FirstNet Board Member Says Public Safety Shut Out on Decisions Made So Far

FirstNet has been a magnet for criticism, with the main concern in the past being that the states were not adequately represented on the FirstNet board. In a March hearing before the House Communications Subcommittee, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., raised questions about state involvement (CD March 15 p5).

"Where are the checks and balances?” Fitzgerald asked. “Where is the openness and transparency promised in the law which created this agency? Why are certain public safety board members being sidelined while a faction by industry members of the board proceed without us? Again, I ask each of you, if I don’t know what we are doing how can the millions of public safety members for whom I sit in this chair have any idea of how the network is being envisioned will meet their needs? I wish I had an answer."

The FirstNet board is largely ignoring the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) it created in February, made up of 40 representatives of public safety organizations, Fitzgerald claimed. Fitzgerald recently met with PSAC on behalf of FirstNet. “In my view more effort is expended making sure that no advice is received from the PSAC that would have to be publicly disclosed by this board than is spent trying to hear the PSAC out or involve them in our activities in any way,” he said. “In my view the PSAC is treated more like a necessary evil than a source of valuable public safety advice. This troubles me to my core. How can we be designing a public safety broadband network without public safety front and center? Why is everyone sitting quietly while commercial members of this board tell public safety to sit in the corner and watch them work? Whose network is this anyway?"

Fitzgerald’s resolution would have required the FirstNet board to appoint a committee to examine the plan for the network proposed by the board with an eye on whether it meets the needs of public safety. It would have required formal consultation with PSAC. The resolution also questioned whether some members of the board who helped develop FirstNet’s startup plan, which was circulated to members last Friday, had various conflicts of interest that need to be disclosed.

"I am not saying it’s necessarily a bad plan, but I do say that the process by which it was developed undermined its ability to be supported by public safety,” Fitzgerald said. “This 400-plus page startup plan, which by the way, I first saw this weekend, requires, one, an independent review by an outside body, two, testing against alternatives, three, and most importantly, obtaining a serious public safety input before any plan is presented for consideration by the board."

FirstNet to date has not been transparent, even for some members of the board, Fitzgerald said. “In my view, the processes thus far employed by FirstNet are killing our credibility,” he said. “It appears to me that directors of FirstNet do not have equal access to documentation information. For example, I have not had access to financial information. Other directors must have had that information since we're paying for services. I do not know what the consultants working for FirstNet are being paid or how they were hired.” Fitzgerald said in some cases a quorum of board members appear to be holding conference calls or meetings “that are not treated as board meetings, are not publicly announced or disclosed and are not subject to the public observation.” The public meetings of the board “are generally well rehearsed performances, while the real decision making takes place in other forums,” he said.

Many in the public safety community worked hard to get Congress to approve FirstNet, Fitzgerald said. “I will not sit by and watch it built by my industry board member colleagues in accordance with their commercial vision,” he said. “This is supposed to be our network."

Other members of the board disagreed sharply with Fitzgerald’s criticisms. Wellington Webb, former mayor of Denver, said he felt “blindsided” by Fitzgerald’s resolution seeking more openness and immediately moved that it be tabled. “Wrong motion, wrong time, wrong place,” Webb said. The resolution was eventually tabled with only Fitzgerald voting no.

"I felt as though the group has been very open in terms of talking about the technology solutions, soliciting input, in terms of the kinds of things that we all felt were needed,” said Teri Takai, board member and the chief information officer at the Department of Defense. “I have to say I'm a little put off because I feel like it’s also directed at some of us as members of the board."

"I can understand the issues of not communicating properly, but I am very troubled by the allegations of misconduct,” said Ginn, a retired telecom executive, who asked the Commerce Department to take a closer look. “I want those issues dealt with immediately in some way,” he said. “I want those issues dealt with front and center, now.” Ginn told reporters after the meeting he disagrees with Fitzgerald that there was even the appearance of impropriety on the board. “We have been extremely careful working with Department of Commerce attorneys to make sure that at every turn we have not only followed the law but we've followed the Department of Commerce rules,” Ginn said.

"I don’t see the same level of concern in public safety that apparently Paul sees,” said New York City Police Department Deputy Chief Charles Dowd after the meeting. “I am not getting the same thing or the same sense that Paul is and, again, I mentioned earlier, I'm in public safety almost 34 years now. I am comfortable that the process is moving well. Anything you ever do can always go better, but I think this has been effective and I think we're getting to where we need to be.” Kevin McGinnis, chief of North East Mobile Health Services, said he also does not see “the level of concern” among first responders cited by Fitzgerald.

New GM D'Agostino was executive director-network for Verizon Wireless in southern California from 2008-12, according to a news release (http://1.usa.gov/ZGHLA7). He was previously an executive at Sprint PCS, Airtouch Communications and Pacific Bell. “Today is my second day on the job, and I have an enormous amount of work to do to catch up,” D'Agostino said a statement posted by NTIA (http://1.usa.gov/12FY1CI). “I've already met with the Board and the technical team, and I am impressed by the great work and progress that’s been made in such a short period of time."

Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said the bombings in Boston and chemical plant explosion in West, Texas, last week shows why FirstNet is important. “You are building a nationwide network that is going to allow our first responders to share more and better information when and where they need it,” she said, at the start of the meeting before Fitzgerald spoke. “I have a pretty good impression that you are off to a good start here.”

First responder communications proved interoperable and worked well after the attacks at the Boston Marathon, Suzanne Spaulding, deputy undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, told board members in a presentation. “It’s a testament to the city, to the state and to the region and the kind of work they have done over the years in preparing for these kinds of events,” she said. DHS had worked with the city during the run-up to the 2010 marathon, with the changes in place during the year’s race, she noted. “We're all aware that there were some failures in the communications,” she said. “The bottom line is that cellphones and the [land mobile radio network] worked, but there were latency issues and significant problems really arose ... with that essential delivery of big data packages, particularly the videos that proved to be so significant and important in the resolution of this event.”