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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/05/2012 TECH November 5, 2012 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE TECHNOLOGIES BOARD HELD ON November 5, 2012 The Regular Session of the TECHNOLOGIES BOARD of The Colony, Texas was called to order at 6:47 pm on the 5th of November, 2012 at CITY HALL, in the City Managers Conference Room, City Hall, 6800 MAIN STREET, THE COLONY, TEXAS, with the following roll call: Bill Swink absent Stephen Hoffman present Joye Grube present Lyle Snider absent Juan Martinez present Kevin Van Winkle present Council Liaisons Mayor Joe McCourry absent Jeff Connelly absent With four out of six members present a quorum was established and the following items were discussed. 1.0 CALL MEETING TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 6:47 1.1 General announcements None 1.2 Staff announcements None 1.3 Council announcements None 2.0 DISPOSITION OF MINUTES Acceptance of Technologies Board Minutes for a meeting held on September 10, 2012. Minutes approved as submitted. 3.0 AGENDA ITEMS 1 November 5, 2012 3.1 Board member introductions. New Board members, Kevin Van Winkle and Juan Martinez introduced themselves. 3.2 Update from Council Liaison. Brant Shallenburger, Director of Government Relations, said that Mayor McCourry and Councilman Connelly were both out due to illness. With no Council Liaison present this item was not discussed. 3.3 Update from Staff Liaison. (Video broadcast system) (Ringener) Ted Ringener, IT Manager for the City of The Colony, said they have had some complaints about the broadcasting of meetings. The issues have been with the web broadcast and AT&T Uverse with the horizontal hold. The cause is believed to be an outdated computer and video card and the department is currently looking at replacing these items. They are also contacting the vendor of the broadcast system to see if their system can handle all of the features. Mr. Ringener also announced that the EMC solution will be going out for bid on Wednesday. 3.4 Presentation from police department on upgrade of patrol car video systems. (Plemons) Assistant Chief Chris Plemons of The Colony Police Department said the marked squad cars all have camera systems in them and the equipment is no longer being supported. He explained that the new camera, control system and recording devices will be placed in the cabin of the car. Chief Plemons said thirty-one squad cars will be fitted with the new system and eight cars currently have cameras that will not need to be replaced but can be retro-fitted to work with the new system. This was a deciding factor on going with a system from L3 Communications. The system will allow for wireless uploading of video when the patrol cars pull into the parking lot at the Police Station. Mitch Lee, with L3 Communications, gave some background information on his company and what the system has to offer. Mr. Lee introduced Von Linavong with L3 Communications to speak about some specifications of the system and the installation process. Board member Kevin Van Winkle asked how big the compact flash card is. Mr. Linavong said the card will be 8Gb. Board member Joye Grube asked if there is some type of alert system to let the officer know the card is almost full. Mr. Linavong said there is an alert and there is also a countdown in hours in minutes displayed so the officer will know how much record time is left on the card. Mr. Van Winkle asked what frequency is being used for the wireless. Mr. Linavong said they are using 802.11a. Mr. Van Winkle asked if the frequencies are reviewed to ensure there are no interference issues. Mr. Linavong said they are not but they use WPA PSK for encryption. Mr. Linavong said they are using four proxim based wireless antennae's. Ms. Grube asked if all of the access points will be in the Police Department parking lot. Mr. Lee said three will be in the parking lot and one will be in the sally port. Board 2 November 5, 2012 member Juan Martinez asked if the officer will be required to log in. Mr. Linavong said they will be using a USB key to log into the system. Mr. Ringener asked how the keys get made. Mr. Lee said the system administrator will be responsible for making the keys. Mr. Martinez asked if they know of any instances where the video has been downloaded by someone else from the car. Mr. Linavong said they have not had any issues before. Mr. Ringener asked if the compact flash cards are proprietary or if they could be purchased anywhere. Mr. Lee said they need to be purchased from L3 for troubleshooting purposes but spares could be purchased as backup in an emergency case. Mr. Ringener asked if the car needs to be running in order for the system to work. Mr. Linavong said the system is set up with a timer to shut off after a certain amount of time with no activity and the system pulls very little from the battery. Ms. Grube asked what kind of tilmefrarne they need to implement the system. Chief Plemons said the money is already budgeted. Mr. Ringener said this item has already been decided and this is for information purposes only. Ms. Grube asked about support for the produce. Mr. Lee said the warranty is one year for everything and after that there are extended maintenance contracts offered. 3.5 Presentation from staff on the city's current technology status and proposed future projects. (Ringener) Mr. Shallenburger said the Council and Mayor have expressed an interest in having the board create a five year plan for technology. Mr. Ringener gave general information on the IT department and current staff. Mr. Ringener went over the buildings currently supported by IT and the hardware and software applications supported. Mr. Ringener presented the projects the IT department has planned for 2012/2013 as well as projects proposed for the future. 3.6 Discuss specifications and replenishment schedule for future desktop computer purchases. (Ringener) Mr. Ringener said he would like for the board to be more involved. He would like for the board to help in recommending the replenishment schedule for desktop computers as well as what the specifications should be. Mr. Ringener said there are only a handful of people that use anything other than basic office applications. Mr. Martinez said the computer specifications should be based on what the end user needs. Mr. Van Winkle said he thinks the refreshment rate should be three years. Ms. Grube agreed but thinks it should be three years only for the machines using the high end software and five years for the others. Mr. Ringener said the volunteers with The Colony Christmas Light Show have put in a request for a new computer for this year's light show. Kevin Braby, with The Colony Christmas Light Show, explained the computer hardware needs for a new software package they are adding this year. The computer they are currently using was given to them by the City six years ago and he upgraded the memory last year. Ms. Grube asked if they would be able to do the show this year with the current equipment. Mr. Braby said the computer they have currently will not be sufficient and they really need two computers to put on the show this year. Ms. Grube asked Mr. Ringener if we have any computers available. Mr. Ringener said we do not. He said the City 3 November 5, 2012 could possible purchase the intensive computer and each year loan them the second computer. Mr. Shallenburger said this is what he was thinking because of the replenishment schedule we want to go to. Mr. Ringener asked what kind of timeframe they have to get the new computer. Mr. Braby said as soon as possible. Ms. Grube asked if Mr. Ringener would be heading up purchasing the new system. Mr. Shallenburger asked Mr. Braby about funding for the computer. Mr. Braby said he has funding for the show and is not aware of any restrictions on the money. Mr. Ringener asked if Mr. Braby needs to get council approval to purchase the new computer. Mr. Shallenburger does not think so. Mr. Ringener will order the high end computer and will loan them the low end computer this year. Mr. Ringener asked the board for a recommendation on the replenishment schedule. The board agreed that it depends on the user. Ms. Grube thinks it should be three years only for the machines using the high end software and five years for the basic users. 3.7 Discuss tablet computer technologies and associated management for use in local government. (Board) Mr. Ringener said the Mayor would like the Board to look at current tablets available. Mr. Ringener said we need to look at the option of cellular with the tablets and if it is needed. Mr. Van Winkle asked how many people would utilize cellular with the tablets. Mr. Ringener said that currently the Council and select senior staff have the IPAD but we need to research who would utilize the feature. Mr. Van Winkle asked if these people also are provided with cell phones. Mr. Ringener said two council members as well as staff are provided with phones but the other council members are not. Mr. Shallenburger said what the board needs to be looking at is whether or not the tablets are needed or if a laptop or netbook could do the same thing. Ms. Grube asked what the justification for purchasing the current tablets was. Mr. Ringener said it was to go paperless from the City Secretary's office in not printing out the council packets. Mr. Shallenburger said the board needs to evaluate whether or not there are other departments that could benefit from the tablets. Mr. Shallenburger said he could take board members on site to any department they would like to talk to about their current projects for future projects. 3.8 Board to provide direction to staff regarding future agenda items. (Board) Mr. Shallenburger said this item will be on all agendas going forward for members of the board to bring items to staff that they would like to discuss. 3.9 Presentation on Video security cameras at the Animal Control facility. (Plemons, Ringener) item was discussed after 3.4 Mr. Ringener said there is a possibility that the cameras could be implemented with the new patrol car system. The other option is to purchase a four pack of POE cameras. At this point they have not decided which way they are going to go so there is nothing to discuss until they get quotes to go along with the patrol car 4 November 5, 2012 camera system. This system will be purchased with donated money the Animal Shelter has received. The item will be brought back to the board at a later date. 4.0 ADJOURNMENT With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:22 p.m. APPROVED: l Joye Gr Chaff- Betty Pa plin, Recording Secretary 5