Transcript

Event transcript
I know Supervisor Houchin has joined us. 00:00:01
Supervisor Molly is not here. 00:00:05
OK. 00:00:10
OK. We have any on. 00:00:13
Virtual. 00:00:16
We have one on virtual. 00:00:18
OK. 00:00:20
All right, we are back in session. 00:00:22
I got a call about the minutes and said. 00:00:28
That there needed to be a correction. 00:00:33
And. 00:00:36
And reading them, I think they're OK. He just. 00:00:43
Thought there was an issue. 00:00:45
OK, it's your pleasure, the minutes. 00:00:46
From the. 00:00:50
Pardon. 00:00:51
The one I got a call about was a date for. 00:00:57
The study. 00:01:04
Umm, master plan study. 00:01:08
You see something else? 00:01:12
Is that that? Is that in a minute or is that in? 00:01:23
And I don't think it's in the minutes. 00:01:32
Yeah, OK. 00:01:35
Do I have a motion? 00:01:38
For the minutes from. 00:01:40
The March meeting. 00:01:42
I have a motion by Supervisor Miller, second by Supervisor Kevin. 00:01:50
Are there any additions or corrections? 00:01:55
Any additions or corrections? 00:02:00
If not, all in favor signify by aye. 00:02:02
Aye, opposed. That is carried. Thank you. 00:02:05
Any communications on file? 00:02:09
I have no communications on file. 00:02:13
And no public comment. Signed up, OK. 00:02:16
Be checked right? 00:02:20
Special order of business Confirm appointments by the county administrator to reappoint Larry Bischoff. Jennifer Hedrick. 00:02:22
And David Godshelted Human Services and Health Board for a three-year term to expire April 21st, 2028. 00:02:30
Have a motion by Supervisor Beale. Second by Supervisor Gutenberger. 00:02:39
Supervisor Houchin. 00:02:45
The question the red light is not is it still broke or is it are we not recording? 00:02:46
Ian. 00:02:54
I'm looking right now. 00:03:09
Jacket. 00:03:13
It says that the stream status is ready. 00:03:37
And that the recorder started. 00:03:41
Says that it started. 00:04:05
So you think we're recording or? 00:04:36
So should we restart? 00:05:30
I think we'll proceed and. 00:05:37
If you get it. 00:05:41
Working great. We'll start because it's. 00:05:42
No. 00:05:47
If we have the request. 00:05:50
All right. OK, we're going to proceed. OK, We have the. 00:05:57
And let's see, special order of business was to hoop. 00:06:01
Approve and we have the motion by Supervisor Beale and second by Supervisor Guckenberger. Any comment? 00:06:05
Another comment. 00:06:11
OK, all in favor signify by aye. 00:06:13
Opposed. That is carried. 00:06:17
The next one is to appoint Jason Valerius to fill a vacancy on the Community Development Fund Advisory Committee for a two year 00:06:19
term to expire August 1st of 2026. 00:06:25
Have a motion by Supervisor Guckenberger, second by Supervisor Burnett. 00:06:36
Any questions on that one? 00:06:41
Hearing none, all in favor signify by aye. 00:06:43
Opposed. 00:06:46
That is. 00:06:47
Resolutions on file. 00:06:51
Resolution 2501. Commendation of Barbara Burnt. 00:06:55
To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Dodge County, Wisconsin. 00:07:06
WHEREAS Barbara Burt has contributed 32 years of dedicated service to Dodge County and the citizens of Dodge County and. 00:07:11
Whereas Dodge County and its citizens have benefited. 00:07:19
From the services she has provided and. 00:07:22
Whereas Barbara Burnt has chosen to retire from her present position. 00:07:25
Of transportation driver with the Dodge County Human Services and health department and. 00:07:29
Now therefore be it result. 00:07:35
That we the Dodge County Board of Supervisors. 00:07:37
Pause in its deliberations to recognize and commend Barbara Bert. 00:07:40
For her 32 years of notorious service and. 00:07:44
Be it further resolved, that on behalf of the citizens of Dodge County, this board does herewith extend. 00:07:47
To her appreciation. 00:07:53
For her many accomplishments and successes over the 32 years of service. 00:07:55
And be it finally resolved that a copy of this resolution be entered into the official records of the Dodge County Board of 00:07:59
Supervisors. 00:08:02
And then a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Barbara Byrne. 00:08:06
As a token of appreciation on the part of this board. 00:08:10
All which is respectfully submitted this 15th day of April, 2025. 00:08:14
Signed by. 00:08:19
Three members of the human Human Resources. 00:08:20
Committee. 00:08:24
Please stand, if you are able, for a rising vote of acceptance. 00:08:25
OK. 00:08:44
Resolution. 00:08:51
25. 00:08:53
02 Resolution designating the week of April 21 through April 25, 2025 as Work Zone Awareness Week in Dodge County. 00:08:54
All of which is respectfully submitted this 15th day of April, 2025. 00:09:07
Signed by. 00:09:14
For members of the highway committee. 00:09:16
Have a motion by Supervisor Gutenberger, second by Supervisor Beal. Any questions or comments? 00:09:18
Seeing none if you agree with the. 00:09:26
Resolution Please vote Yes if you do not vote No. 00:09:29
Supervisor Stagger. 00:09:44
Supervisor staggers not on anymore. 00:10:24
OK all having voted, it passes 24 to 0. 00:10:33
Resolution. 00:10:45
2503. 00:10:46
Authorizing the public safety radio communication study and 2025 Dodge County Emergency Management budget amendment. 00:10:49
All witches respectfully submitted this 15th day of April. 00:10:59
Signed by. 00:11:03
Six members of the Executive Committee and three members of the Finance Committee. 00:11:08
Fiscal note The Dodge County 2025 budget will have an increase. 00:11:13
Of fund balance applied in the amount of $45,660. 00:11:18
Finance Committee review date April 7, 2025. 00:11:24
Initialed by Finance Committee chair. 00:11:28
I have a motion by supervisor Veal and a second by supervisor Cavazon Jen. 00:11:32
I believe we have. 00:11:38
Presentation. 00:11:40
On this. 00:11:42
Good morning, everyone. 00:11:58
Emergency Management Director Joel Maher and I have been asked to present to you on behalf of the. 00:12:03
The Public Safety Radio Communications Committee, which was created by the Executive Committee and approved by the board. 00:12:08
And Joe and I really are the. 00:12:16
Managers of the radio system in Dodge County. He takes care of all the towers. 00:12:20
Takes care of the radio frequencies. I manage everything within dispatch. 00:12:24
And we have outstanding partnership between the two of us and we are doing the best that we can. 00:12:29
With what we have in place and what we want to do is go through what the radio system is. 00:12:36
What the what the plan is for the future and what we're asking for from you to help us with that plan for the future. 00:12:41
When I went to the executive committee with Joe initially asking for a subcommittee to be formed. 00:12:49
I expressed to them that this is a big project and we do not want to make decisions. 00:12:55
That two or three years down the road, come back to bite us. 00:13:02
We want to make sure that we make the right decisions as we expand our system it to get adequate coverage. 00:13:06
So that we don't have to stand in front of you and say, sheriff, why did you do that, Joe? Why did you do that? Why didn't you do 00:13:12
something different? 00:13:15
We want to make sure that we have the adequate information so that we can make the right choices moving forward and be responsible 00:13:19
with the funds that we have. 00:13:22
So with that. 00:13:28
As we talked about, we created the Public Safety Ready Community Communications Committee and with with the executive committees 00:13:29
assistance. These are the people who are part of that. 00:13:34
It includes supervisor Conway, supervisor my now. 00:13:39
Myself and Joel, Administrator Clapper, Hwy. Commissioner Brian Field because the the Highway department uses the radio system. 00:13:43
Chief Ryan Tolner, Deputy Chief Brendan Olsen, Lieutenant Jeremiah Johnson, three of our local police agencies represented on the 00:13:51
community on the committee. 00:13:56
And then Chief Howlett. 00:14:01
Deputy Chief Johnson and Chief Dama from various fire departments. 00:14:03
That really encapsulates all of the different radio systems that our radio system. 00:14:08
Covers. 00:14:14
Is all of those entities. Yes, there are some others that have radio frequencies, but they don't ride right now. 00:14:15
On the Dodge County system. 00:14:21
Joe is going to talk about the radio system itself. 00:14:28
All right, so this is the configuration of our current radio system. 00:14:32
We have a conventional. 00:14:37
Could be added simulcast radio system. 00:14:39
Each one of our transmissions. 00:14:41
That comes into the system is retransmitted. 00:14:43
At all nine of our radio tower sites. 00:14:46
This system was. 00:14:49
Initially. 00:14:52
Created and improved with the guidance of a consultant 20 some years ago. 00:14:54
Going about 25 years. 00:15:00
By consultant Len Keenan. 00:15:02
He designed the system. 00:15:04
And he sort of had that vision for. 00:15:05
A significantly. 00:15:11
I guess you'd see our system was somewhat backdated at the time. 00:15:14
He walked us into sort of a 252025 year plan of what technology was currently there and what he foresaw in the future. 00:15:19
There were two significant. 00:15:28
Deficiencies in the radio system at the time. 00:15:32
In coverage and that was both in the Fox Lake and the Knowles area. 00:15:35
Those towers were. 00:15:40
Erected probably about 24 years ago, just prior to my. 00:15:43
Involvement in the system and at the county here. 00:15:47
And then as well as about 12 years ago when the Ashoppin Tower. 00:15:50
Was presented and moved into the system. 00:15:55
The Aspen Tower significantly, as you'll see. 00:15:58
In our further presentation, came along during narrow band. We had no coverage in Ashapin. People weren't getting their pages in 00:16:02
their houses. We weren't able to activate fire and EMS down there. 00:16:07
So 12 years ago, another significant increase. 00:16:12
We uh. 00:16:15
We provide services, Deal said. To the Sheriff's Office, the police departments within our county and those surrounding, as well 00:16:16
as fire and EMS and also the highway shop, highway department. 00:16:21
So the system as it stands now. 00:16:26
Is 9 radio towers. As I said, we have 5 VHF channels and one VHF P25 digitally encrypted channel that the Sheriff's Department 00:16:29
uses for tactical operations within the Sheriff's Office. 00:16:34
So the next two slides are going to give you an idea of our current coverage as well as. 00:16:45
Sort of what was provided to us by our current radio vendor. 00:16:51
As an option for somewhat of an improvement. 00:16:55
As to both coverage? 00:16:59
Portable. Indoor. 00:17:02
Umm and then also the outdoor coverage. So as you can see, we've got the current estimate of the 9 sites. 00:17:05
And this is portable on the hip indoors. 00:17:11
And and Dale and I can definitely attest to. 00:17:15
The areas of concern, the areas that aren't covered in blue. 00:17:18
Then we move into a 12 site system which is the addition of three tower sites. 00:17:22
One being in. 00:17:26
The Watertown area, one in the Waupun area. 00:17:28
And one down sort of in the Columbus area. 00:17:31
You can tell that it does fill in a lot of the concerned areas, but it still leaves us for areas of. 00:17:36
Coverage issues. 00:17:43
This is portable. 00:17:47
Outdoor on the hip. 00:17:49
You can tell that there's still some areas within the system in our current VHF analog. 00:17:51
That are still concerning. 00:17:57
And do not provide coverage. 00:17:59
All right, so. 00:18:05
Part of the concern and part of the part of the issue that has come up is in January 1st of. 00:18:07
2013. 00:18:14
The FCC. 00:18:15
They required narrow banding of all of our VHF frequencies. 00:18:17
This sort of describes. 00:18:20
What narrow banding was and why it impacted our system and why we had to add additional towers. 00:18:23
So the best way to explain it is in in sort of layman's terms is they were taking each one of our radio transmissions. 00:18:28
Are sort of an invisible voice signal. 00:18:37
And we're all traveling down a highway. 00:18:39
And with each of those signals. 00:18:42
You're given that certain. 00:18:45
Wide lane to transmit your signal on. 00:18:48
The FCC. 00:18:51
Who is sort of the the gatekeeper of the frequencies? 00:18:53
Had come along and said we've run out of VHF frequencies. 00:18:56
Many, many years ago when they started licensing frequencies, the FCC. 00:19:00
Didn't have a real good plan for VHF and so businesses use it. Law enforcement, fire, EMS use it. 00:19:06
And it's really the ideal because it has the greatest coverage for areas such as ours where we need to cover a large area. 00:19:13
We have buildings and such that we still need to be able to penetrate into. 00:19:20
So with narrow banding it it shortened those lanes up to provide additional frequencies. 00:19:24
And and as you know. 00:19:31
If we were to take a large highway, we were to condense it. 00:19:33
Traffic doesn't flow as easy, it doesn't flow as fast, it's not as efficient. 00:19:36
And that's what happened with narrow banding. So it decreased our. 00:19:41
Signal strength, our signal quality as well as required additional. 00:19:45
Filtering at the tower sites. 00:19:51
Thus reducing the amount of. 00:19:53
Wattage that we can transmit at tower top. 00:19:56
So reduced audio quality. We noticed that in 2013 when we did go to narrow banding. 00:20:03
Of course you're condensing the signal. 00:20:11
So the quality of the voice signal is different. We've sort of been able to overcome that in a sense, because your ear just 00:20:13
learns. 00:20:17
To understand what is actually coming through. 00:20:22
The increased sensitivity to frequency accuracy. 00:20:25
The best way to say that is we did have to do it. Increase filtering to reduce reduce the transmissions or reduce the 00:20:29
interference. 00:20:33
From the narrow banded frequencies that have been added and changed. 00:20:37
Umm, they're also with the potential loss in coverage. Yes, we definitely saw it and that's why we had to add the Asheben tower 00:20:42
for sure. 00:20:46
As well as we saw the impact that the upon the Watertown and the Columbus. 00:20:51
Down into Waterloo area. 00:20:56
Actually provided when we did go to narrow banding. 00:20:59
The other area that is concerning to us moving forward is the discussion of narrow banding, narrow banding. 00:21:02
The FCC has had some some movement toward that direction and discussion around that. 00:21:09
Which further concerns us with the VHF band. 00:21:15
And having to reduce it even more. 00:21:19
So I played a couple, I played this a couple times for a couple of the committees and I wanted you all to hear. 00:21:26
Some of the struggles that we are having, back on June 21st of last year, we had an attempted homicide that took place. 00:21:31
Down just outside of Richwood. 00:21:36
And it was a SWAT call out as a Friday evening and and it was a very, very serious call. 00:21:38
We had a standoff out there for about 5:00-ish hours. I believe it was six hours. 00:21:45
And, and the radio communications out there was. 00:21:50
Awful. I was in the incident command vehicle that we have. 00:21:54
Trying to communicate with my SWAT commander who was on the ground, I couldn't. 00:22:00
There was multiple times I had to try with cell phone. 00:22:05
And that was a little bit better, but even that was a struggle for us. 00:22:07
And and so as you hear with some of these, some of these transmissions are OK. 00:22:11
Sometimes you get some good transmissions but most of them were almost non existent, you couldn't copy what was going on at all. 00:22:14
So hopefully this works for us here. 00:22:19
I'm going to skip around a little bit. 00:22:24
3 22 Could I copy anything? Can you please repeat? 00:22:27
Out of his stomach. 00:22:38
Miss Oops. 00:22:51
And stop it there for a moment. 00:22:52
That is my first responding deputy that goes. 00:22:55
She and two other people are there. 00:22:58
With a suspect or subject, a victim who's laying on the front lawn with numerous stab wounds. 00:23:02
And he couldn't hear her really say it. I've heard it multiple times except talking about intestines coming out of her stomach. 00:23:08
That's not the seriousness of the radio and we can't copy what's going on. The first thing you really hear is he has a 1032 and a 00:23:15
guy in the house. 1032 is a man with a gun. 00:23:19
So we knew this person was in the house, had a firearm and had already nearly mortally wounded this person on the front lawn. And, 00:23:25
and I've got these three people who have given life saving awards because they picked this lady up and they dragged her out. 00:23:31
Out of harm's way to safety. 00:23:37
Um, and, and it did an impressive job, but we couldn't hear what was going on. 00:23:41
118 That's your copy. 00:23:49
I'm going to be a contact. 00:23:52
10/4. 00:23:54
One Pens member that has. 00:24:08
A good working radio on coded. 00:24:11
Them escorted back to me where our original staging point was. I need to get them with Jefferson County for comps. 00:24:13
Radio. 00:24:25
Things have already to start going here. I'll let you know, but I did not. 00:24:29
Turn your cameras to self mode, right present. 00:24:37
101 If you were calling, go ahead. 00:24:42
We want to bring this back over to you guys. We have to. 00:24:48
Take this AMRAP out of our current location. 00:24:51
Were you trying to bring it back to? But I don't know what we can do. 00:24:56
Understood. 00:25:01
I would rather if we can find a way to make that thing work. 00:25:02
Rather than something 10 nines offer in their units. Do copy as well. 209 and 228 SE side we got. 00:25:06
And 29 copies of What should I do copy about the fact? 00:25:13
That's the sword commander trying to communicate with me. 00:25:22
Dodge 101 Additional. 00:25:29
Shooter situation, he was barricaded, but had we had that active shooter situation, it would have been. 00:25:59
Would have been. 00:26:04
Detrimental. 00:26:06
One thing that stuck out in my mind as to the transmissions that he was trying to find there is. 00:26:08
A lot of that transmission that that deputy builder was handling was outside the radio was on her hip. 00:26:13
And we they actually move their operations into the house, which made it even worse. 00:26:20
And there was transmissions of significant officer safety concerns where they were talking to one another in the house and they 00:26:27
could not get those transmissions that there was somebody in the closet or. 00:26:31
That they weren't supposed to make a move into another room. 00:26:37
If I remember correctly, SWAT commander was giving direction to back out. Once they located him, he was in a closet. He was giving 00:26:40
direction to back out. They couldn't hear him. 00:26:44
And as a result, they engaged him. 00:26:49
All went well. They took him into custody, but for safety we wanted to back out, set up the perimeter and call him out rather than 00:26:51
engage. So he's giving instructions to the SWAT team inside. 00:26:56
And they can't hear what he's what the directions he's giving. 00:27:02
It just so happened then moving into the Saturday of the fair, which was after the event that Dale's talking about. 00:27:06
Is a marsh rescue that we had almost in the same exact location kind of in that mud lakes climbing low Reeseville response area. 00:27:13
Where? 00:27:22
We were monitoring it because it was a concern for marsh rescue. 00:27:24
I had heard the Clr chief. 00:27:30
Arrive on scene. 00:27:31
And we lost almost all of our communications with him, even standing in a marsh trying to talk on his handheld radio. 00:27:33
And so this is the feedback that I received from him. 00:27:41
He said that his ability to talk to dispatch was even hampered by doing the what we we refer to as the Statue of Liberty. It's 00:27:44
pulling it off your hip, it's holding it up here. And thankfully you have a lapel mic that you can make your transmission with. 00:27:51
To get into dispatch, he actually resorted to. 00:27:59
A law enforcement officer that was there with him in switching over to the coded P25 channel to be able to get enough information 00:28:03
to dispatch to request additional resources. 00:28:08
And and it needs to be pointed out that the Statue of Liberty option. 00:28:13
It's not a good option. It is. It is probably the worst option that you want as a law enforcement officer or a firefighter trying 00:28:18
to do C spine stabilization or control bleeding, or a law enforcement officer trying to manage a suspect. 00:28:25
And you got to take your handheld off. You have to remove your hands from whatever you're doing, hold it up in the air and make 00:28:32
the transmission. 00:28:35
It's not acceptable, it's not safe for our people and it's not safe for the citizens that we're trying to render aid to. 00:28:39
And on that, this is an emergent situation that we do need to address. 00:28:47
What he's talking about with the Statue of Liberty. I've been in fights with people where they just do not want to cooperate on 00:28:52
the ground, rolling around with somebody, and I rely on being able to reach to my microphone and say I need help. 00:28:58
And if what happened to Deputy Bilter happens, nobody's going to hear my call for help and nobody's going to come running. 00:29:05
They're going to say checking status. We know you're calling, but nobody's coming. 00:29:12
So it's very important that we address this and we address this properly. 00:29:17
So we've got, I've got a couple other examples that I wanted to share just recently here from me driving around at several of the 00:29:22
incidents throughout the county. 00:29:26
We had a serious crash in 73 and 151 on 151 where? 00:29:31
There was a female that was missing we were looking for. We had the driver. 00:29:35
And we were trying to find this female and I got there and I'm trying to communicate with the people on scene from my squad radio. 00:29:39
I wasn't even a portable. 00:29:43
I'm calling from my squad radio trying to reach somebody on scene. 00:29:47
And dispatch couldn't even hear me from my from my mobile radio and my squad, which is more powerful than what we have on our 00:29:52
hips. 00:29:55
151 very very heavily traveled highway down in that area is absolutely awful. 00:29:58
I was We had a pursuit about 2-3 weeks ago up on up on in the Lamira area the Fond du Lac county had. 00:30:05
And I was driving across the marsh. 00:30:12
And there were numerous transmissions that I missed. 00:30:15
Trying to get over there, trying to know what's going on, trying to manage the incident as a supervisor, I missed numerous 00:30:18
transmissions about what was actually going on and I'm sitting there what just happened, no clue. Only to find out it was because 00:30:23
the radio transmissions coming through didn't make it through to my radio. 00:30:27
I never heard it. They broadcast it, but I never heard it. 00:30:33
It was just down on Hwy. 26 I. 00:30:36
Last week. 00:30:40
Traveling up on Hwy. 26 near Watertown, Same types of things. I'm hearing scratchiness. I'm hearing garbled transmissions. I'm 00:30:41
hearing miss transmissions. 00:30:44
From my staff as they're just doing everyday radio communications. 00:30:48
So this is an everyday thing. It isn't something that happens just once or just this one SWAT incident. This is an everyday thing 00:30:52
that happens around the county in these dead zones. 00:30:56
I received a letter that has been given to the Radio Communications committee up here from from the Aaron Burkin, the new chief in 00:31:03
Horicon. 00:31:08
He came in and he said why are we on our own municipal frequency for law enforcement? 00:31:12
A number of years ago when when Chief Vasco was here. 00:31:18
Or maybe it was McNeil. I went to him and I said, hey, can we move Mayville onto Channel 1 so that we're all consistent, you're 00:31:21
all in the same frequency with all the other municipalities. They said yes, absolutely. We'd love to do that. We've been waiting 00:31:25
for somebody to ask. 00:31:29
It got done. It's been great. 00:31:33
It's a stronger frequency than what Mabel's municipal frequency is. It communicates with everybody else. We all hear it. We don't 00:31:36
have to scan another frequency. Dispatch doesn't have to scan another frequency. 00:31:41
Wanted to do that with Horicon. 00:31:46
But they're down a little bit of a valley. And if we did that with Horicon, we they wouldn't be able to get the building 00:31:48
penetration that they need going into different homes and businesses, John Deere and such. So they have to stay on their own 00:31:52
municipal channel. 00:31:56
Well, the problem is. 00:32:00
Here we've got two incidents where they've gotten into pursuits, going out into the county and in the middle of a pursuit. What 00:32:01
are they doing? They're futzing with their radio, trying to change to the right radio frequency so they can communicate with us 00:32:06
out in the county. Because as soon as they get out of the city of Horicon, there isn't much coverage there. 00:32:11
That's the last thing we want people to be doing is what's in with the radio when they're getting involved in a pursuit. 00:32:16
But they have to, because they don't have adequate penetration into the city of Horicon. 00:32:21
As you all know, we had a very major. 00:32:28
Inter agency operation here at the airport. 00:32:31
On October 6th. 00:32:35
Then presidential candidate Trump came to town. 00:32:37
And we were required to put together a plan. 00:32:40
To keep everybody safe. 00:32:44
We had agencies from all over the place here. 00:32:46
Not just Dodge County agencies, there was many police agencies in the county were here. 00:32:50
But we had Manitowoc County, we had Sheboygan County, we had. 00:32:55
Dane County State Patrol, Washington, Waukesha County. 00:32:59
And uh. 00:33:02
The crux of our interoperability issues is. 00:33:03
We are on a conventional VHF system. 00:33:06
Very high frequency is what that stands for. 00:33:09
Most agencies are starting to transition to A7 800 megahertz. 00:33:11
System. 00:33:16
Which is a completely different system. They don't talk to each other. 00:33:17
You cannot use one radio to communicate with the other unless it's a dual band radio. 00:33:19
And so Dane County. 00:33:25
The State Patrol, because we're on a VHF system, they have to have two radios in their cars so they can communicate with us. 00:33:28
And and so it becomes very, very cumbersome for everybody to communicate. 00:33:34
We even have a right here in the county. 00:33:39
The city of Watertown is on a 7800 megahertz system. 00:33:42
I can't communicate with them. 00:33:45
My squads cannot communicate with a Watertown PD squad. 00:33:47
There's no communication there. I can't hear what's going on. They can have a shooting going on there, down there and I can't 00:33:51
monitor dispatch. I believe now has the ability to patch in and listen to that. 00:33:55
But none of my squads can. And if you're in a law enforcement, you know, you need to know what's going on right now. You can't get 00:34:00
it relayed through the telephone game. 00:34:03
It's not a good situation. We have that all over the place. So when we had the the the the event here, we had to come up with 00:34:08
interoperability channels. 00:34:12
In hopes that we could all communicate with one another. 00:34:16
So we use some statewide interop channels. 00:34:18
That we're OK, but still we're not great. 00:34:22
Our traffic control that we had that stretched from the county line. 00:34:26
All the way up to Hwy. 33 and all the way around. 00:34:30
Couldn't hear each other. 00:34:33
There was there were breakdowns in that communication on that interrupt state interoperability channel. 00:34:35
We we were using some of our frequencies on on Grounds, but we didn't have enough radios to pass out to the other counties that 00:34:40
came in so that we could all communicate together. 00:34:45
And it created a lot of different difficulties. Thankfully everything went very smoothly and and because we had a lot of pre plans 00:34:50
and backup plans. 00:34:54
It went well, but it was challenging and. 00:34:58
The ability to have even encrypted frequencies. We only have one. 00:35:02
So in a, in a, in a, in a incident like this. 00:35:06
Being able to encrypt your communication to make sure that. 00:35:09
What we've got going on isn't spread out to scanner land. 00:35:13
Is challenging. 00:35:16
In a case like this when you have presidential level security. 00:35:18
And it was presidential level security. 00:35:21
We couldn't encrypt it. The public could hear everything we were doing. 00:35:23
That was not a great option for us. 00:35:26
And we? 00:35:28
Just just. 00:35:30
Well, we went well. 00:35:31
Because of the really good planning that took place. 00:35:33
There were some serious challenges that that we are hoping to evaluate and come up with some options. 00:35:35
All right, 911 Commission, we can all probably vividly remember the 9/11. 00:35:45
I happen to be in college at the time. 00:35:51
Just about ready to graduate. 00:35:54
Had the option to go into a land mobile radio. 00:35:56
Company that I worked for for a good handful of years. 00:36:00
And at the time then all of the money came flowing toward. 00:36:03
First responders. Public Safety. 00:36:07
And the 911 Commission, 911 Commission was there to not only improve the communication. 00:36:10
Among agencies through incident commands, ICS training, incident command system training. 00:36:16
As well as figuring out these communication gaps and and where they were, how we could interoperate with one another. 00:36:22
I put in a ton of radio improvements. There was money there. Agencies were improving their radio systems. They were providing. 00:36:30
Funding for magic machines that they claimed would. 00:36:39
Patch this system into this system so indifference could talk to one another. 00:36:43
Um, they were good. 00:36:49
But even to this day. 00:36:51
Those problems have not completely been answered. They haven't completely fixed those issues. 00:36:54
They they provided a lot of updates, which we did with our system. 00:37:02
The EM director at the time used a good amount of funding to start that 25 year plan that movement into. 00:37:06
To improve what we had and move us into what we call probably then the 21st century. 00:37:14
So 25 years later. 00:37:20
We're looking at this and saying. 00:37:23
I think they did it. 00:37:25
I think a lot of improvements have happened. Fire can talk to EMS. 00:37:26
We can direct. 00:37:30
As a firefighter, we can. 00:37:32
Ask the law enforcement to assist us with traffic control where before you couldn't do that. They, they, they didn't. 00:37:35
The systems didn't talk to one another. They didn't have the frequencies. 00:37:42
And with the ICS system, it's brought everybody together, it's unified command, and we've come a long ways, but we have a. 00:37:46
Some strides to make. 00:37:53
Interoperability better. 00:37:55
Why it's important, as I said, so that everybody can talk, that fire can talk to police. 00:38:02
We hear it all the time in every after action, any incident that we have, any training that we have. 00:38:07
They say I couldn't hear this person or I couldn't find the channel. 00:38:14
Umm, I think some of the gaps that 911 Commission brought forward was everybody was given radios that had. 00:38:19
2000 channels within them, but for us to find our neighbors channel in channel 175 is. 00:38:26
Is a big deal when you're under stress and and looking for that Channel. 00:38:33
So, umm. 00:38:37
Basically the Commission, they want to make sure that all the groups could, could come together, like being on the same team. 00:38:38
And and work together for the same common. 00:38:45
And while we have most of that in the county, like I said earlier, we don't have that inner, inner county. And and I'll tell you 00:38:52
that our counties work with each other all the time, especially found elect. They're always chasing their pursuits to us and then 00:38:56
we stop them. But that that's a regular occurrence where we are working with our neighboring counties. I can't communicate with 00:39:00
them. 00:39:04
So we have some considerations. 00:39:08
And that was beginning to acquire tower space in the Watertown, Columbus and what pond areas. That's what we've been looking at 00:39:12
and it's been on your capital plan for a number of years to look at. 00:39:16
Additional towers for our radio system and it has been moved down the road several times and we haven't gotten to that point, but 00:39:21
it's getting to a point where we need to take some action. 00:39:26
We need to install 3 towers to close those gaps. That's that's what we were thinking. These are the considerations we had. 00:39:31
Do we need to transition our VHF to a PF? 00:39:37
Our VHF P25 system to a trunking system. 00:39:41
Do we need to transition to an 800 megahertz system or to an 800 megahertz trunking? And this is all radio complexities that many 00:39:44
of you probably don't don't have an understanding of, but there are so many different options of what we need to consider. 00:39:50
That we're talking about and we're thinking, well, this might be a good idea. 00:39:57
But is it the right? 00:40:00
Pathway forward and do we have the expertise to make that decision so that we can spend the money the right way? 00:40:02
So we need to do more research. We needed to discuss with our stakeholders, which is why we formed the committee. We've got our 00:40:11
stakeholders together. There's certainly other stakeholders that need to be interviewed, but we have our primary stakeholders 00:40:15
together in our committee. 00:40:19
Discussing options we've done that determine visibility of cost, that's something that we still need to do. 00:40:23
Because we don't know what the cost is going to be if we stick with a system we have. 00:40:29
Or we move to something bigger. We have some ideas about what if we stick to what we have or we move to something different. 00:40:34
That might be more effective. 00:40:40
And certainly we need to present options for you to consider. 00:40:43
And determine an appropriate long term land mobile radio usage for all the stakeholders. 00:40:46
And we wanted, we need to do all those, make all those decisions before we actually place equipment on towers. 00:40:53
Because like I said at the beginning, if I put if we put up VHF equipment on the towers to continue with the current system we 00:40:58
have and then in two or three years Bacon comes back to us and says. 00:41:03
You really should have switched to an 800 megahertz system. And I come back and I stand before you and I say, well, we did this, 00:41:09
but now they're saying we need to do something differently. 00:41:13
That makes us all look foolish, and we don't want that. 00:41:18
And we want to make the right decision and do it right the first time. 00:41:21
So that brings us to our committee. 00:41:26
The committee, like I said earlier, asked us to to present this to you. I'm going to go real briefly through what we've done so 00:41:28
far to this point so you have an understanding. December 4th, we had our initial meeting. 00:41:33
Organize this and discuss the scope of the issues for the county. 00:41:39
And and present the information I just presented to you today is what I presented. 00:41:43
Perfect, perfect. 00:41:50
The information that I that I presented you today is what I presented to the committee along with Joe, so that everybody was on 00:41:54
the same page. 00:41:57
We need to establish a study. We needed to a plan. 00:42:00
To make recommendations to the executive committee. That was thank you. 00:42:06
Coverage studies were discussed and it was determined determined it was a necessary step. 00:42:11
So that we had a third party, not somebody who were already contracted with, who's already getting money from us, but somebody who 00:42:16
can give us that objective third party. Look at what do we have for coverage. 00:42:21
And. 00:42:27
Joe talked about Len. 00:42:28
He brought in Len to give us an idea of what those coverage studies look like, what they, what can be provided, and that was 00:42:30
brought in to us at our January meeting. 00:42:34
He gave us a presentation, told us what it is a coverage study could give us. 00:42:39
Told us about the different technologies that we could explore and things like that. 00:42:43
And, and so we had that discussion at that meeting and decided that we should move forward with an RFP utilizing, utilizing 00:42:47
Trista, our purchasing agent to put together an RFP so we could get an idea of what different companies might be able to provide 00:42:53
to us so we could present options to you, the board. 00:42:59
On March 19th the RFPs were done and returned. We received 6. 00:43:07
Responses. 00:43:12
Those six responses were not, we did not open the the the dollar amount. 00:43:14
Until we had our meeting, but we scored before the meeting, so we all were given the RFP's ahead of time. We scored them. 00:43:20
And we scored all six of them. When we got to our meeting, all the prices were opened up. We found that the one that doesn't have 00:43:27
a number by it that you probably noticed. 00:43:31
They didn't give us a number, so it was an incomplete RFP. We were not able to consider that one. 00:43:36
We then took a look at all the scores and three of them were selected based on those final scores. 1 vendor eliminated because of 00:43:41
the incompletion. 00:43:46
One vendor was eliminated due to an extensive timeline that would have put it almost a 2026 by the time they were done. 00:43:51
Which was well beyond anybody else. 00:43:57
And then one vendor was eliminated due to an overall score. 00:43:59
In the deliverables, which was just really low and they didn't meet the deliverables of what we were looking for. 00:44:03
So that left us with the with the final three that were interviewed. 00:44:08
On April 4th, we interviewed those individuals or those companies. 00:44:12
We had discussion. 00:44:16
And we picked the lowest bid of those three that were scored. 00:44:17
And and we picked them not just because of the. 00:44:22
Of the dollar amount, but we picked them because they gave a pretty good, impressive presentation. 00:44:25
And and we were very happy with what they were providing with the deliverables. 00:44:31
And it was a unanimous decision by the committee to move forward, to bring this one to you for consideration. 00:44:35
So that we can get this done. 00:44:42
In in. 00:44:44
As soon as we can, but certainly we want to take our time and do it right. 00:44:46
Joe, you want to talk about the inventory survey? Sure. 00:44:53
So with with the committee being formed, there was a lot of question on. 00:44:57
Who has what type of radios and what are the what's the technology behind what we currently have in the field? 00:45:02
So the inventory was done. 00:45:09
And that was included into. 00:45:11
The RFP's that we provided that we didn't actually include the the stats we also took about we told them. 00:45:14
That this was something that we had done and something that they would be required to review. 00:45:20
We found that just in broad overview of it. 00:45:26
Law enforcement because of the sheriff encrypted P25 channel. 00:45:29
Umm, they are somewhat on track. 00:45:34
With future improvements. 00:45:37
But we found that some of the fire and EMS are are. 00:45:39
Lacking in some of that because of their need. 00:45:42
It's not increased. 00:45:46
Since we built our current system. 00:45:48
So this information a lot to take in. 00:45:50
But will be provided to whoever we might choose to do the. 00:45:53
Coverage study and the communication system study. 00:45:57
So we have a recommendation for you here today. 00:46:04
And, and this is again a unanimous recommendation from the entire committee. 00:46:07
It's to consider hiring TUSA Consulting to conduct the work as outlined in the RFP response as authorized in the Resolution 25-03 00:46:12
in front of you here today. 00:46:16
We plan as a committee that. 00:46:21
Once this is done, we still want we've already planned our next meeting. 00:46:24
Assuming this is approved here today. If it's not, we can push it out. 00:46:29
Longer but to meet with Tusa to give them. 00:46:33
The information that they need to complete their project in a timely fashion. 00:46:37
They did tell us that they believe they can get this done in about 90 days as long as we provide the information to them. 00:46:41
And certainly we want to consult with them to present findings to the necessary committees and ultimately the county board so that 00:46:47
you can see what it is that that they have to present to you. 00:46:53
Certainly will take direction from you as further direction is needed to move forward beyond that point, but the committee is 00:46:59
ready, willing and able to do what is necessary to make the best decision. 00:47:05
So with that, we are certainly open to any questions or discussion you may have on any of this and that's a lot of information to 00:47:13
take in. 00:47:16
I have questions. 00:47:21
Supervisor Belt. 00:47:24
All right. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I got 2 questions with if we go to this new technology that you're talking about or? 00:47:26
How long of a life would we get out of this? 00:47:33
Well, that's part of the study. 00:47:36
We're not proposing going to anything as part of this. 00:47:38
This is identifying what would be best for us moving forward. 00:47:41
And then once we determine what system would be best. 00:47:46
Then we would work with the vendors to identify what technology or what what radios and and what what. 00:47:50
The actual hardware we would get would be and we could determine the length of the life of those systems at that point do anything 00:47:57
additional. 00:48:01
As I said, we know our system is 25 years old. 00:48:06
We know that there's technology out there that's LTE at satellite. It's it's cellular. 00:48:08
So technology is really advancing and can provide really cool stuff that can really augment what we have now. 00:48:14
And I guess it, as Dale says, it is up to this consulting company to tell us that we're moving in the right direction moving 00:48:22
forward. 00:48:26
They kind of have a broad system overview as we looked at their their past engagements with other counties, cities, villages. 00:48:30
What it might be? 00:48:38
They work with a lot of technology, so hopefully they have the insight that we need to move into a system that's probably. 00:48:39
We would have whole. 00:48:46
To be 15 to 20 years old. 00:48:48
We know that technology is really advancing. Your cell phone isn't the same one that you had three years ago, so. 00:48:50
Hopefully they have that vision. 00:48:56
And steps that move forward. 00:48:58
And the second question I had is. 00:49:00
Didn't the state already address this issue when they awarded the contract for the first net system so all counties could 00:49:02
communicate on the first net system? 00:49:07
Firstnet system is not land mobile radio. 00:49:12
First net is for for cellular devices, right? I understand that, but I thought the whole point of the first net system is well. 00:49:14
We could, we could use the communication on emergency services only for all the counties. 00:49:21
We're on board. 00:49:26
For cellular only, there is cellular technology that's coming out in some of these radios, but it is not what they call mission 00:49:27
critical. So this is specifically for our radios, land mobile radios, right? 00:49:32
OK. Thank you. 00:49:38
Supervisor Breslow. 00:49:40
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 00:49:43
It seems like we have a pretty good handle on what we're up against here and what we need. 00:49:46
To obviously increase our coverage we need. 00:49:52
We need our. 00:49:55
Law enforcement and all emergency service to be able to communicate. 00:49:57
My question is. 00:50:01
Being that we know what we're up against already, do we need to spend $45,000 on a study when we already know what we're up 00:50:02
against and. 00:50:07
My guess is that Tusa will not be installing this equipment for us or selling it to us. 00:50:12
So would we not be able to work with the vendors? 00:50:17
That provide the equipment. 00:50:20
Would they not be able to tell us what they're going to be able to provide, what the capabilities are their commitment is? 00:50:22
Without. 00:50:29
Having to have an outside consultant. 00:50:30
And if we do have this outside consultant, they're going to tell us the capabilities that we need. 00:50:33
Which we should have a vendor be able to tell us. 00:50:38
So who's to say that? 00:50:42
Zeus's recommendation of a vendor. 00:50:45
Is going to be any better than? 00:50:48
You know, how do we know the vendor is telling us? 00:50:51
That they can provide what they're telling us just by doing this study. Good question. First of all, they're not going to be 00:50:55
recommending a vendor. 00:50:58
And, and our concern is that if we choose a vendor to have them do the studies they're going to. 00:51:03
They're going to be giving us information that might be proprietary. 00:51:10
They're going to give us information that is going to benefit their company. 00:51:12
And and so we are looking for an independent third party to give us recommendations to tell us what is the coverage going to be 00:51:16
not my, my, my technology is the best. I guarantee you I'm going to be able to give you this coverage. And then when we actually 00:51:21
put up the coverage, it doesn't actually you know how salesman are. 00:51:27
Right. The consultant isn't a salesman. The consultant gives us the nuts and bolts. This is what you have. 00:51:32
This is what we recommend you need. 00:51:38
Now you go out to your vendors and you say provide this to us and these are the specifications to which you need to provide this 00:51:41
to. 00:51:45
And and so they can't use their salesman techniques. 00:51:49
To to get us to spend a whole boatload more money and I'll tell you in the radio communications world. 00:51:52
$45,000. 00:51:58
Is a very small amount that they will be able to build into their their quotes. 00:52:00
And, and so we believe as a committee that having a third party do this in the long run will set us up to be more responsible for 00:52:05
the amount of money that we spend, regardless of what direction we go. Yes, we have an idea of of of what our deficiencies are. 00:52:13
But what we don't know is what is the best way? 00:52:21
To accomplish the goals of overcoming all of those. And that's what we need from them because. 00:52:25
We understand radios. 00:52:30
But we're not experts in all of the things that are out there. And how does Waukesha County, who is on an 800 megahertz system? 00:52:32
Interop with us. 00:52:39
When Washington and Waukesha and Fond du Lac are all on that side of the the county going to be on an 800 megahertz system. 00:52:40
Dean County and State Patrol in that corner, all on a on a different system we can't communicate with. 00:52:48
How do we make all of those work together? We don't have that expertise to do that. That's why we want the consultant to do it. 00:52:53
At their 45,000 so that a final vendor doesn't build it into their cost and make us pay a lot more. 00:52:58
Does that make sense? 00:53:04
It does. A follow up on that would be have have we been collaborating with? 00:53:06
Local municipalities and. 00:53:11
Everybody else. 00:53:13
Are you know, are we working together with the surrounding people that we need to communicate with? 00:53:14
That we're gonna all be on the same page. 00:53:20
You know, because ideally. 00:53:22
We're going to spend a lot of money here, not just on this. 00:53:24
Study but. 00:53:27
On the finished product. 00:53:29
We need are we working with everyone else to make sure that we're going to be on the same team. 00:53:31
That is why we've got this committee together of of three people from the chiefs association, three people from the from the fire 00:53:35
chiefs association within the county. 00:53:40
I can tell you that one of the individuals on the committee was also part of Waukesha Counties. 00:53:45
Has a good understanding, has contacts there. So we don't have people on our committees from neighboring counties, but we have 00:53:50
contacts with the the vendors. 00:53:54
Our vendor for example, who takes care of a radio communications who can give us what their frequency bands are in the various 00:53:58
ones. Joe has been working on obtaining all the frequency bands from all of our neighboring counties and the frequencies so that 00:54:03
we can have all of this together. We can say here it is. 00:54:08
How do we make them all talk to each other? 00:54:13
So we are working on that. 00:54:16
Thank you. 00:54:18
I'm going to take Supervisor Gutenberger since I. 00:54:19
Lost him before. 00:54:22
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 00:54:24
I've got 2 questions. 00:54:26
The presentation included a bunch of coverage maps. 00:54:29
Who created those and? 00:54:34
Were they included in the? 00:54:36
6 vendors that submitted. 00:54:39
Proposals. 00:54:41
Those were created by Bay Com and presented to us last year. So it's our individual vendor. 00:54:43
Those are coverage maps that we will be able to provide to. They weren't provided in advance. 00:54:49
They will be provided. 00:54:54
As these are coverage maps we have, but we want them to also provide their own coverage maps, but they've got something to compare 00:54:56
to now that's Motorola that is giving us those. 00:55:01
Those coverage maps and their estimates. 00:55:06
OK, I think that answers your question. 00:55:09
And then? 00:55:12
Beckett exec meeting. I think it was September, October time frame. 00:55:13
I had requested the impact on. 00:55:18
All of the shareholders, you know, all of the municipalities, the fire departments and stuff like that. Now you applied something 00:55:21
in one of the slides that you had. 00:55:25
Put this inventory together or something. 00:55:29
And is that something you're going to share with us or are you just sharing it with? 00:55:32
The selected vendor. 00:55:37
We would be happy to share it with you, I think. 00:55:39
Keeping process in place. 00:55:42
It would be best to give that to the consultant and I think having that as part of the final product for you to have an 00:55:45
understanding of what they currently have. 00:55:49
Because I don't know that we had an entirely complete. I think there was a couple non responses. 00:55:53
Yeah, it it covered a good portion of the county. 00:55:57
If you were to look at it and analyze it and try to determine what an XTS 2500 versus an XTL 2500 versus an APEX 8100. 00:56:00
I don't know that you would be able to fully paint a picture based on a giant spreadsheet not having the radio history and 00:56:10
background and understanding model numbers and such. 00:56:15
That it would give you you a real good picture I think. 00:56:20
Is going to take that consulting agency to say you've got 25 radios that were built and distributed 10 to 15 years ago? 00:56:23
You've got 30 agencies that have radios that are built within the last 10 years and our carry the technology that could 00:56:32
potentially move you forward for another 10. 00:56:38
OK. Then just a clarification question. 00:56:45
We've been purchasing dual band radios recently, correct? So that we can communicate with these people that don't. 00:56:48
With three, yeah, we just started. 00:56:56
And have we made that recommendation to these other agencies to make sure that they're acquiring dual band radios as opposed to? 00:56:58
You know, VHF radios only. I have mentioned that too. I made the recommendation to all the police chiefs with many of them are 00:57:05
already looking at that. 00:57:09
I did make the recommendation to the fire chiefs as well. I don't know that they're going to be as apartment to go and do that 00:57:13
right now. 00:57:17
Until they know more, just because it is quite an additional expense to do that, but the law enforcement agencies are are strongly 00:57:20
considering it. 00:57:23
OK. Thank you. 00:57:27
Supervisor Conway. 00:57:29
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 00:57:31
My colleagues can understand that we are looking at. 00:57:35
The minimum of the equipment required. 00:57:40
To put three more towers in service. 00:57:42
So that we stay on what we are currently in operation with. 00:57:46
Up to and including. 00:57:51
A complete change of the radial system. 00:57:55
Which obviously we all are aware that's going to be much more expensive. 00:57:58
The dual band radios that we're purchasing are much more expensive. So there are areas that there are departments that are. 00:58:03
A little. 00:58:10
Hesitant on that. 00:58:12
We do have a lot of equipment when we did the survey that we came to with our local departments, especially fire. 00:58:14
That were approaching end of life. 00:58:21
So that is taken into consideration with all of. 00:58:25
This with the committee has taken into consideration with the committee. 00:58:28
When we look at where we're going to go or what we're going to change. 00:58:33
And lastly, as far as interoperability, we will. 00:58:38
I'm not sure when the next time a seer one or seer two event which is a. 00:58:44
Which is a special event assessment rating by the federal government. I'm not sure what next time we will have a SEER one event 00:58:49
here. 00:58:52
However. 00:58:57
We do daily. 00:58:59
Interact with each other both on law enforcement and fire within an. 00:59:02
And without. 00:59:07
I mean outside the county. 00:59:08
There is a great collaboration in our stakeholders. 00:59:11
Or at least they urge to collaborate within the stakeholders of the committee. 00:59:14
Both inside and outside the county. 00:59:19
For they see that there is is. 00:59:22
Real issues if you take. 00:59:26
One of the departments brought up the the. 00:59:29
Explain to us that. 00:59:33
A call for service. 00:59:36
May go through several different. 00:59:38
Dispatch centers. 00:59:40
Before they are actually notified. 00:59:42
That can bring that response. 00:59:45
Into a three or four minute before. 00:59:48
There's actually anybody that's been notified to turn out for a response. 00:59:51
My question there and not to get real, I don't want to get into the weeds, but. 00:59:58
Hold your breath for 4 minutes and see how long that takes if you're waiting on the receiving end. 01:00:02
So there is great collaboration, or at least the appearance of it, that these other agencies want to start working together. 01:00:07
And certainly where I live down in Lebanon. 01:00:14
I know that the sheriff interacts quite often with Waukesha County. 01:00:17
And again, quite frankly, those two squads can be next to each other. 01:00:21
And they cannot communicate with each other. 01:00:25
So we are, I guess to sum this up as we are looking, I want everybody understand that. 01:00:28
Before we do anything, before we purchase any new equipment to put on these. 01:00:33
Possibility of three new towers to give us the coverage we need so we do not have. 01:00:37
Put put our public safety. 01:00:42
People in jeopardy? 01:00:45
Because the radios cannot communicate. 01:00:47
We want to make sure. 01:00:50
Through this report. 01:00:53
That we are heading in the right direction. 01:00:56
The end goal would be. 01:00:59
I believe of the committee is to if it is feasible. 01:01:00
To be able to have everybody interrupt with each other. 01:01:05
As far as the. 01:01:09
Price of some of the radios there. We really haven't gotten in any of this that, you know, we haven't delved into it too deep. 01:01:10
We're waiting on the report. 01:01:14
But I do know that there are options. 01:01:20
That a lot of these communities. 01:01:23
Would not they could lease the radio which would be much more cost effective for them? 01:01:26
And then they would have service, they would have all these things taken care of. So we understand that there are communities 01:01:32
that. 01:01:35
Changing radios would be. 01:01:38
It would be hard on them. 01:01:41
So we are taking that into consideration, consideration it has been brought up to the committee. 01:01:43
So we're asking what I'm asking, what the committee's asking here today, is that we get this approved. 01:01:48
So we can move forward. 01:01:53
And again, we can provide. 01:01:56
At least a system that we know that our public safety officers communicate. 01:01:58
Back to the dispatch when they are stand the possibility of being in peril. 01:02:03
Thank you. 01:02:07
Supervisor Teal. 01:02:09
Thank you. 01:02:11
With regard to using an outside. 01:02:13
Consultant. 01:02:16
It's always good to get. 01:02:17
Another perspective. 01:02:18
A non biased perspective but also to set us up for. 01:02:21
Future growth and development. They better understand the technology. 01:02:26
Whereas we know our deficiencies. 01:02:31
But how best to set us up and stage us for future growth and development? 01:02:34
Within the. 01:02:41
Technology, that is. 01:02:43
Always changing. 01:02:45
I wanted one question. 01:02:47
About the frequencies and this is technical, I really don't understand it, but I just want to ask. 01:02:50
The state has been. 01:02:56
Talking for years about interoperability since the 911 Commission and. 01:02:58
That may have resulted in that umm. 01:03:05
Cellular. 01:03:08
Network that you were discussing before. 01:03:10
But. 01:03:13
Going to the 800 megahertz? 01:03:15
Is there an established communication relay with what the state has because they're on a trunk system? 01:03:18
So I'll start and joke and finish up here in this one. 01:03:26
So we have a couple different state systems that are actually being stood up and and this is different than what the the first net 01:03:30
is. 01:03:33
The state system. 01:03:37
A number of years ago, Joke and I and I can both attest to Wisconsin 1.0 was a complete and total failure. 01:03:38
And so now they've been trying to get Wisconsin 2.0 set up. 01:03:45
And Wisconsin 2.0 is not a portable system. 01:03:49
Meaning it is, it is, it is supposed to. I think it was 90% mobile coverage is what they're looking for around the state. 01:03:53
So that's in our rate in our squads. 01:04:00
These radios here. 01:04:02
They're not worried about these radios on that system. 01:04:04
And that was what was proposed in this 2.0 system. There's also another system, Whispin. It's a Motorola system. 01:04:06
That they're standing up in some counties to our SE and I think Fond du Lac is looking at it as well. It's another statewide 01:04:13
system. It's Motorola's competitor to Wisconsin because they didn't get the bid. 01:04:18
So when we had the interviews, I asked all of the vendors, how will you? 01:04:24
Integrate or evaluate those systems. 01:04:30
To see if one of those is appropriate for us, if we need to build it up beyond that, and this vendor said absolutely, that's 01:04:34
something they're going to be heavily considering to see if it's if that would be the right way to go or to have our own system. 01:04:40
Anything else, Joel? 01:04:46
Yeah, in the in the 800 band because it was better managed when it came down to the FCC distributing the the licenses. 01:04:50
We have. 01:04:58
Knowledge of surrounding counties, particularly Fond du Lac, whether which I've heard feedback in the last couple of months here, 01:05:00
they've switched or starting to migrate to 800. 01:05:05
It's providing better coverage on their overall. 01:05:10
Platform that they currently have because they're able to do less, less filtering, they're able to put. 01:05:14
Newer technology tower top. 01:05:20
To transmit the frequencies further. 01:05:22
And not have them filtered out. 01:05:24
There is. 01:05:27
A lot of interference in the VHF band, even to your simple. 01:05:28
Like the wall warts that you plug in for your computer monitor. 01:05:33
So those even cause more issues on VHF, especially when you're in a building. 01:05:36
And 800 has better. 01:05:41
Penetration into our current. 01:05:43
Structures that we build the the steel, the smaller windows, that type of thing, it has a better ability to get in versus VHF 01:05:46
which the waves are a lot bigger to get technical. 01:05:51
It's easier to get a small wave through a window kind of thing. 01:05:57
So we look forward to and we take a lot of feedback from the 800. I'm not saying that that is the direction they're gonna, 01:06:01
absolutely. 01:06:04
Identify but the statewide system that he talked about Wisconsin 2.0. 01:06:09
Is moving in the 800 direction. They've identified the issue that they had before. 01:06:14
And we keep our fingers crossed it will improve. 01:06:19
The other thing is, is we only have two state towers in our in our system. 1 is at Fox Lake and one is at Rubicon. 01:06:21
So if we were to switch to something like that, we would definitely have to augment the rest of our system to help fill in, as 01:06:29
Dale said with the handheld coverage. 01:06:33
A really good way for everybody to understand the different frequencies and most in here absent. 01:06:39
Haley maybe remember when we went, we first got. 01:06:45
The handheld phones that you could walk around in your house went away from the cords and they have the antennas you could pull up 01:06:50
and you could talk on them. 01:06:53
And it was still scratchy, especially when you got farther away. 01:06:57
And then eventually they came out with 900 megahertz phones that you could walk into another room and it wouldn't be scratchy 01:07:00
anymore. 01:07:04
That's the difference between what we're talking about, the VHF going to an 7800 megahertz band. 01:07:08
That's the difference in quality that we're talking about going from. 01:07:13
Is those old handhelds to the newer handhelds and I'm not talking about cell phones, I'm talking pre cell phones even. 01:07:18
Supervisor Dirk. 01:07:26
I don't know how much you can address this, but. 01:07:30
I am not super familiar with these issues. 01:07:33
But you mentioned. 01:07:36
Like 10 or go to a system that's like 10 or 15 years old. 01:07:38
And at first I was like, Oh my God, like, that is such a waste of $1,000,000, right? To start with a system of technology that's a 01:07:42
decade old. 01:07:47
But. 01:07:52
You're trying to make everything work now, and so you also mentioned there's a. 01:07:53
One or whatever folks that are at the end of life situation. 01:07:58
And so you're on this continuum, right? So the county's gonna spend. And I don't know, I throw out a million, but it's gonna be a 01:08:02
lot of money. 01:08:06
And all of this money and. 01:08:10
I don't know if your consultant is going to help you with this issue. Like at what point do you go? 01:08:13
This community, whether you do it or we help you, you need to upgrade, you know, otherwise you're dragging the entire system down. 01:08:17
And everybody talks about being responsible to the budget and I think that's really short sighted. I think we are responsible to 01:08:24
the county board 10 years from now and if we quadruple their budget because we don't plan well, we spend far more money. So it's 01:08:31
for that kind of an investment. 01:08:38
Right. 01:08:45
It just seems like going to such an old system, even if it meant. 01:08:46
I don't know providing the. 01:08:51
You know what I'm talking about. The lowest ring here is going to pull the entire system down. 01:08:53
Right. And is that something the consultant is helping with you or that you're? 01:08:59
You know, I mean, I think you make some good points. We don't know if we're going to be going to a different system and if 01:09:04
municipalities will need to. We need to wait and see what the cult and consultant says. 01:09:08
But I think that there are options in play. 01:09:12
That if we do have to transition from our VHF to an 800 megahertz system, there are options in play, like what Fond du Lac County 01:09:16
is doing to have a slow transition to get there, that it doesn't have to be a flip to switch. Everybody's got to spend the money 01:09:20
right now to do that. I think there are options probably likely available that we'll be able to explore, especially for the fire 01:09:25
departments. 01:09:30
Where, as I understand, that's what Fonda Laconia is doing. They're delaying the fire department transition so that they have time 01:09:35
to prepare. 01:09:39
Where law enforcement are able to bridge that gap and start moving to the new technology a little bit sooner. So I think there are 01:09:44
options. 01:09:47
To get us there. Can I follow up please? 01:09:50
If I could ask, like it sounds like from your whole presentation and what I've read in the paperwork. 01:09:54
That. 01:10:00
You actually have. 01:10:01
Safety concerns, so it's confusing. 01:10:03
Like what are you doing that's transitioning, right? If you don't get everybody on, don't you have the same? 01:10:06
Issues. 01:10:11
Right, like immediate safety concerns. So I'm not sure what you mean with transitioning there. There are some, there are safety 01:10:12
concerns that can be mitigated depending on the. 01:10:18
The incident. 01:10:24
Fire service, for example, operate. 01:10:26
Typically most of their communication with dispatch through a repeated system. 01:10:28
Is when they're in their trucks. 01:10:33
When they get on the ground when they're doing on scene they switch to a non repeated type channel anyway. 01:10:35
So there are ways for us to get there to. 01:10:42
To maybe that's an Ave. that we look at what they're OK with the systems they have. 01:10:44
As long as we have the law enforcement there as well that have a better communication system in the meantime. 01:10:50
I'm not saying that's the way we would go. I'm saying that there are options that we can evaluate that can mitigate some of those 01:10:56
costs in the short term. 01:10:59
In the long term, we all get there. 01:11:03
Maybe it is something where we flip the switch and we come up with a way to do it all at once. I don't know that. That's why we 01:11:05
have the consultant. I'm just saying there's options. 01:11:08
That we can look at so that we can be cognizant of the budgets of all the municipalities. 01:11:12
Because we don't want to come to him and say. 01:11:17
You have to spend $5 million this next year. Where you going to come up with the money? I don't know. I don't want to necessarily 01:11:19
want to do that either. So I think we need to be cognizant of that and find solutions. 01:11:24
Come up with options just like Fondle Iconi is doing. 01:11:28
I think they're doing a great job with what they're doing. 01:11:31
But we need to wait and see what the consultant says before we even get into those conversations, because maybe we won't even need 01:11:33
them. 01:11:36
Supervisor Beale. 01:11:41
Well, First off, I'd ask that we call the question because I think we've had a quite a bit of discussion on this. 01:11:43
And I would encourage. 01:11:50
My fellow board members to vote in favor of this. 01:11:54
As a daily user of. 01:11:57
The communication system. I know the importance of it. 01:12:00
And I think. 01:12:04
This study is going to layout. 01:12:06
The future of what we really need, and that that's really what's important to find out here. 01:12:10
There's a lot of talk of going to the seven, 800 megahertz. 01:12:17
If that happens, that's a significant cost each municipality and to the county. 01:12:21
So. 01:12:27
We need to know if that is truly the right direction. 01:12:29
To go in. 01:12:32
Or if we stay. 01:12:33
What the President VHF system? 01:12:36
And add 3 towers and I'm just going to bump the price up because I think a couple of years ago they were three $400,000 for a 01:12:39
tower. 01:12:43
Let's just say 1,000,000 bucks. 01:12:48
We could end up spending 3 million. 01:12:53
Or we could end up spending. 01:12:56
Several. 01:12:59
I can't even put a price tag on what it will cost. 01:13:00
I know just for the city of Juneau alone we have 70 radios roughly. 01:13:03
If we upgraded them to seven, 800 megahertz. 01:13:08
That could be $600,000. 01:13:13
Just for one municipality. 01:13:16
So there needs to be thought. 01:13:18
And we need to have an outside. 01:13:21
Company. 01:13:25
Do this study. 01:13:27
So that. 01:13:28
And this is not. 01:13:30
Insult directed at anybody but. 01:13:33
I don't want that committee. 01:13:36
To be the one. 01:13:39
That makes that decision. 01:13:40
Based on what they want or what they think. 01:13:42
And we're spending millions of dollars that maybe didn't need to be spent. 01:13:46
Again. 01:13:53
I don't think they want that. 01:13:54
On their shoulders either. 01:13:57
Because this is a huge decision. 01:13:59
Radial system hasn't been upgrade. 01:14:01
Upgraded for years other than adding towers at one time. 01:14:04
There was. 01:14:08
Two towers in this county, one at the highway shop and one out at Saint Alina. 01:14:09
Can you imagine the coverage back then? 01:14:13
We finally added towers and we thought we. 01:14:17
Made great. 01:14:20
Games, which we did. 01:14:21
But then in 2008 came around. 01:14:24
We received a boatload of money. 01:14:28
From I believe the state. 01:14:31
For interoperability. 01:14:33
And that's when municipalities were allowed to purchase a lot of radios. 01:14:35
The radios at a lot of departments are still using. 01:14:40
Are from 2008. 01:14:43
And that's where we're talking end of life. 01:14:46
When we start. 01:14:48
Talking about radios in that. 01:14:49
So we're at a critical point for a lot of municipalities on. 01:14:52
What do we buy next? 01:14:57
For radios. 01:15:00
And when you're talking $5000 or. 01:15:03
Radio for the current ones that we use right now. 01:15:07
And or 9000 for the. 01:15:12
Dual band megahertz, 7800 megahertz. 01:15:15
We need to make sure that we're making good choices. 01:15:21
And that's why this study is so crucial. 01:15:25
To move us forward. 01:15:29
So that we know what path we need to take in the future. 01:15:30
Thank you. 01:15:34
I'd like to take the two that have already. 01:15:36
Went in and then we. 01:15:39
Hopefully we'll be able to vote. 01:15:40
Supervisor Van Desang. 01:15:42
I just had a quick question. Are you aware of or do you think that there will be grants or state or federal funding available to? 01:15:46
Help you guys with this cost. 01:15:54
Yeah. 01:15:57
Not currently, most all that is dried up. 01:15:58
Collaborations with the state, for instance, whether it's the state system or the the vendor specific system that's going in. 01:16:02
They might provide. 01:16:10
Some discounts. 01:16:11
And some other options like leasing or something of the sort. 01:16:13
So no, nothing, nothing substantial at this point. We know that any kind of increase in or improvement into our system is going to 01:16:17
cost a good, good amount of money. 01:16:21
Supervisor Kevin. 01:16:27
Very quickly, we convened a study group. The study group. 01:16:30
Told us we need to do this. I don't think we should ignore them. 01:16:34
This is obviously really important to our fiscal health, so. 01:16:38
I would say we should vote for this and. 01:16:43
I know the questions already been called so I I agree with that second that. 01:16:45
OK. Thank you. And the Secret Service did say we'll see you again soon, just just so just so you know. 01:16:52
All right, we we have the motion on the floor which requires 2/3. 01:17:02
Of the members elect. 01:17:08
So it it's a critical your vote. 01:17:10
So if you agree with the committee to go ahead and fund the study. 01:17:14
Please vote yes if you do not vote no. 01:17:20
Jody still on. 01:17:26
On the phone, Supervisor Steger. 01:17:38
Yes. 01:17:41
All having voted, it passes 25 to 0. 01:17:51
Thank you. 01:17:55
OK. 01:17:58
Next. 01:18:00
UMM 2504 Amend town zoning ordinance Town of Chester Jeffrey and Jennifer Navas Revocable Trust property. 01:18:01
All of umm. 01:18:13
Report to the resolution. 01:18:17
We, the Dodge County Land Resources and Parks Committee, hereby report favorably on the petition of Jeffrey and Jennifer, Novice 01:18:19
Agent. 01:18:23
For Jeffrey and Jennifer Nova's revocable trust dated. 01:18:27
31/20/23. 01:18:31
Requesting an amendment of the zoning ordinance, Town of Chester. 01:18:33
Respectfully submitted this 15th day of April, 2025. 01:18:38
Signed by. 01:18:42
For members of the Land, Resources and Parks Committee. 01:18:43
I have a motion by Supervisor Vanda Zand and second by Supervisor Burnett. 01:18:47
Supervisor Kevin, I have a question about this. It's 22 acres converted from farmland preservation to an A to it seems like a lot 01:18:54
of land. 01:19:00
To take out a farmland preservation for a house. 01:19:07
Let's see, Supervisor Sigmund is chair of that committee. 01:19:13
Supervisor Mihail, did you? 01:19:18
Have comment on that. 01:19:20
There's somebody else from the committee daily. 01:19:33
You available to speak on it? Yeah, I can speak on that. 01:19:36
This is a rezone from farm Farm polarization. 01:19:40
So. 01:19:44
After looking at it the request, a lot of it I don't think was. 01:19:46
Just because it's A1 doesn't mean it's all farmable. 01:19:50
So I don't think it's all cropland. 01:19:54
Supervisor Gupta. 01:20:00
Thank. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 01:20:01
You know, I always evaluate these things based on what I would do in the town of Asheville and there were no maps to indicate. 01:20:03
What this split was say? 01:20:09
Would concur with Nancy a 22 acre split. 01:20:12
Does not seem to meet the minimum requirements necessary. 01:20:15
As is defined in the code, it says the minimum amount necessary. 01:20:19
I was just going to vote no on the thing because I I, I just don't see 22 acres being the minimum required. 01:20:24
To build a house and non farm residential lot. 01:20:31
In a one farmland. 01:20:34
Thank you. 01:20:36
Bill, if I could just this is a town zoning so it's not under our. 01:20:39
County code. 01:20:44
Our review of this is really just making sure the town follows the procedures. 01:20:46
I looking at their minutes from their meeting, there was some concern about. 01:20:51
About it. 01:20:56
But they did approve it from the town level 4 to 0. 01:20:58
So again, we're just. 01:21:03
In essence, kind of verifying that there. 01:21:05
That they did what they're supposed to do. 01:21:07
Not our ordinance. 01:21:10
Supervisor Dur. 01:21:14
The Land and Water Conservation Committees 10 year plan. 01:21:18
Is to actually significantly increase. 01:21:21
Farmland preservation and conversation. 01:21:25
Conservation practices. 01:21:28
And so I. 01:21:31
Totally agree with Supervisor Guggenberger. 01:21:34
That. 01:21:37
Umm, I think it's really important. 01:21:40
Not to do the opposite of the county's long term goal and take. 01:21:42
So much beyond the minimum. I don't know what house needs 22 acres actually either. 01:21:48
Not saying they should be on 1/4 of an acre, but it just seems like a really. 01:21:54
We don't have that. We have just a fraction percentage of all of our. 01:22:00
Farmland right now in farmland preservation, it's it. We really need to work on increasing it, not decreasing it. So I'm going to 01:22:06
vote against it. 01:22:10
Supervisor Mahal. 01:22:15
We just had a similar one in our. 01:22:18
Meeting last night. Sometimes the code requires you, if a landowner is changing, to do the whole parcel. 01:22:20
That does not necessarily mean the land is not going to be farmed. 01:22:27
We just had a case last night where. 01:22:31
A grandson wanted to. 01:22:34
Buy some land to build a house. 01:22:37
But the cropland was still going to be farmed the same. 01:22:39
But the code said you had to. 01:22:43
Go to a 2 so it's more complicated than meets the eye. 01:22:45
Supervisor dear. 01:22:54
The part of the concern is that farmland preservation is sort of a an agreement right between the producer. 01:22:56
Right. And so? 01:23:03
There is no requirement anymore. 01:23:06
If they're not in farmland preservation. 01:23:09
Right, you know what I'm saying? 01:23:11
So. 01:23:13
There is a significant difference between being in farmland preservation and not. Even if the farmland is farmed, you know, the 01:23:15
nephew gets it and says I I don't want to farm this or I don't want to be in preservation. I don't want to do. 01:23:21
These crop practices, they don't have to. 01:23:26
And all of those practices. 01:23:28
Are what helps reduce. 01:23:31
All that off, you know the runoff. 01:23:33
Gullies keep all of the nitrogen you know in the field instead of pouring into our frankly, you know. 01:23:35
We have a number of lakes in the county. All of that matters. 01:23:42
Supervisor, Brazil. 01:23:47
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 01:23:48
I think the question here that I have is, is a tone of gesture. 01:23:51
Chester under Dash County. 01:23:55
Ordinances are not, I believe. 01:23:58
Bill had stated that they're not so. 01:24:00
Basically what we're doing here. 01:24:03
Is saying. 01:24:05
Did the town of Chester. 01:24:06
Follow procedure. 01:24:08
And we don't have say. 01:24:10
Whether or not this can be allowed, we're saying did they file a procedure or not? 01:24:13
Supervisor Mihail. 01:24:23
Jeff is correct to what he said, but then go to Lisa's question about farmland preservation is not the producer, it's the owner 01:24:25
that is liable for the preservation. 01:24:30
And if you do take it out on prompt preservation, there can be a significant cost to that. 01:24:35
Almost $1000 an acre. 01:24:39
So most people decide they just transfer over to the new owner. 01:24:41
And you still are in frontline preservation. 01:24:45
I'm not exactly sure what this case is, but. 01:24:48
That's some of the rules that apply to prominent preservation. 01:24:50
OK, if you. 01:24:57
Agree with the committee. 01:25:00
Affirming what the town did with their zoning. 01:25:03
Please vote yes. If you do not, please vote no. 01:25:06
On the phone, Supervisor Steger. 01:25:16
No. 01:25:20
All having voted, it passes 16 to 9. 01:25:24
Report One Ordinance 1165 Amend Land Use Code Gregory Clark, Town of Leroy. 01:25:34
We, the Dodge County Land, Resources and Parks Committee, hereby report favorably on the petition of Gregory Clark. 01:25:44
Requesting amendment of the land use code Dodge County, Wisconsin to rezone approximately. 01:25:51
5 acres of land from a one prime acre culture to A2. 01:25:57
Respectfully submitted this 15th day of April signed by four members of the Land, Resources and Parks Committee. 01:26:02
Do I have a motion? 01:26:11
Have a motion by Supervisor Bischoff. Second by Supervisor Breslow. 01:26:16
Any questions or comments on this? 01:26:21
On this report. 01:26:29
Seeing none. If you agree with the committee, please vote yes. If you do not, vote no. 01:26:31
On the phone, Supervisor Steger. 01:26:43
Yes. 01:26:46
All have been voted. It passes 24 to 0 with one abstention. 01:26:50
Ordinance number 1166. 01:26:56
An ordinance amending. 01:27:00
Chapter 5. Law Enforcement. 01:27:02
Of the Dodge County Court of Ordinances to amend section 5.01. Organization. Section 5.02 responsibility of command. 01:27:04
And section 5.03. 01:27:14
Applicability of the Dodge County Code of Ordinances. 01:27:17
All of which is. 01:27:24
Respectfully submitted. 01:27:26
This 15th day of April. 01:27:28
Signed by four members of the. 01:27:30
Justice and Public Protection Committee. 01:27:33
I have a motion by Supervisor Gutenberger and a second by Supervisor Beale. 01:27:36
Question on this ordinance. 01:27:42
Yes, OK, seeing no questions if you agree with the. 01:27:49
Committee and the ordinance. Please vote yes if you do not vote no. 01:27:53
Supervisor Steger. 01:28:03
Yes. 01:28:06
All having voted, that passes 24 to 1. 01:28:09
Ordinance #1167AN ordinance amending chapter 5, law enforcement of Dodge County court of ordinances to repeal section 5.04, civil 01:28:15
service and recreate and rename section. 01:28:22
5.04. 01:28:29
Of the Dodge County Court of Ordinances. 01:28:30
Umm, where's this? 01:28:35
Fiscal note, there is no fiscal impact. 01:28:36
Finance Committee Review date April 7th, 2025 Respectfully submitted. 01:28:39
This 14th, the day of April. 01:28:44
For all or 15th day of April 2025. Signed by 4 members. 01:28:46
Of the Justice and Public Protection Committee. 01:28:51
Have a motion by Supervisor Beale and a second by Supervisor Gutenberger. 01:28:55
Any questions or comments on this? 01:28:59
Seeing none, if you agree with the committee, please vote yes. If you do not, please vote no. 01:29:06
Supervisor. 01:29:19
Yes. 01:29:21
All having voted, it passes 25 to 0. 01:29:24
What do we have on the desks? 01:29:28
Nothing on your desk today. 01:29:31
Supervisor Johnson. 01:29:33
Emma's second by. 01:29:43
Supervisor Manel. 01:29:45
All in favor signify by I, I. 01:29:46
Opposed. 01:29:49
Thank you. 01:29:50
Yeah. 01:29:55
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April Proceedings General Document
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Transcript

Event transcript
I know Supervisor Houchin has joined us. 00:00:01
Supervisor Molly is not here. 00:00:05
OK. 00:00:10
OK. We have any on. 00:00:13
Virtual. 00:00:16
We have one on virtual. 00:00:18
OK. 00:00:20
All right, we are back in session. 00:00:22
I got a call about the minutes and said. 00:00:28
That there needed to be a correction. 00:00:33
And. 00:00:36
And reading them, I think they're OK. He just. 00:00:43
Thought there was an issue. 00:00:45
OK, it's your pleasure, the minutes. 00:00:46
From the. 00:00:50
Pardon. 00:00:51
The one I got a call about was a date for. 00:00:57
The study. 00:01:04
Umm, master plan study. 00:01:08
You see something else? 00:01:12
Is that that? Is that in a minute or is that in? 00:01:23
And I don't think it's in the minutes. 00:01:32
Yeah, OK. 00:01:35
Do I have a motion? 00:01:38
For the minutes from. 00:01:40
The March meeting. 00:01:42
I have a motion by Supervisor Miller, second by Supervisor Kevin. 00:01:50
Are there any additions or corrections? 00:01:55
Any additions or corrections? 00:02:00
If not, all in favor signify by aye. 00:02:02
Aye, opposed. That is carried. Thank you. 00:02:05
Any communications on file? 00:02:09
I have no communications on file. 00:02:13
And no public comment. Signed up, OK. 00:02:16
Be checked right? 00:02:20
Special order of business Confirm appointments by the county administrator to reappoint Larry Bischoff. Jennifer Hedrick. 00:02:22
And David Godshelted Human Services and Health Board for a three-year term to expire April 21st, 2028. 00:02:30
Have a motion by Supervisor Beale. Second by Supervisor Gutenberger. 00:02:39
Supervisor Houchin. 00:02:45
The question the red light is not is it still broke or is it are we not recording? 00:02:46
Ian. 00:02:54
I'm looking right now. 00:03:09
Jacket. 00:03:13
It says that the stream status is ready. 00:03:37
And that the recorder started. 00:03:41
Says that it started. 00:04:05
So you think we're recording or? 00:04:36
So should we restart? 00:05:30
I think we'll proceed and. 00:05:37
If you get it. 00:05:41
Working great. We'll start because it's. 00:05:42
No. 00:05:47
If we have the request. 00:05:50
All right. OK, we're going to proceed. OK, We have the. 00:05:57
And let's see, special order of business was to hoop. 00:06:01
Approve and we have the motion by Supervisor Beale and second by Supervisor Guckenberger. Any comment? 00:06:05
Another comment. 00:06:11
OK, all in favor signify by aye. 00:06:13
Opposed. That is carried. 00:06:17
The next one is to appoint Jason Valerius to fill a vacancy on the Community Development Fund Advisory Committee for a two year 00:06:19
term to expire August 1st of 2026. 00:06:25
Have a motion by Supervisor Guckenberger, second by Supervisor Burnett. 00:06:36
Any questions on that one? 00:06:41
Hearing none, all in favor signify by aye. 00:06:43
Opposed. 00:06:46
That is. 00:06:47
Resolutions on file. 00:06:51
Resolution 2501. Commendation of Barbara Burnt. 00:06:55
To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Dodge County, Wisconsin. 00:07:06
WHEREAS Barbara Burt has contributed 32 years of dedicated service to Dodge County and the citizens of Dodge County and. 00:07:11
Whereas Dodge County and its citizens have benefited. 00:07:19
From the services she has provided and. 00:07:22
Whereas Barbara Burnt has chosen to retire from her present position. 00:07:25
Of transportation driver with the Dodge County Human Services and health department and. 00:07:29
Now therefore be it result. 00:07:35
That we the Dodge County Board of Supervisors. 00:07:37
Pause in its deliberations to recognize and commend Barbara Bert. 00:07:40
For her 32 years of notorious service and. 00:07:44
Be it further resolved, that on behalf of the citizens of Dodge County, this board does herewith extend. 00:07:47
To her appreciation. 00:07:53
For her many accomplishments and successes over the 32 years of service. 00:07:55
And be it finally resolved that a copy of this resolution be entered into the official records of the Dodge County Board of 00:07:59
Supervisors. 00:08:02
And then a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Barbara Byrne. 00:08:06
As a token of appreciation on the part of this board. 00:08:10
All which is respectfully submitted this 15th day of April, 2025. 00:08:14
Signed by. 00:08:19
Three members of the human Human Resources. 00:08:20
Committee. 00:08:24
Please stand, if you are able, for a rising vote of acceptance. 00:08:25
OK. 00:08:44
Resolution. 00:08:51
25. 00:08:53
02 Resolution designating the week of April 21 through April 25, 2025 as Work Zone Awareness Week in Dodge County. 00:08:54
All of which is respectfully submitted this 15th day of April, 2025. 00:09:07
Signed by. 00:09:14
For members of the highway committee. 00:09:16
Have a motion by Supervisor Gutenberger, second by Supervisor Beal. Any questions or comments? 00:09:18
Seeing none if you agree with the. 00:09:26
Resolution Please vote Yes if you do not vote No. 00:09:29
Supervisor Stagger. 00:09:44
Supervisor staggers not on anymore. 00:10:24
OK all having voted, it passes 24 to 0. 00:10:33
Resolution. 00:10:45
2503. 00:10:46
Authorizing the public safety radio communication study and 2025 Dodge County Emergency Management budget amendment. 00:10:49
All witches respectfully submitted this 15th day of April. 00:10:59
Signed by. 00:11:03
Six members of the Executive Committee and three members of the Finance Committee. 00:11:08
Fiscal note The Dodge County 2025 budget will have an increase. 00:11:13
Of fund balance applied in the amount of $45,660. 00:11:18
Finance Committee review date April 7, 2025. 00:11:24
Initialed by Finance Committee chair. 00:11:28
I have a motion by supervisor Veal and a second by supervisor Cavazon Jen. 00:11:32
I believe we have. 00:11:38
Presentation. 00:11:40
On this. 00:11:42
Good morning, everyone. 00:11:58
Emergency Management Director Joel Maher and I have been asked to present to you on behalf of the. 00:12:03
The Public Safety Radio Communications Committee, which was created by the Executive Committee and approved by the board. 00:12:08
And Joe and I really are the. 00:12:16
Managers of the radio system in Dodge County. He takes care of all the towers. 00:12:20
Takes care of the radio frequencies. I manage everything within dispatch. 00:12:24
And we have outstanding partnership between the two of us and we are doing the best that we can. 00:12:29
With what we have in place and what we want to do is go through what the radio system is. 00:12:36
What the what the plan is for the future and what we're asking for from you to help us with that plan for the future. 00:12:41
When I went to the executive committee with Joe initially asking for a subcommittee to be formed. 00:12:49
I expressed to them that this is a big project and we do not want to make decisions. 00:12:55
That two or three years down the road, come back to bite us. 00:13:02
We want to make sure that we make the right decisions as we expand our system it to get adequate coverage. 00:13:06
So that we don't have to stand in front of you and say, sheriff, why did you do that, Joe? Why did you do that? Why didn't you do 00:13:12
something different? 00:13:15
We want to make sure that we have the adequate information so that we can make the right choices moving forward and be responsible 00:13:19
with the funds that we have. 00:13:22
So with that. 00:13:28
As we talked about, we created the Public Safety Ready Community Communications Committee and with with the executive committees 00:13:29
assistance. These are the people who are part of that. 00:13:34
It includes supervisor Conway, supervisor my now. 00:13:39
Myself and Joel, Administrator Clapper, Hwy. Commissioner Brian Field because the the Highway department uses the radio system. 00:13:43
Chief Ryan Tolner, Deputy Chief Brendan Olsen, Lieutenant Jeremiah Johnson, three of our local police agencies represented on the 00:13:51
community on the committee. 00:13:56
And then Chief Howlett. 00:14:01
Deputy Chief Johnson and Chief Dama from various fire departments. 00:14:03
That really encapsulates all of the different radio systems that our radio system. 00:14:08
Covers. 00:14:14
Is all of those entities. Yes, there are some others that have radio frequencies, but they don't ride right now. 00:14:15
On the Dodge County system. 00:14:21
Joe is going to talk about the radio system itself. 00:14:28
All right, so this is the configuration of our current radio system. 00:14:32
We have a conventional. 00:14:37
Could be added simulcast radio system. 00:14:39
Each one of our transmissions. 00:14:41
That comes into the system is retransmitted. 00:14:43
At all nine of our radio tower sites. 00:14:46
This system was. 00:14:49
Initially. 00:14:52
Created and improved with the guidance of a consultant 20 some years ago. 00:14:54
Going about 25 years. 00:15:00
By consultant Len Keenan. 00:15:02
He designed the system. 00:15:04
And he sort of had that vision for. 00:15:05
A significantly. 00:15:11
I guess you'd see our system was somewhat backdated at the time. 00:15:14
He walked us into sort of a 252025 year plan of what technology was currently there and what he foresaw in the future. 00:15:19
There were two significant. 00:15:28
Deficiencies in the radio system at the time. 00:15:32
In coverage and that was both in the Fox Lake and the Knowles area. 00:15:35
Those towers were. 00:15:40
Erected probably about 24 years ago, just prior to my. 00:15:43
Involvement in the system and at the county here. 00:15:47
And then as well as about 12 years ago when the Ashoppin Tower. 00:15:50
Was presented and moved into the system. 00:15:55
The Aspen Tower significantly, as you'll see. 00:15:58
In our further presentation, came along during narrow band. We had no coverage in Ashapin. People weren't getting their pages in 00:16:02
their houses. We weren't able to activate fire and EMS down there. 00:16:07
So 12 years ago, another significant increase. 00:16:12
We uh. 00:16:15
We provide services, Deal said. To the Sheriff's Office, the police departments within our county and those surrounding, as well 00:16:16
as fire and EMS and also the highway shop, highway department. 00:16:21
So the system as it stands now. 00:16:26
Is 9 radio towers. As I said, we have 5 VHF channels and one VHF P25 digitally encrypted channel that the Sheriff's Department 00:16:29
uses for tactical operations within the Sheriff's Office. 00:16:34
So the next two slides are going to give you an idea of our current coverage as well as. 00:16:45
Sort of what was provided to us by our current radio vendor. 00:16:51
As an option for somewhat of an improvement. 00:16:55
As to both coverage? 00:16:59
Portable. Indoor. 00:17:02
Umm and then also the outdoor coverage. So as you can see, we've got the current estimate of the 9 sites. 00:17:05
And this is portable on the hip indoors. 00:17:11
And and Dale and I can definitely attest to. 00:17:15
The areas of concern, the areas that aren't covered in blue. 00:17:18
Then we move into a 12 site system which is the addition of three tower sites. 00:17:22
One being in. 00:17:26
The Watertown area, one in the Waupun area. 00:17:28
And one down sort of in the Columbus area. 00:17:31
You can tell that it does fill in a lot of the concerned areas, but it still leaves us for areas of. 00:17:36
Coverage issues. 00:17:43
This is portable. 00:17:47
Outdoor on the hip. 00:17:49
You can tell that there's still some areas within the system in our current VHF analog. 00:17:51
That are still concerning. 00:17:57
And do not provide coverage. 00:17:59
All right, so. 00:18:05
Part of the concern and part of the part of the issue that has come up is in January 1st of. 00:18:07
2013. 00:18:14
The FCC. 00:18:15
They required narrow banding of all of our VHF frequencies. 00:18:17
This sort of describes. 00:18:20
What narrow banding was and why it impacted our system and why we had to add additional towers. 00:18:23
So the best way to explain it is in in sort of layman's terms is they were taking each one of our radio transmissions. 00:18:28
Are sort of an invisible voice signal. 00:18:37
And we're all traveling down a highway. 00:18:39
And with each of those signals. 00:18:42
You're given that certain. 00:18:45
Wide lane to transmit your signal on. 00:18:48
The FCC. 00:18:51
Who is sort of the the gatekeeper of the frequencies? 00:18:53
Had come along and said we've run out of VHF frequencies. 00:18:56
Many, many years ago when they started licensing frequencies, the FCC. 00:19:00
Didn't have a real good plan for VHF and so businesses use it. Law enforcement, fire, EMS use it. 00:19:06
And it's really the ideal because it has the greatest coverage for areas such as ours where we need to cover a large area. 00:19:13
We have buildings and such that we still need to be able to penetrate into. 00:19:20
So with narrow banding it it shortened those lanes up to provide additional frequencies. 00:19:24
And and as you know. 00:19:31
If we were to take a large highway, we were to condense it. 00:19:33
Traffic doesn't flow as easy, it doesn't flow as fast, it's not as efficient. 00:19:36
And that's what happened with narrow banding. So it decreased our. 00:19:41
Signal strength, our signal quality as well as required additional. 00:19:45
Filtering at the tower sites. 00:19:51
Thus reducing the amount of. 00:19:53
Wattage that we can transmit at tower top. 00:19:56
So reduced audio quality. We noticed that in 2013 when we did go to narrow banding. 00:20:03
Of course you're condensing the signal. 00:20:11
So the quality of the voice signal is different. We've sort of been able to overcome that in a sense, because your ear just 00:20:13
learns. 00:20:17
To understand what is actually coming through. 00:20:22
The increased sensitivity to frequency accuracy. 00:20:25
The best way to say that is we did have to do it. Increase filtering to reduce reduce the transmissions or reduce the 00:20:29
interference. 00:20:33
From the narrow banded frequencies that have been added and changed. 00:20:37
Umm, they're also with the potential loss in coverage. Yes, we definitely saw it and that's why we had to add the Asheben tower 00:20:42
for sure. 00:20:46
As well as we saw the impact that the upon the Watertown and the Columbus. 00:20:51
Down into Waterloo area. 00:20:56
Actually provided when we did go to narrow banding. 00:20:59
The other area that is concerning to us moving forward is the discussion of narrow banding, narrow banding. 00:21:02
The FCC has had some some movement toward that direction and discussion around that. 00:21:09
Which further concerns us with the VHF band. 00:21:15
And having to reduce it even more. 00:21:19
So I played a couple, I played this a couple times for a couple of the committees and I wanted you all to hear. 00:21:26
Some of the struggles that we are having, back on June 21st of last year, we had an attempted homicide that took place. 00:21:31
Down just outside of Richwood. 00:21:36
And it was a SWAT call out as a Friday evening and and it was a very, very serious call. 00:21:38
We had a standoff out there for about 5:00-ish hours. I believe it was six hours. 00:21:45
And, and the radio communications out there was. 00:21:50
Awful. I was in the incident command vehicle that we have. 00:21:54
Trying to communicate with my SWAT commander who was on the ground, I couldn't. 00:22:00
There was multiple times I had to try with cell phone. 00:22:05
And that was a little bit better, but even that was a struggle for us. 00:22:07
And and so as you hear with some of these, some of these transmissions are OK. 00:22:11
Sometimes you get some good transmissions but most of them were almost non existent, you couldn't copy what was going on at all. 00:22:14
So hopefully this works for us here. 00:22:19
I'm going to skip around a little bit. 00:22:24
3 22 Could I copy anything? Can you please repeat? 00:22:27
Out of his stomach. 00:22:38
Miss Oops. 00:22:51
And stop it there for a moment. 00:22:52
That is my first responding deputy that goes. 00:22:55
She and two other people are there. 00:22:58
With a suspect or subject, a victim who's laying on the front lawn with numerous stab wounds. 00:23:02
And he couldn't hear her really say it. I've heard it multiple times except talking about intestines coming out of her stomach. 00:23:08
That's not the seriousness of the radio and we can't copy what's going on. The first thing you really hear is he has a 1032 and a 00:23:15
guy in the house. 1032 is a man with a gun. 00:23:19
So we knew this person was in the house, had a firearm and had already nearly mortally wounded this person on the front lawn. And, 00:23:25
and I've got these three people who have given life saving awards because they picked this lady up and they dragged her out. 00:23:31
Out of harm's way to safety. 00:23:37
Um, and, and it did an impressive job, but we couldn't hear what was going on. 00:23:41
118 That's your copy. 00:23:49
I'm going to be a contact. 00:23:52
10/4. 00:23:54
One Pens member that has. 00:24:08
A good working radio on coded. 00:24:11
Them escorted back to me where our original staging point was. I need to get them with Jefferson County for comps. 00:24:13
Radio. 00:24:25
Things have already to start going here. I'll let you know, but I did not. 00:24:29
Turn your cameras to self mode, right present. 00:24:37
101 If you were calling, go ahead. 00:24:42
We want to bring this back over to you guys. We have to. 00:24:48
Take this AMRAP out of our current location. 00:24:51
Were you trying to bring it back to? But I don't know what we can do. 00:24:56
Understood. 00:25:01
I would rather if we can find a way to make that thing work. 00:25:02
Rather than something 10 nines offer in their units. Do copy as well. 209 and 228 SE side we got. 00:25:06
And 29 copies of What should I do copy about the fact? 00:25:13
That's the sword commander trying to communicate with me. 00:25:22
Dodge 101 Additional. 00:25:29
Shooter situation, he was barricaded, but had we had that active shooter situation, it would have been. 00:25:59
Would have been. 00:26:04
Detrimental. 00:26:06
One thing that stuck out in my mind as to the transmissions that he was trying to find there is. 00:26:08
A lot of that transmission that that deputy builder was handling was outside the radio was on her hip. 00:26:13
And we they actually move their operations into the house, which made it even worse. 00:26:20
And there was transmissions of significant officer safety concerns where they were talking to one another in the house and they 00:26:27
could not get those transmissions that there was somebody in the closet or. 00:26:31
That they weren't supposed to make a move into another room. 00:26:37
If I remember correctly, SWAT commander was giving direction to back out. Once they located him, he was in a closet. He was giving 00:26:40
direction to back out. They couldn't hear him. 00:26:44
And as a result, they engaged him. 00:26:49
All went well. They took him into custody, but for safety we wanted to back out, set up the perimeter and call him out rather than 00:26:51
engage. So he's giving instructions to the SWAT team inside. 00:26:56
And they can't hear what he's what the directions he's giving. 00:27:02
It just so happened then moving into the Saturday of the fair, which was after the event that Dale's talking about. 00:27:06
Is a marsh rescue that we had almost in the same exact location kind of in that mud lakes climbing low Reeseville response area. 00:27:13
Where? 00:27:22
We were monitoring it because it was a concern for marsh rescue. 00:27:24
I had heard the Clr chief. 00:27:30
Arrive on scene. 00:27:31
And we lost almost all of our communications with him, even standing in a marsh trying to talk on his handheld radio. 00:27:33
And so this is the feedback that I received from him. 00:27:41
He said that his ability to talk to dispatch was even hampered by doing the what we we refer to as the Statue of Liberty. It's 00:27:44
pulling it off your hip, it's holding it up here. And thankfully you have a lapel mic that you can make your transmission with. 00:27:51
To get into dispatch, he actually resorted to. 00:27:59
A law enforcement officer that was there with him in switching over to the coded P25 channel to be able to get enough information 00:28:03
to dispatch to request additional resources. 00:28:08
And and it needs to be pointed out that the Statue of Liberty option. 00:28:13
It's not a good option. It is. It is probably the worst option that you want as a law enforcement officer or a firefighter trying 00:28:18
to do C spine stabilization or control bleeding, or a law enforcement officer trying to manage a suspect. 00:28:25
And you got to take your handheld off. You have to remove your hands from whatever you're doing, hold it up in the air and make 00:28:32
the transmission. 00:28:35
It's not acceptable, it's not safe for our people and it's not safe for the citizens that we're trying to render aid to. 00:28:39
And on that, this is an emergent situation that we do need to address. 00:28:47
What he's talking about with the Statue of Liberty. I've been in fights with people where they just do not want to cooperate on 00:28:52
the ground, rolling around with somebody, and I rely on being able to reach to my microphone and say I need help. 00:28:58
And if what happened to Deputy Bilter happens, nobody's going to hear my call for help and nobody's going to come running. 00:29:05
They're going to say checking status. We know you're calling, but nobody's coming. 00:29:12
So it's very important that we address this and we address this properly. 00:29:17
So we've got, I've got a couple other examples that I wanted to share just recently here from me driving around at several of the 00:29:22
incidents throughout the county. 00:29:26
We had a serious crash in 73 and 151 on 151 where? 00:29:31
There was a female that was missing we were looking for. We had the driver. 00:29:35
And we were trying to find this female and I got there and I'm trying to communicate with the people on scene from my squad radio. 00:29:39
I wasn't even a portable. 00:29:43
I'm calling from my squad radio trying to reach somebody on scene. 00:29:47
And dispatch couldn't even hear me from my from my mobile radio and my squad, which is more powerful than what we have on our 00:29:52
hips. 00:29:55
151 very very heavily traveled highway down in that area is absolutely awful. 00:29:58
I was We had a pursuit about 2-3 weeks ago up on up on in the Lamira area the Fond du Lac county had. 00:30:05
And I was driving across the marsh. 00:30:12
And there were numerous transmissions that I missed. 00:30:15
Trying to get over there, trying to know what's going on, trying to manage the incident as a supervisor, I missed numerous 00:30:18
transmissions about what was actually going on and I'm sitting there what just happened, no clue. Only to find out it was because 00:30:23
the radio transmissions coming through didn't make it through to my radio. 00:30:27
I never heard it. They broadcast it, but I never heard it. 00:30:33
It was just down on Hwy. 26 I. 00:30:36
Last week. 00:30:40
Traveling up on Hwy. 26 near Watertown, Same types of things. I'm hearing scratchiness. I'm hearing garbled transmissions. I'm 00:30:41
hearing miss transmissions. 00:30:44
From my staff as they're just doing everyday radio communications. 00:30:48
So this is an everyday thing. It isn't something that happens just once or just this one SWAT incident. This is an everyday thing 00:30:52
that happens around the county in these dead zones. 00:30:56
I received a letter that has been given to the Radio Communications committee up here from from the Aaron Burkin, the new chief in 00:31:03
Horicon. 00:31:08
He came in and he said why are we on our own municipal frequency for law enforcement? 00:31:12
A number of years ago when when Chief Vasco was here. 00:31:18
Or maybe it was McNeil. I went to him and I said, hey, can we move Mayville onto Channel 1 so that we're all consistent, you're 00:31:21
all in the same frequency with all the other municipalities. They said yes, absolutely. We'd love to do that. We've been waiting 00:31:25
for somebody to ask. 00:31:29
It got done. It's been great. 00:31:33
It's a stronger frequency than what Mabel's municipal frequency is. It communicates with everybody else. We all hear it. We don't 00:31:36
have to scan another frequency. Dispatch doesn't have to scan another frequency. 00:31:41
Wanted to do that with Horicon. 00:31:46
But they're down a little bit of a valley. And if we did that with Horicon, we they wouldn't be able to get the building 00:31:48
penetration that they need going into different homes and businesses, John Deere and such. So they have to stay on their own 00:31:52
municipal channel. 00:31:56
Well, the problem is. 00:32:00
Here we've got two incidents where they've gotten into pursuits, going out into the county and in the middle of a pursuit. What 00:32:01
are they doing? They're futzing with their radio, trying to change to the right radio frequency so they can communicate with us 00:32:06
out in the county. Because as soon as they get out of the city of Horicon, there isn't much coverage there. 00:32:11
That's the last thing we want people to be doing is what's in with the radio when they're getting involved in a pursuit. 00:32:16
But they have to, because they don't have adequate penetration into the city of Horicon. 00:32:21
As you all know, we had a very major. 00:32:28
Inter agency operation here at the airport. 00:32:31
On October 6th. 00:32:35
Then presidential candidate Trump came to town. 00:32:37
And we were required to put together a plan. 00:32:40
To keep everybody safe. 00:32:44
We had agencies from all over the place here. 00:32:46
Not just Dodge County agencies, there was many police agencies in the county were here. 00:32:50
But we had Manitowoc County, we had Sheboygan County, we had. 00:32:55
Dane County State Patrol, Washington, Waukesha County. 00:32:59
And uh. 00:33:02
The crux of our interoperability issues is. 00:33:03
We are on a conventional VHF system. 00:33:06
Very high frequency is what that stands for. 00:33:09
Most agencies are starting to transition to A7 800 megahertz. 00:33:11
System. 00:33:16
Which is a completely different system. They don't talk to each other. 00:33:17
You cannot use one radio to communicate with the other unless it's a dual band radio. 00:33:19
And so Dane County. 00:33:25
The State Patrol, because we're on a VHF system, they have to have two radios in their cars so they can communicate with us. 00:33:28
And and so it becomes very, very cumbersome for everybody to communicate. 00:33:34
We even have a right here in the county. 00:33:39
The city of Watertown is on a 7800 megahertz system. 00:33:42
I can't communicate with them. 00:33:45
My squads cannot communicate with a Watertown PD squad. 00:33:47
There's no communication there. I can't hear what's going on. They can have a shooting going on there, down there and I can't 00:33:51
monitor dispatch. I believe now has the ability to patch in and listen to that. 00:33:55
But none of my squads can. And if you're in a law enforcement, you know, you need to know what's going on right now. You can't get 00:34:00
it relayed through the telephone game. 00:34:03
It's not a good situation. We have that all over the place. So when we had the the the the event here, we had to come up with 00:34:08
interoperability channels. 00:34:12
In hopes that we could all communicate with one another. 00:34:16
So we use some statewide interop channels. 00:34:18
That we're OK, but still we're not great. 00:34:22
Our traffic control that we had that stretched from the county line. 00:34:26
All the way up to Hwy. 33 and all the way around. 00:34:30
Couldn't hear each other. 00:34:33
There was there were breakdowns in that communication on that interrupt state interoperability channel. 00:34:35
We we were using some of our frequencies on on Grounds, but we didn't have enough radios to pass out to the other counties that 00:34:40
came in so that we could all communicate together. 00:34:45
And it created a lot of different difficulties. Thankfully everything went very smoothly and and because we had a lot of pre plans 00:34:50
and backup plans. 00:34:54
It went well, but it was challenging and. 00:34:58
The ability to have even encrypted frequencies. We only have one. 00:35:02
So in a, in a, in a, in a incident like this. 00:35:06
Being able to encrypt your communication to make sure that. 00:35:09
What we've got going on isn't spread out to scanner land. 00:35:13
Is challenging. 00:35:16
In a case like this when you have presidential level security. 00:35:18
And it was presidential level security. 00:35:21
We couldn't encrypt it. The public could hear everything we were doing. 00:35:23
That was not a great option for us. 00:35:26
And we? 00:35:28
Just just. 00:35:30
Well, we went well. 00:35:31
Because of the really good planning that took place. 00:35:33
There were some serious challenges that that we are hoping to evaluate and come up with some options. 00:35:35
All right, 911 Commission, we can all probably vividly remember the 9/11. 00:35:45
I happen to be in college at the time. 00:35:51
Just about ready to graduate. 00:35:54
Had the option to go into a land mobile radio. 00:35:56
Company that I worked for for a good handful of years. 00:36:00
And at the time then all of the money came flowing toward. 00:36:03
First responders. Public Safety. 00:36:07
And the 911 Commission, 911 Commission was there to not only improve the communication. 00:36:10
Among agencies through incident commands, ICS training, incident command system training. 00:36:16
As well as figuring out these communication gaps and and where they were, how we could interoperate with one another. 00:36:22
I put in a ton of radio improvements. There was money there. Agencies were improving their radio systems. They were providing. 00:36:30
Funding for magic machines that they claimed would. 00:36:39
Patch this system into this system so indifference could talk to one another. 00:36:43
Um, they were good. 00:36:49
But even to this day. 00:36:51
Those problems have not completely been answered. They haven't completely fixed those issues. 00:36:54
They they provided a lot of updates, which we did with our system. 00:37:02
The EM director at the time used a good amount of funding to start that 25 year plan that movement into. 00:37:06
To improve what we had and move us into what we call probably then the 21st century. 00:37:14
So 25 years later. 00:37:20
We're looking at this and saying. 00:37:23
I think they did it. 00:37:25
I think a lot of improvements have happened. Fire can talk to EMS. 00:37:26
We can direct. 00:37:30
As a firefighter, we can. 00:37:32
Ask the law enforcement to assist us with traffic control where before you couldn't do that. They, they, they didn't. 00:37:35
The systems didn't talk to one another. They didn't have the frequencies. 00:37:42
And with the ICS system, it's brought everybody together, it's unified command, and we've come a long ways, but we have a. 00:37:46
Some strides to make. 00:37:53
Interoperability better. 00:37:55
Why it's important, as I said, so that everybody can talk, that fire can talk to police. 00:38:02
We hear it all the time in every after action, any incident that we have, any training that we have. 00:38:07
They say I couldn't hear this person or I couldn't find the channel. 00:38:14
Umm, I think some of the gaps that 911 Commission brought forward was everybody was given radios that had. 00:38:19
2000 channels within them, but for us to find our neighbors channel in channel 175 is. 00:38:26
Is a big deal when you're under stress and and looking for that Channel. 00:38:33
So, umm. 00:38:37
Basically the Commission, they want to make sure that all the groups could, could come together, like being on the same team. 00:38:38
And and work together for the same common. 00:38:45
And while we have most of that in the county, like I said earlier, we don't have that inner, inner county. And and I'll tell you 00:38:52
that our counties work with each other all the time, especially found elect. They're always chasing their pursuits to us and then 00:38:56
we stop them. But that that's a regular occurrence where we are working with our neighboring counties. I can't communicate with 00:39:00
them. 00:39:04
So we have some considerations. 00:39:08
And that was beginning to acquire tower space in the Watertown, Columbus and what pond areas. That's what we've been looking at 00:39:12
and it's been on your capital plan for a number of years to look at. 00:39:16
Additional towers for our radio system and it has been moved down the road several times and we haven't gotten to that point, but 00:39:21
it's getting to a point where we need to take some action. 00:39:26
We need to install 3 towers to close those gaps. That's that's what we were thinking. These are the considerations we had. 00:39:31
Do we need to transition our VHF to a PF? 00:39:37
Our VHF P25 system to a trunking system. 00:39:41
Do we need to transition to an 800 megahertz system or to an 800 megahertz trunking? And this is all radio complexities that many 00:39:44
of you probably don't don't have an understanding of, but there are so many different options of what we need to consider. 00:39:50
That we're talking about and we're thinking, well, this might be a good idea. 00:39:57
But is it the right? 00:40:00
Pathway forward and do we have the expertise to make that decision so that we can spend the money the right way? 00:40:02
So we need to do more research. We needed to discuss with our stakeholders, which is why we formed the committee. We've got our 00:40:11
stakeholders together. There's certainly other stakeholders that need to be interviewed, but we have our primary stakeholders 00:40:15
together in our committee. 00:40:19
Discussing options we've done that determine visibility of cost, that's something that we still need to do. 00:40:23
Because we don't know what the cost is going to be if we stick with a system we have. 00:40:29
Or we move to something bigger. We have some ideas about what if we stick to what we have or we move to something different. 00:40:34
That might be more effective. 00:40:40
And certainly we need to present options for you to consider. 00:40:43
And determine an appropriate long term land mobile radio usage for all the stakeholders. 00:40:46
And we wanted, we need to do all those, make all those decisions before we actually place equipment on towers. 00:40:53
Because like I said at the beginning, if I put if we put up VHF equipment on the towers to continue with the current system we 00:40:58
have and then in two or three years Bacon comes back to us and says. 00:41:03
You really should have switched to an 800 megahertz system. And I come back and I stand before you and I say, well, we did this, 00:41:09
but now they're saying we need to do something differently. 00:41:13
That makes us all look foolish, and we don't want that. 00:41:18
And we want to make the right decision and do it right the first time. 00:41:21
So that brings us to our committee. 00:41:26
The committee, like I said earlier, asked us to to present this to you. I'm going to go real briefly through what we've done so 00:41:28
far to this point so you have an understanding. December 4th, we had our initial meeting. 00:41:33
Organize this and discuss the scope of the issues for the county. 00:41:39
And and present the information I just presented to you today is what I presented. 00:41:43
Perfect, perfect. 00:41:50
The information that I that I presented you today is what I presented to the committee along with Joe, so that everybody was on 00:41:54
the same page. 00:41:57
We need to establish a study. We needed to a plan. 00:42:00
To make recommendations to the executive committee. That was thank you. 00:42:06
Coverage studies were discussed and it was determined determined it was a necessary step. 00:42:11
So that we had a third party, not somebody who were already contracted with, who's already getting money from us, but somebody who 00:42:16
can give us that objective third party. Look at what do we have for coverage. 00:42:21
And. 00:42:27
Joe talked about Len. 00:42:28
He brought in Len to give us an idea of what those coverage studies look like, what they, what can be provided, and that was 00:42:30
brought in to us at our January meeting. 00:42:34
He gave us a presentation, told us what it is a coverage study could give us. 00:42:39
Told us about the different technologies that we could explore and things like that. 00:42:43
And, and so we had that discussion at that meeting and decided that we should move forward with an RFP utilizing, utilizing 00:42:47
Trista, our purchasing agent to put together an RFP so we could get an idea of what different companies might be able to provide 00:42:53
to us so we could present options to you, the board. 00:42:59
On March 19th the RFPs were done and returned. We received 6. 00:43:07
Responses. 00:43:12
Those six responses were not, we did not open the the the dollar amount. 00:43:14
Until we had our meeting, but we scored before the meeting, so we all were given the RFP's ahead of time. We scored them. 00:43:20
And we scored all six of them. When we got to our meeting, all the prices were opened up. We found that the one that doesn't have 00:43:27
a number by it that you probably noticed. 00:43:31
They didn't give us a number, so it was an incomplete RFP. We were not able to consider that one. 00:43:36
We then took a look at all the scores and three of them were selected based on those final scores. 1 vendor eliminated because of 00:43:41
the incompletion. 00:43:46
One vendor was eliminated due to an extensive timeline that would have put it almost a 2026 by the time they were done. 00:43:51
Which was well beyond anybody else. 00:43:57
And then one vendor was eliminated due to an overall score. 00:43:59
In the deliverables, which was just really low and they didn't meet the deliverables of what we were looking for. 00:44:03
So that left us with the with the final three that were interviewed. 00:44:08
On April 4th, we interviewed those individuals or those companies. 00:44:12
We had discussion. 00:44:16
And we picked the lowest bid of those three that were scored. 00:44:17
And and we picked them not just because of the. 00:44:22
Of the dollar amount, but we picked them because they gave a pretty good, impressive presentation. 00:44:25
And and we were very happy with what they were providing with the deliverables. 00:44:31
And it was a unanimous decision by the committee to move forward, to bring this one to you for consideration. 00:44:35
So that we can get this done. 00:44:42
In in. 00:44:44
As soon as we can, but certainly we want to take our time and do it right. 00:44:46
Joe, you want to talk about the inventory survey? Sure. 00:44:53
So with with the committee being formed, there was a lot of question on. 00:44:57
Who has what type of radios and what are the what's the technology behind what we currently have in the field? 00:45:02
So the inventory was done. 00:45:09
And that was included into. 00:45:11
The RFP's that we provided that we didn't actually include the the stats we also took about we told them. 00:45:14
That this was something that we had done and something that they would be required to review. 00:45:20
We found that just in broad overview of it. 00:45:26
Law enforcement because of the sheriff encrypted P25 channel. 00:45:29
Umm, they are somewhat on track. 00:45:34
With future improvements. 00:45:37
But we found that some of the fire and EMS are are. 00:45:39
Lacking in some of that because of their need. 00:45:42
It's not increased. 00:45:46
Since we built our current system. 00:45:48
So this information a lot to take in. 00:45:50
But will be provided to whoever we might choose to do the. 00:45:53
Coverage study and the communication system study. 00:45:57
So we have a recommendation for you here today. 00:46:04
And, and this is again a unanimous recommendation from the entire committee. 00:46:07
It's to consider hiring TUSA Consulting to conduct the work as outlined in the RFP response as authorized in the Resolution 25-03 00:46:12
in front of you here today. 00:46:16
We plan as a committee that. 00:46:21
Once this is done, we still want we've already planned our next meeting. 00:46:24
Assuming this is approved here today. If it's not, we can push it out. 00:46:29
Longer but to meet with Tusa to give them. 00:46:33
The information that they need to complete their project in a timely fashion. 00:46:37
They did tell us that they believe they can get this done in about 90 days as long as we provide the information to them. 00:46:41
And certainly we want to consult with them to present findings to the necessary committees and ultimately the county board so that 00:46:47
you can see what it is that that they have to present to you. 00:46:53
Certainly will take direction from you as further direction is needed to move forward beyond that point, but the committee is 00:46:59
ready, willing and able to do what is necessary to make the best decision. 00:47:05
So with that, we are certainly open to any questions or discussion you may have on any of this and that's a lot of information to 00:47:13
take in. 00:47:16
I have questions. 00:47:21
Supervisor Belt. 00:47:24
All right. Thank you. Mr. Chairman. I got 2 questions with if we go to this new technology that you're talking about or? 00:47:26
How long of a life would we get out of this? 00:47:33
Well, that's part of the study. 00:47:36
We're not proposing going to anything as part of this. 00:47:38
This is identifying what would be best for us moving forward. 00:47:41
And then once we determine what system would be best. 00:47:46
Then we would work with the vendors to identify what technology or what what radios and and what what. 00:47:50
The actual hardware we would get would be and we could determine the length of the life of those systems at that point do anything 00:47:57
additional. 00:48:01
As I said, we know our system is 25 years old. 00:48:06
We know that there's technology out there that's LTE at satellite. It's it's cellular. 00:48:08
So technology is really advancing and can provide really cool stuff that can really augment what we have now. 00:48:14
And I guess it, as Dale says, it is up to this consulting company to tell us that we're moving in the right direction moving 00:48:22
forward. 00:48:26
They kind of have a broad system overview as we looked at their their past engagements with other counties, cities, villages. 00:48:30
What it might be? 00:48:38
They work with a lot of technology, so hopefully they have the insight that we need to move into a system that's probably. 00:48:39
We would have whole. 00:48:46
To be 15 to 20 years old. 00:48:48
We know that technology is really advancing. Your cell phone isn't the same one that you had three years ago, so. 00:48:50
Hopefully they have that vision. 00:48:56
And steps that move forward. 00:48:58
And the second question I had is. 00:49:00
Didn't the state already address this issue when they awarded the contract for the first net system so all counties could 00:49:02
communicate on the first net system? 00:49:07
Firstnet system is not land mobile radio. 00:49:12
First net is for for cellular devices, right? I understand that, but I thought the whole point of the first net system is well. 00:49:14
We could, we could use the communication on emergency services only for all the counties. 00:49:21
We're on board. 00:49:26
For cellular only, there is cellular technology that's coming out in some of these radios, but it is not what they call mission 00:49:27
critical. So this is specifically for our radios, land mobile radios, right? 00:49:32
OK. Thank you. 00:49:38
Supervisor Breslow. 00:49:40
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 00:49:43
It seems like we have a pretty good handle on what we're up against here and what we need. 00:49:46
To obviously increase our coverage we need. 00:49:52
We need our. 00:49:55
Law enforcement and all emergency service to be able to communicate. 00:49:57
My question is. 00:50:01
Being that we know what we're up against already, do we need to spend $45,000 on a study when we already know what we're up 00:50:02
against and. 00:50:07
My guess is that Tusa will not be installing this equipment for us or selling it to us. 00:50:12
So would we not be able to work with the vendors? 00:50:17
That provide the equipment. 00:50:20
Would they not be able to tell us what they're going to be able to provide, what the capabilities are their commitment is? 00:50:22
Without. 00:50:29
Having to have an outside consultant. 00:50:30
And if we do have this outside consultant, they're going to tell us the capabilities that we need. 00:50:33
Which we should have a vendor be able to tell us. 00:50:38
So who's to say that? 00:50:42
Zeus's recommendation of a vendor. 00:50:45
Is going to be any better than? 00:50:48
You know, how do we know the vendor is telling us? 00:50:51
That they can provide what they're telling us just by doing this study. Good question. First of all, they're not going to be 00:50:55
recommending a vendor. 00:50:58
And, and our concern is that if we choose a vendor to have them do the studies they're going to. 00:51:03
They're going to be giving us information that might be proprietary. 00:51:10
They're going to give us information that is going to benefit their company. 00:51:12
And and so we are looking for an independent third party to give us recommendations to tell us what is the coverage going to be 00:51:16
not my, my, my technology is the best. I guarantee you I'm going to be able to give you this coverage. And then when we actually 00:51:21
put up the coverage, it doesn't actually you know how salesman are. 00:51:27
Right. The consultant isn't a salesman. The consultant gives us the nuts and bolts. This is what you have. 00:51:32
This is what we recommend you need. 00:51:38
Now you go out to your vendors and you say provide this to us and these are the specifications to which you need to provide this 00:51:41
to. 00:51:45
And and so they can't use their salesman techniques. 00:51:49
To to get us to spend a whole boatload more money and I'll tell you in the radio communications world. 00:51:52
$45,000. 00:51:58
Is a very small amount that they will be able to build into their their quotes. 00:52:00
And, and so we believe as a committee that having a third party do this in the long run will set us up to be more responsible for 00:52:05
the amount of money that we spend, regardless of what direction we go. Yes, we have an idea of of of what our deficiencies are. 00:52:13
But what we don't know is what is the best way? 00:52:21
To accomplish the goals of overcoming all of those. And that's what we need from them because. 00:52:25
We understand radios. 00:52:30
But we're not experts in all of the things that are out there. And how does Waukesha County, who is on an 800 megahertz system? 00:52:32
Interop with us. 00:52:39
When Washington and Waukesha and Fond du Lac are all on that side of the the county going to be on an 800 megahertz system. 00:52:40
Dean County and State Patrol in that corner, all on a on a different system we can't communicate with. 00:52:48
How do we make all of those work together? We don't have that expertise to do that. That's why we want the consultant to do it. 00:52:53
At their 45,000 so that a final vendor doesn't build it into their cost and make us pay a lot more. 00:52:58
Does that make sense? 00:53:04
It does. A follow up on that would be have have we been collaborating with? 00:53:06
Local municipalities and. 00:53:11
Everybody else. 00:53:13
Are you know, are we working together with the surrounding people that we need to communicate with? 00:53:14
That we're gonna all be on the same page. 00:53:20
You know, because ideally. 00:53:22
We're going to spend a lot of money here, not just on this. 00:53:24
Study but. 00:53:27
On the finished product. 00:53:29
We need are we working with everyone else to make sure that we're going to be on the same team. 00:53:31
That is why we've got this committee together of of three people from the chiefs association, three people from the from the fire 00:53:35
chiefs association within the county. 00:53:40
I can tell you that one of the individuals on the committee was also part of Waukesha Counties. 00:53:45
Has a good understanding, has contacts there. So we don't have people on our committees from neighboring counties, but we have 00:53:50
contacts with the the vendors. 00:53:54
Our vendor for example, who takes care of a radio communications who can give us what their frequency bands are in the various 00:53:58
ones. Joe has been working on obtaining all the frequency bands from all of our neighboring counties and the frequencies so that 00:54:03
we can have all of this together. We can say here it is. 00:54:08
How do we make them all talk to each other? 00:54:13
So we are working on that. 00:54:16
Thank you. 00:54:18
I'm going to take Supervisor Gutenberger since I. 00:54:19
Lost him before. 00:54:22
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 00:54:24
I've got 2 questions. 00:54:26
The presentation included a bunch of coverage maps. 00:54:29
Who created those and? 00:54:34
Were they included in the? 00:54:36
6 vendors that submitted. 00:54:39
Proposals. 00:54:41
Those were created by Bay Com and presented to us last year. So it's our individual vendor. 00:54:43
Those are coverage maps that we will be able to provide to. They weren't provided in advance. 00:54:49
They will be provided. 00:54:54
As these are coverage maps we have, but we want them to also provide their own coverage maps, but they've got something to compare 00:54:56
to now that's Motorola that is giving us those. 00:55:01
Those coverage maps and their estimates. 00:55:06
OK, I think that answers your question. 00:55:09
And then? 00:55:12
Beckett exec meeting. I think it was September, October time frame. 00:55:13
I had requested the impact on. 00:55:18
All of the shareholders, you know, all of the municipalities, the fire departments and stuff like that. Now you applied something 00:55:21
in one of the slides that you had. 00:55:25
Put this inventory together or something. 00:55:29
And is that something you're going to share with us or are you just sharing it with? 00:55:32
The selected vendor. 00:55:37
We would be happy to share it with you, I think. 00:55:39
Keeping process in place. 00:55:42
It would be best to give that to the consultant and I think having that as part of the final product for you to have an 00:55:45
understanding of what they currently have. 00:55:49
Because I don't know that we had an entirely complete. I think there was a couple non responses. 00:55:53
Yeah, it it covered a good portion of the county. 00:55:57
If you were to look at it and analyze it and try to determine what an XTS 2500 versus an XTL 2500 versus an APEX 8100. 00:56:00
I don't know that you would be able to fully paint a picture based on a giant spreadsheet not having the radio history and 00:56:10
background and understanding model numbers and such. 00:56:15
That it would give you you a real good picture I think. 00:56:20
Is going to take that consulting agency to say you've got 25 radios that were built and distributed 10 to 15 years ago? 00:56:23
You've got 30 agencies that have radios that are built within the last 10 years and our carry the technology that could 00:56:32
potentially move you forward for another 10. 00:56:38
OK. Then just a clarification question. 00:56:45
We've been purchasing dual band radios recently, correct? So that we can communicate with these people that don't. 00:56:48
With three, yeah, we just started. 00:56:56
And have we made that recommendation to these other agencies to make sure that they're acquiring dual band radios as opposed to? 00:56:58
You know, VHF radios only. I have mentioned that too. I made the recommendation to all the police chiefs with many of them are 00:57:05
already looking at that. 00:57:09
I did make the recommendation to the fire chiefs as well. I don't know that they're going to be as apartment to go and do that 00:57:13
right now. 00:57:17
Until they know more, just because it is quite an additional expense to do that, but the law enforcement agencies are are strongly 00:57:20
considering it. 00:57:23
OK. Thank you. 00:57:27
Supervisor Conway. 00:57:29
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 00:57:31
My colleagues can understand that we are looking at. 00:57:35
The minimum of the equipment required. 00:57:40
To put three more towers in service. 00:57:42
So that we stay on what we are currently in operation with. 00:57:46
Up to and including. 00:57:51
A complete change of the radial system. 00:57:55
Which obviously we all are aware that's going to be much more expensive. 00:57:58
The dual band radios that we're purchasing are much more expensive. So there are areas that there are departments that are. 00:58:03
A little. 00:58:10
Hesitant on that. 00:58:12
We do have a lot of equipment when we did the survey that we came to with our local departments, especially fire. 00:58:14
That were approaching end of life. 00:58:21
So that is taken into consideration with all of. 00:58:25
This with the committee has taken into consideration with the committee. 00:58:28
When we look at where we're going to go or what we're going to change. 00:58:33
And lastly, as far as interoperability, we will. 00:58:38
I'm not sure when the next time a seer one or seer two event which is a. 00:58:44
Which is a special event assessment rating by the federal government. I'm not sure what next time we will have a SEER one event 00:58:49
here. 00:58:52
However. 00:58:57
We do daily. 00:58:59
Interact with each other both on law enforcement and fire within an. 00:59:02
And without. 00:59:07
I mean outside the county. 00:59:08
There is a great collaboration in our stakeholders. 00:59:11
Or at least they urge to collaborate within the stakeholders of the committee. 00:59:14
Both inside and outside the county. 00:59:19
For they see that there is is. 00:59:22
Real issues if you take. 00:59:26
One of the departments brought up the the. 00:59:29
Explain to us that. 00:59:33
A call for service. 00:59:36
May go through several different. 00:59:38
Dispatch centers. 00:59:40
Before they are actually notified. 00:59:42
That can bring that response. 00:59:45
Into a three or four minute before. 00:59:48
There's actually anybody that's been notified to turn out for a response. 00:59:51
My question there and not to get real, I don't want to get into the weeds, but. 00:59:58
Hold your breath for 4 minutes and see how long that takes if you're waiting on the receiving end. 01:00:02
So there is great collaboration, or at least the appearance of it, that these other agencies want to start working together. 01:00:07
And certainly where I live down in Lebanon. 01:00:14
I know that the sheriff interacts quite often with Waukesha County. 01:00:17
And again, quite frankly, those two squads can be next to each other. 01:00:21
And they cannot communicate with each other. 01:00:25
So we are, I guess to sum this up as we are looking, I want everybody understand that. 01:00:28
Before we do anything, before we purchase any new equipment to put on these. 01:00:33
Possibility of three new towers to give us the coverage we need so we do not have. 01:00:37
Put put our public safety. 01:00:42
People in jeopardy? 01:00:45
Because the radios cannot communicate. 01:00:47
We want to make sure. 01:00:50
Through this report. 01:00:53
That we are heading in the right direction. 01:00:56
The end goal would be. 01:00:59
I believe of the committee is to if it is feasible. 01:01:00
To be able to have everybody interrupt with each other. 01:01:05
As far as the. 01:01:09
Price of some of the radios there. We really haven't gotten in any of this that, you know, we haven't delved into it too deep. 01:01:10
We're waiting on the report. 01:01:14
But I do know that there are options. 01:01:20
That a lot of these communities. 01:01:23
Would not they could lease the radio which would be much more cost effective for them? 01:01:26
And then they would have service, they would have all these things taken care of. So we understand that there are communities 01:01:32
that. 01:01:35
Changing radios would be. 01:01:38
It would be hard on them. 01:01:41
So we are taking that into consideration, consideration it has been brought up to the committee. 01:01:43
So we're asking what I'm asking, what the committee's asking here today, is that we get this approved. 01:01:48
So we can move forward. 01:01:53
And again, we can provide. 01:01:56
At least a system that we know that our public safety officers communicate. 01:01:58
Back to the dispatch when they are stand the possibility of being in peril. 01:02:03
Thank you. 01:02:07
Supervisor Teal. 01:02:09
Thank you. 01:02:11
With regard to using an outside. 01:02:13
Consultant. 01:02:16
It's always good to get. 01:02:17
Another perspective. 01:02:18
A non biased perspective but also to set us up for. 01:02:21
Future growth and development. They better understand the technology. 01:02:26
Whereas we know our deficiencies. 01:02:31
But how best to set us up and stage us for future growth and development? 01:02:34
Within the. 01:02:41
Technology, that is. 01:02:43
Always changing. 01:02:45
I wanted one question. 01:02:47
About the frequencies and this is technical, I really don't understand it, but I just want to ask. 01:02:50
The state has been. 01:02:56
Talking for years about interoperability since the 911 Commission and. 01:02:58
That may have resulted in that umm. 01:03:05
Cellular. 01:03:08
Network that you were discussing before. 01:03:10
But. 01:03:13
Going to the 800 megahertz? 01:03:15
Is there an established communication relay with what the state has because they're on a trunk system? 01:03:18
So I'll start and joke and finish up here in this one. 01:03:26
So we have a couple different state systems that are actually being stood up and and this is different than what the the first net 01:03:30
is. 01:03:33
The state system. 01:03:37
A number of years ago, Joke and I and I can both attest to Wisconsin 1.0 was a complete and total failure. 01:03:38
And so now they've been trying to get Wisconsin 2.0 set up. 01:03:45
And Wisconsin 2.0 is not a portable system. 01:03:49
Meaning it is, it is, it is supposed to. I think it was 90% mobile coverage is what they're looking for around the state. 01:03:53
So that's in our rate in our squads. 01:04:00
These radios here. 01:04:02
They're not worried about these radios on that system. 01:04:04
And that was what was proposed in this 2.0 system. There's also another system, Whispin. It's a Motorola system. 01:04:06
That they're standing up in some counties to our SE and I think Fond du Lac is looking at it as well. It's another statewide 01:04:13
system. It's Motorola's competitor to Wisconsin because they didn't get the bid. 01:04:18
So when we had the interviews, I asked all of the vendors, how will you? 01:04:24
Integrate or evaluate those systems. 01:04:30
To see if one of those is appropriate for us, if we need to build it up beyond that, and this vendor said absolutely, that's 01:04:34
something they're going to be heavily considering to see if it's if that would be the right way to go or to have our own system. 01:04:40
Anything else, Joel? 01:04:46
Yeah, in the in the 800 band because it was better managed when it came down to the FCC distributing the the licenses. 01:04:50
We have. 01:04:58
Knowledge of surrounding counties, particularly Fond du Lac, whether which I've heard feedback in the last couple of months here, 01:05:00
they've switched or starting to migrate to 800. 01:05:05
It's providing better coverage on their overall. 01:05:10
Platform that they currently have because they're able to do less, less filtering, they're able to put. 01:05:14
Newer technology tower top. 01:05:20
To transmit the frequencies further. 01:05:22
And not have them filtered out. 01:05:24
There is. 01:05:27
A lot of interference in the VHF band, even to your simple. 01:05:28
Like the wall warts that you plug in for your computer monitor. 01:05:33
So those even cause more issues on VHF, especially when you're in a building. 01:05:36
And 800 has better. 01:05:41
Penetration into our current. 01:05:43
Structures that we build the the steel, the smaller windows, that type of thing, it has a better ability to get in versus VHF 01:05:46
which the waves are a lot bigger to get technical. 01:05:51
It's easier to get a small wave through a window kind of thing. 01:05:57
So we look forward to and we take a lot of feedback from the 800. I'm not saying that that is the direction they're gonna, 01:06:01
absolutely. 01:06:04
Identify but the statewide system that he talked about Wisconsin 2.0. 01:06:09
Is moving in the 800 direction. They've identified the issue that they had before. 01:06:14
And we keep our fingers crossed it will improve. 01:06:19
The other thing is, is we only have two state towers in our in our system. 1 is at Fox Lake and one is at Rubicon. 01:06:21
So if we were to switch to something like that, we would definitely have to augment the rest of our system to help fill in, as 01:06:29
Dale said with the handheld coverage. 01:06:33
A really good way for everybody to understand the different frequencies and most in here absent. 01:06:39
Haley maybe remember when we went, we first got. 01:06:45
The handheld phones that you could walk around in your house went away from the cords and they have the antennas you could pull up 01:06:50
and you could talk on them. 01:06:53
And it was still scratchy, especially when you got farther away. 01:06:57
And then eventually they came out with 900 megahertz phones that you could walk into another room and it wouldn't be scratchy 01:07:00
anymore. 01:07:04
That's the difference between what we're talking about, the VHF going to an 7800 megahertz band. 01:07:08
That's the difference in quality that we're talking about going from. 01:07:13
Is those old handhelds to the newer handhelds and I'm not talking about cell phones, I'm talking pre cell phones even. 01:07:18
Supervisor Dirk. 01:07:26
I don't know how much you can address this, but. 01:07:30
I am not super familiar with these issues. 01:07:33
But you mentioned. 01:07:36
Like 10 or go to a system that's like 10 or 15 years old. 01:07:38
And at first I was like, Oh my God, like, that is such a waste of $1,000,000, right? To start with a system of technology that's a 01:07:42
decade old. 01:07:47
But. 01:07:52
You're trying to make everything work now, and so you also mentioned there's a. 01:07:53
One or whatever folks that are at the end of life situation. 01:07:58
And so you're on this continuum, right? So the county's gonna spend. And I don't know, I throw out a million, but it's gonna be a 01:08:02
lot of money. 01:08:06
And all of this money and. 01:08:10
I don't know if your consultant is going to help you with this issue. Like at what point do you go? 01:08:13
This community, whether you do it or we help you, you need to upgrade, you know, otherwise you're dragging the entire system down. 01:08:17
And everybody talks about being responsible to the budget and I think that's really short sighted. I think we are responsible to 01:08:24
the county board 10 years from now and if we quadruple their budget because we don't plan well, we spend far more money. So it's 01:08:31
for that kind of an investment. 01:08:38
Right. 01:08:45
It just seems like going to such an old system, even if it meant. 01:08:46
I don't know providing the. 01:08:51
You know what I'm talking about. The lowest ring here is going to pull the entire system down. 01:08:53
Right. And is that something the consultant is helping with you or that you're? 01:08:59
You know, I mean, I think you make some good points. We don't know if we're going to be going to a different system and if 01:09:04
municipalities will need to. We need to wait and see what the cult and consultant says. 01:09:08
But I think that there are options in play. 01:09:12
That if we do have to transition from our VHF to an 800 megahertz system, there are options in play, like what Fond du Lac County 01:09:16
is doing to have a slow transition to get there, that it doesn't have to be a flip to switch. Everybody's got to spend the money 01:09:20
right now to do that. I think there are options probably likely available that we'll be able to explore, especially for the fire 01:09:25
departments. 01:09:30
Where, as I understand, that's what Fonda Laconia is doing. They're delaying the fire department transition so that they have time 01:09:35
to prepare. 01:09:39
Where law enforcement are able to bridge that gap and start moving to the new technology a little bit sooner. So I think there are 01:09:44
options. 01:09:47
To get us there. Can I follow up please? 01:09:50
If I could ask, like it sounds like from your whole presentation and what I've read in the paperwork. 01:09:54
That. 01:10:00
You actually have. 01:10:01
Safety concerns, so it's confusing. 01:10:03
Like what are you doing that's transitioning, right? If you don't get everybody on, don't you have the same? 01:10:06
Issues. 01:10:11
Right, like immediate safety concerns. So I'm not sure what you mean with transitioning there. There are some, there are safety 01:10:12
concerns that can be mitigated depending on the. 01:10:18
The incident. 01:10:24
Fire service, for example, operate. 01:10:26
Typically most of their communication with dispatch through a repeated system. 01:10:28
Is when they're in their trucks. 01:10:33
When they get on the ground when they're doing on scene they switch to a non repeated type channel anyway. 01:10:35
So there are ways for us to get there to. 01:10:42
To maybe that's an Ave. that we look at what they're OK with the systems they have. 01:10:44
As long as we have the law enforcement there as well that have a better communication system in the meantime. 01:10:50
I'm not saying that's the way we would go. I'm saying that there are options that we can evaluate that can mitigate some of those 01:10:56
costs in the short term. 01:10:59
In the long term, we all get there. 01:11:03
Maybe it is something where we flip the switch and we come up with a way to do it all at once. I don't know that. That's why we 01:11:05
have the consultant. I'm just saying there's options. 01:11:08
That we can look at so that we can be cognizant of the budgets of all the municipalities. 01:11:12
Because we don't want to come to him and say. 01:11:17
You have to spend $5 million this next year. Where you going to come up with the money? I don't know. I don't want to necessarily 01:11:19
want to do that either. So I think we need to be cognizant of that and find solutions. 01:11:24
Come up with options just like Fondle Iconi is doing. 01:11:28
I think they're doing a great job with what they're doing. 01:11:31
But we need to wait and see what the consultant says before we even get into those conversations, because maybe we won't even need 01:11:33
them. 01:11:36
Supervisor Beale. 01:11:41
Well, First off, I'd ask that we call the question because I think we've had a quite a bit of discussion on this. 01:11:43
And I would encourage. 01:11:50
My fellow board members to vote in favor of this. 01:11:54
As a daily user of. 01:11:57
The communication system. I know the importance of it. 01:12:00
And I think. 01:12:04
This study is going to layout. 01:12:06
The future of what we really need, and that that's really what's important to find out here. 01:12:10
There's a lot of talk of going to the seven, 800 megahertz. 01:12:17
If that happens, that's a significant cost each municipality and to the county. 01:12:21
So. 01:12:27
We need to know if that is truly the right direction. 01:12:29
To go in. 01:12:32
Or if we stay. 01:12:33
What the President VHF system? 01:12:36
And add 3 towers and I'm just going to bump the price up because I think a couple of years ago they were three $400,000 for a 01:12:39
tower. 01:12:43
Let's just say 1,000,000 bucks. 01:12:48
We could end up spending 3 million. 01:12:53
Or we could end up spending. 01:12:56
Several. 01:12:59
I can't even put a price tag on what it will cost. 01:13:00
I know just for the city of Juneau alone we have 70 radios roughly. 01:13:03
If we upgraded them to seven, 800 megahertz. 01:13:08
That could be $600,000. 01:13:13
Just for one municipality. 01:13:16
So there needs to be thought. 01:13:18
And we need to have an outside. 01:13:21
Company. 01:13:25
Do this study. 01:13:27
So that. 01:13:28
And this is not. 01:13:30
Insult directed at anybody but. 01:13:33
I don't want that committee. 01:13:36
To be the one. 01:13:39
That makes that decision. 01:13:40
Based on what they want or what they think. 01:13:42
And we're spending millions of dollars that maybe didn't need to be spent. 01:13:46
Again. 01:13:53
I don't think they want that. 01:13:54
On their shoulders either. 01:13:57
Because this is a huge decision. 01:13:59
Radial system hasn't been upgrade. 01:14:01
Upgraded for years other than adding towers at one time. 01:14:04
There was. 01:14:08
Two towers in this county, one at the highway shop and one out at Saint Alina. 01:14:09
Can you imagine the coverage back then? 01:14:13
We finally added towers and we thought we. 01:14:17
Made great. 01:14:20
Games, which we did. 01:14:21
But then in 2008 came around. 01:14:24
We received a boatload of money. 01:14:28
From I believe the state. 01:14:31
For interoperability. 01:14:33
And that's when municipalities were allowed to purchase a lot of radios. 01:14:35
The radios at a lot of departments are still using. 01:14:40
Are from 2008. 01:14:43
And that's where we're talking end of life. 01:14:46
When we start. 01:14:48
Talking about radios in that. 01:14:49
So we're at a critical point for a lot of municipalities on. 01:14:52
What do we buy next? 01:14:57
For radios. 01:15:00
And when you're talking $5000 or. 01:15:03
Radio for the current ones that we use right now. 01:15:07
And or 9000 for the. 01:15:12
Dual band megahertz, 7800 megahertz. 01:15:15
We need to make sure that we're making good choices. 01:15:21
And that's why this study is so crucial. 01:15:25
To move us forward. 01:15:29
So that we know what path we need to take in the future. 01:15:30
Thank you. 01:15:34
I'd like to take the two that have already. 01:15:36
Went in and then we. 01:15:39
Hopefully we'll be able to vote. 01:15:40
Supervisor Van Desang. 01:15:42
I just had a quick question. Are you aware of or do you think that there will be grants or state or federal funding available to? 01:15:46
Help you guys with this cost. 01:15:54
Yeah. 01:15:57
Not currently, most all that is dried up. 01:15:58
Collaborations with the state, for instance, whether it's the state system or the the vendor specific system that's going in. 01:16:02
They might provide. 01:16:10
Some discounts. 01:16:11
And some other options like leasing or something of the sort. 01:16:13
So no, nothing, nothing substantial at this point. We know that any kind of increase in or improvement into our system is going to 01:16:17
cost a good, good amount of money. 01:16:21
Supervisor Kevin. 01:16:27
Very quickly, we convened a study group. The study group. 01:16:30
Told us we need to do this. I don't think we should ignore them. 01:16:34
This is obviously really important to our fiscal health, so. 01:16:38
I would say we should vote for this and. 01:16:43
I know the questions already been called so I I agree with that second that. 01:16:45
OK. Thank you. And the Secret Service did say we'll see you again soon, just just so just so you know. 01:16:52
All right, we we have the motion on the floor which requires 2/3. 01:17:02
Of the members elect. 01:17:08
So it it's a critical your vote. 01:17:10
So if you agree with the committee to go ahead and fund the study. 01:17:14
Please vote yes if you do not vote no. 01:17:20
Jody still on. 01:17:26
On the phone, Supervisor Steger. 01:17:38
Yes. 01:17:41
All having voted, it passes 25 to 0. 01:17:51
Thank you. 01:17:55
OK. 01:17:58
Next. 01:18:00
UMM 2504 Amend town zoning ordinance Town of Chester Jeffrey and Jennifer Navas Revocable Trust property. 01:18:01
All of umm. 01:18:13
Report to the resolution. 01:18:17
We, the Dodge County Land Resources and Parks Committee, hereby report favorably on the petition of Jeffrey and Jennifer, Novice 01:18:19
Agent. 01:18:23
For Jeffrey and Jennifer Nova's revocable trust dated. 01:18:27
31/20/23. 01:18:31
Requesting an amendment of the zoning ordinance, Town of Chester. 01:18:33
Respectfully submitted this 15th day of April, 2025. 01:18:38
Signed by. 01:18:42
For members of the Land, Resources and Parks Committee. 01:18:43
I have a motion by Supervisor Vanda Zand and second by Supervisor Burnett. 01:18:47
Supervisor Kevin, I have a question about this. It's 22 acres converted from farmland preservation to an A to it seems like a lot 01:18:54
of land. 01:19:00
To take out a farmland preservation for a house. 01:19:07
Let's see, Supervisor Sigmund is chair of that committee. 01:19:13
Supervisor Mihail, did you? 01:19:18
Have comment on that. 01:19:20
There's somebody else from the committee daily. 01:19:33
You available to speak on it? Yeah, I can speak on that. 01:19:36
This is a rezone from farm Farm polarization. 01:19:40
So. 01:19:44
After looking at it the request, a lot of it I don't think was. 01:19:46
Just because it's A1 doesn't mean it's all farmable. 01:19:50
So I don't think it's all cropland. 01:19:54
Supervisor Gupta. 01:20:00
Thank. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 01:20:01
You know, I always evaluate these things based on what I would do in the town of Asheville and there were no maps to indicate. 01:20:03
What this split was say? 01:20:09
Would concur with Nancy a 22 acre split. 01:20:12
Does not seem to meet the minimum requirements necessary. 01:20:15
As is defined in the code, it says the minimum amount necessary. 01:20:19
I was just going to vote no on the thing because I I, I just don't see 22 acres being the minimum required. 01:20:24
To build a house and non farm residential lot. 01:20:31
In a one farmland. 01:20:34
Thank you. 01:20:36
Bill, if I could just this is a town zoning so it's not under our. 01:20:39
County code. 01:20:44
Our review of this is really just making sure the town follows the procedures. 01:20:46
I looking at their minutes from their meeting, there was some concern about. 01:20:51
About it. 01:20:56
But they did approve it from the town level 4 to 0. 01:20:58
So again, we're just. 01:21:03
In essence, kind of verifying that there. 01:21:05
That they did what they're supposed to do. 01:21:07
Not our ordinance. 01:21:10
Supervisor Dur. 01:21:14
The Land and Water Conservation Committees 10 year plan. 01:21:18
Is to actually significantly increase. 01:21:21
Farmland preservation and conversation. 01:21:25
Conservation practices. 01:21:28
And so I. 01:21:31
Totally agree with Supervisor Guggenberger. 01:21:34
That. 01:21:37
Umm, I think it's really important. 01:21:40
Not to do the opposite of the county's long term goal and take. 01:21:42
So much beyond the minimum. I don't know what house needs 22 acres actually either. 01:21:48
Not saying they should be on 1/4 of an acre, but it just seems like a really. 01:21:54
We don't have that. We have just a fraction percentage of all of our. 01:22:00
Farmland right now in farmland preservation, it's it. We really need to work on increasing it, not decreasing it. So I'm going to 01:22:06
vote against it. 01:22:10
Supervisor Mahal. 01:22:15
We just had a similar one in our. 01:22:18
Meeting last night. Sometimes the code requires you, if a landowner is changing, to do the whole parcel. 01:22:20
That does not necessarily mean the land is not going to be farmed. 01:22:27
We just had a case last night where. 01:22:31
A grandson wanted to. 01:22:34
Buy some land to build a house. 01:22:37
But the cropland was still going to be farmed the same. 01:22:39
But the code said you had to. 01:22:43
Go to a 2 so it's more complicated than meets the eye. 01:22:45
Supervisor dear. 01:22:54
The part of the concern is that farmland preservation is sort of a an agreement right between the producer. 01:22:56
Right. And so? 01:23:03
There is no requirement anymore. 01:23:06
If they're not in farmland preservation. 01:23:09
Right, you know what I'm saying? 01:23:11
So. 01:23:13
There is a significant difference between being in farmland preservation and not. Even if the farmland is farmed, you know, the 01:23:15
nephew gets it and says I I don't want to farm this or I don't want to be in preservation. I don't want to do. 01:23:21
These crop practices, they don't have to. 01:23:26
And all of those practices. 01:23:28
Are what helps reduce. 01:23:31
All that off, you know the runoff. 01:23:33
Gullies keep all of the nitrogen you know in the field instead of pouring into our frankly, you know. 01:23:35
We have a number of lakes in the county. All of that matters. 01:23:42
Supervisor, Brazil. 01:23:47
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 01:23:48
I think the question here that I have is, is a tone of gesture. 01:23:51
Chester under Dash County. 01:23:55
Ordinances are not, I believe. 01:23:58
Bill had stated that they're not so. 01:24:00
Basically what we're doing here. 01:24:03
Is saying. 01:24:05
Did the town of Chester. 01:24:06
Follow procedure. 01:24:08
And we don't have say. 01:24:10
Whether or not this can be allowed, we're saying did they file a procedure or not? 01:24:13
Supervisor Mihail. 01:24:23
Jeff is correct to what he said, but then go to Lisa's question about farmland preservation is not the producer, it's the owner 01:24:25
that is liable for the preservation. 01:24:30
And if you do take it out on prompt preservation, there can be a significant cost to that. 01:24:35
Almost $1000 an acre. 01:24:39
So most people decide they just transfer over to the new owner. 01:24:41
And you still are in frontline preservation. 01:24:45
I'm not exactly sure what this case is, but. 01:24:48
That's some of the rules that apply to prominent preservation. 01:24:50
OK, if you. 01:24:57
Agree with the committee. 01:25:00
Affirming what the town did with their zoning. 01:25:03
Please vote yes. If you do not, please vote no. 01:25:06
On the phone, Supervisor Steger. 01:25:16
No. 01:25:20
All having voted, it passes 16 to 9. 01:25:24
Report One Ordinance 1165 Amend Land Use Code Gregory Clark, Town of Leroy. 01:25:34
We, the Dodge County Land, Resources and Parks Committee, hereby report favorably on the petition of Gregory Clark. 01:25:44
Requesting amendment of the land use code Dodge County, Wisconsin to rezone approximately. 01:25:51
5 acres of land from a one prime acre culture to A2. 01:25:57
Respectfully submitted this 15th day of April signed by four members of the Land, Resources and Parks Committee. 01:26:02
Do I have a motion? 01:26:11
Have a motion by Supervisor Bischoff. Second by Supervisor Breslow. 01:26:16
Any questions or comments on this? 01:26:21
On this report. 01:26:29
Seeing none. If you agree with the committee, please vote yes. If you do not, vote no. 01:26:31
On the phone, Supervisor Steger. 01:26:43
Yes. 01:26:46
All have been voted. It passes 24 to 0 with one abstention. 01:26:50
Ordinance number 1166. 01:26:56
An ordinance amending. 01:27:00
Chapter 5. Law Enforcement. 01:27:02
Of the Dodge County Court of Ordinances to amend section 5.01. Organization. Section 5.02 responsibility of command. 01:27:04
And section 5.03. 01:27:14
Applicability of the Dodge County Code of Ordinances. 01:27:17
All of which is. 01:27:24
Respectfully submitted. 01:27:26
This 15th day of April. 01:27:28
Signed by four members of the. 01:27:30
Justice and Public Protection Committee. 01:27:33
I have a motion by Supervisor Gutenberger and a second by Supervisor Beale. 01:27:36
Question on this ordinance. 01:27:42
Yes, OK, seeing no questions if you agree with the. 01:27:49
Committee and the ordinance. Please vote yes if you do not vote no. 01:27:53
Supervisor Steger. 01:28:03
Yes. 01:28:06
All having voted, that passes 24 to 1. 01:28:09
Ordinance #1167AN ordinance amending chapter 5, law enforcement of Dodge County court of ordinances to repeal section 5.04, civil 01:28:15
service and recreate and rename section. 01:28:22
5.04. 01:28:29
Of the Dodge County Court of Ordinances. 01:28:30
Umm, where's this? 01:28:35
Fiscal note, there is no fiscal impact. 01:28:36
Finance Committee Review date April 7th, 2025 Respectfully submitted. 01:28:39
This 14th, the day of April. 01:28:44
For all or 15th day of April 2025. Signed by 4 members. 01:28:46
Of the Justice and Public Protection Committee. 01:28:51
Have a motion by Supervisor Beale and a second by Supervisor Gutenberger. 01:28:55
Any questions or comments on this? 01:28:59
Seeing none, if you agree with the committee, please vote yes. If you do not, please vote no. 01:29:06
Supervisor. 01:29:19
Yes. 01:29:21
All having voted, it passes 25 to 0. 01:29:24
What do we have on the desks? 01:29:28
Nothing on your desk today. 01:29:31
Supervisor Johnson. 01:29:33
Emma's second by. 01:29:43
Supervisor Manel. 01:29:45
All in favor signify by I, I. 01:29:46
Opposed. 01:29:49
Thank you. 01:29:50
Yeah. 01:29:55