HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-06-11 Technical Committee MinutesCOMMUNICATIONS TECHNICAL
COMEDTTEE MINUTES
JUNE 11, 1997
Committee Members Present: Al Douglas, Bill Eastman, Shelby
Sutherburg, Jim Greer, Aron Larson, Brad
Moore, T.J. Martzial,
Other Staff Attending: Chief Harriman
Excused: Jeff Russell. Dave Little
At its Annual Retreat, the Council set a goal for this upcoming year to
Put in place a communications network that would allow, especially the
Councilors, City Manager, and Department/Division Heade, to communicate
information in a much more efficient way than is being done row The
Committee consists of two Councilors and various members of staff.
The Strategic Communications Committee has met to review the current
communication procedures, has set specific guidelines as to what they
would like to see implemented, and want the Technical Committee to decide
how this will be done. Recommendations as to what is the best computer
system, the beat software for E -Mail, the best way to get communication
around the City, the best way to integrate the phone system and the
computer system are the types of questions for the Technical Committee to
answer.
A member of the Strategic Committee will be attending the Technical
Committee meetings to provide guidance, to answer questions and to provide
continuity between the two groups.
The Strategic Committee has given only one part of four different projects
to the Technical Committee. After the Technical Committee provides
recommendations for part one, the Strategic Committee can begin
Implementation. The four categories are:
INTERNAL
OTHER GOVERNMENTS (LOCAL, STATE 6 FEDERAL LEVELS)
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS
CITIZENS
The first category for the Technical Committee to review and provide
recommendations is Internal (City Council, Department/Division Heads, City
Staff):
1. How does staff notify Councilors of critical information in a timely
manner without having to make at least 9 separate phone calls?
In order to better communicate, equipment will be needed. One suggested
method: Computer Notebooks. This would give Councilors the capability
from home to send information to other Councilors via E -Mail. A PC would
be needed as well as hook up to a network in order to send information.
Some obvious questions that would need to be answered would be: How many
Councilors have computers? How many are computer literate? How many are
I illing to use
e the computer? Randy Harriman explaind that one of the
goals of the Strategic Committee is to have City owned equipment issued to
a Councilor with necessary training. One point made was that a fax
machine is lees complicated and expensive than a notebook. This would
work fine for sending the information, but not as well for receiving.
Another suggestion was the new technology called PCI, which is using a
cellular phone and a pager. It provides three ways of communication --
fax, notebook, or
cell phone. The phone is the quickest of the three.
With a notebook, you would still need to be at a location to set up and
tie into a network. Randy Harriman pointed out that if you go with the
PCI program, it has a pager built into the phone system. You send out an
alpha numeric pager message that shows up on a screen with the ability to
read the message so you do not necessarily have to call back.
One of the things that the Strategic Committee would like to sea is for
the Council Members to be able to access City Hall electronically,
download the information onto their computers, or browse through it on the
server, and be able to review or print. When they come for council
meetings they would just plug their PC's into a docking station in the
Council Chambers and follow through each part of the agenda on the screen
instead of using the agenda books. Al Douglas noted that in order for
this to be achieved, cell phones and notebooks will be needed. These
pieces of equipment would enable the Councilors to notify each other
quickly.
Other suggested equipment was printers. The first goal is to be able to
notify Councilors within two hour period. Would they need to Immediately
print or could they print from somewhere else? Printers would be needed
n strategic places, i.e., City Hall. As far as having printers of their
own, it may not be a necessity. The Committee can monitor whether the use
of printers will be needed. Al Douglas will check into the use of PCI at
Unicel. Brad More will check Cellular One as to what they offer for the
same type of package. Committee agreed that the other piece of equipment
needed is a notebook. These two places of equipment will achieve the
first two objectives: 1) To notify the Council members in a timely manner
and 2) To allow for electronic access to documents and further transfer.
Randy explained that the Strategic Committee included all groups in the
second objective: electronic access to documents and further transfer.
The Council, City Hanger and Department/Division Heads would need to have
access to all incoming documents and to send documents out electronically
as well. For the 2nd objective, a computer network would he needed to
allow for a fax reception, fax transmission, scanning of documents that do
not c electronically, movement of files between departments, access to
the financial/budgeting software, etc.
T.J. Warttial will visit web Sites of other municipalities similar to
Bangor and bring information to discuss at the n= meeting as to has
other Cities/Towns communicate.
One issue to deal with would be if the Councilor's phone lines will be
tied up. If you have a dial up modem from their home, the lines will be
tied up while they are on. This may be a problem with some of the
Councilors. They will definitely need modem access and Randy suggested
speaking with Erik Stumpfel regarding two new cable T.V. companies coming
into the City. Both of them, as part of their agreement with the City,
have agreed to provide fiber optic data transmission capabilities
tMbdghout the entire service area, which is the City, plus some of the
surrounding towns and we will have access to that data so we will have a
fiber optic system throughout the entire City that data can be moved back
and forth between the different departments and to homes, etc. This will
be happening by the fall. It was suggested that the Committee speak with
Erik about what the agreement is, and the type of equipment being used so
that the Committee will know that what is used is compatible with what
they are using. Shelby Sutherburg and Aron Larson will speak with Erik to
get further information and a contact person at the two cable companies.
Necessary equipment in order to tie into City Hall:
1. Server with network lines
2. Communication Software between two servers. (The type of E-mail
package that should be focused on is one that can be communicated outside
of the sites of City Nall and beyond to the citizens, etc.)
3. Various pieces of equipment
Sim Greer will look into different E-mail packages and will report back to
the Committee.
gill Eastman will look into what equipment is needed at City Hall and
bring back a list to the next Committee meeting. Bill and Aron willalso
look at the different types of notebooks and come up with the top 5.
Communications Technical Committee meetings will be held the second and
fourth Wednesday of each month. The next meeting will be held on
Wednesday, June 25 at 8:30 a.m.
techs-11.dox