, the fourth meeting for FirstNet in a series of meetings with all 56 states and territories working together to build a nationwide public safety broadband network. The meetings offer an opportunity for FirstNet, communications professionals, public safety executives, and state officials to discuss initial plans for future involvement in the development of the public safety network.
Attendees included representatives from the police, fire, and EMS public safety community, as well as officials from the Governor’s office and seven tribal nations. It was the largest group we’ve met with so far during the consultation process, offering FirstNet an opportunity to hear from a broad variety of stakeholders on the development of their state planning progress.
Bill Schrier, the state single point of contact (SPOC) for Washington and former CTO for the city of Seattle, led the meeting, highlighting the goals and progress made by State Interoperability Executive Council (SIEC). Bill heads the SIEC, which is focused on a number of state-wide IT and interoperability measures, including the development and implementation of the public safety network. The group was well-represented at this week’s meeting, showcasing its organization and focus on the work at hand. The SIEC provides an outstanding level of guidance to the state and to the public safety community, and their participation in the meeting was greatly appreciated.
We were also glad to be joined by Sandy Mullins, who is Governor Jay Inslee’s Senior Policy Advisor on Public Safety and Government Operations. Sandy spoke about the complexity of managing public safety, preparedness, planning, and funding challenges. She discussed how recent disasters in the state attest to the critical need and the importance of the consultation process in the states.
TJ Kennedy, FirstNet’s Acting General Manager, took the opportunity to encourage the large group to keep up the momentum and set an example for other states preparing for their consultation meetings. TJ spoke on the promise of FirstNet and how there is “one chance” to get this network right and improve the safety of our states, cities, counties and territories. TJ reminded the group that the network will be successful only with their input and their dedication to the goal: this is not a project to rush through, but a vital undertaking that will take an incredible amount of cooperation and collaboration on many levels.
On that issue, Washington detailed their commitment to working in a multi-faceted, multi-agency approach to formalizing a state plan. Bill elaborated on working with additional agencies and organizations, such as Washington State University, to better coordinate outreach efforts to the counties, cities and public safety agencies. The importance of cooperation and the likely impact of FirstNet on solving communications challenges were also discussed during a presentation on a devastating mudslide in Snohomish County that destroyed 36 homes, partially destroyed the highway, cut fiber lines, and took 43 lives. Those responding to SR 530 – including more than 1,000 emergency professionals and volunteers – faced a number of communications difficulties, issues that officials throughout Washington hope to address through the implementation of the public safety network.
The Washington initial consultation meeting, like the other initial consultation meetings held in Maryland, Minnesota, and Oregon, highlighted the need to engage and establish an open dialogue on where we are with this important work and where we’re headed. Our suggestions are intended to help states like Washington and others better plan their strategy to develop and deliver a sound state plan.
For FirstNet, these meetings bring in both the questions and answers we’re looking for as we work through our strategic roadmap and plan for the deployment of a sustainable public safety network. Washington served as our final “beta site” consultation meeting, one of the earlier meetings in this process that we’ll use to establish best practices and procedures to use in future meetings. I look forward to sharing with you what we’ve learned during these first series of meetings in another post coming soon.
-Dave
View photos from the meeting below:
