Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Alright, we're live. Alright, good morning everyone. Welcome back to Government Operations and Military Affairs. It is Thursday, March 12, about 09:10 in the morning, and we are going to have a conversation about public safety communications task force funding with Deputy Commissioner and Co Chair of the Public Safety Communications Task Force. Mr. Mazzie, how are you, sir? Good morning. Good to see you again.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for making time again for me this morning.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you too. For

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: the record, my name is Dan Batesy. I'm the deputy commissioner of public safety. And, I have just a couple of items for you this morning. I will say that, this is my testimony this morning represents a pretty rapid turnaround on an unusually busy public safety afternoon and morning this morning already. So I am gonna go back and fact check and coordinate. I will give all of these figures that I'm about to give you. I'll give them to you in writing, but I probably need just a couple hours to make sure I haven't stepped in it and give you something wrong. But the good news is that I did have an opportunity to run what I'm about to share with you through Barb Neale, who you may see on this meeting, and then also Paul White, who is the Vice Chair of the Public Safety Communications Task Force. So right now, again, I'll disclose that I wear two hats. I represent the Department of Public Safety first and the Public Safety Communications Task Force second, and I'll try to make it clear, what I which hat I'm wearing at at the at the particular moment. So, perhaps I could start out with, my public safety, deputy commissioner's hat on, initially. I did wanna just clean up one point of confusion, from yesterday, and that was some, feedback you received from, the Division of Fire Safety regarding the technical rescue grant program as a portion of this bill. There was some initial, feedback that, we were opposing the grant program. We clarified that, and I want to clarify that on the record this morning, saying we are not opposed to the grant program. The grant program itself is fine. What we do have a couple of concerns about is the composition of the committee and who will manage it, and in particular, putting Mike Cannon in charge of it. Mike Cannon, for those of you who don't know, is our USFAR program manager. We're just a little bit concerned that he's got some conflict there or conflict could be created from him managing a grant program when he has to work with all these departments and run the USAR program. But we'll be glad to clarify those specific points to you. But just to be clear and for the record, we are not opposed to the grant program itself.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Can I ask a question about a particular position instead of naming a person, we should name the physician? So if it's somebody who is, for instance, a fire chief that you want in that position, or if it's somebody from the department that you want in that position. So please be clear with that when you send us your memo, because naming a person who may not be here tomorrow would be problematic.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: And that's also one of our concerns as well. But I'll be glad to follow-up with you on that. I don't know what they would suggest for that off the top of my head, but, I'm certain we could come to a consensus

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Along the way there.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Alright. The second piece, and I'll take my deputy commissioner's hat off here, at least mostly off, and, represent the task force for a moment. So, Vice chair, you asked me to present to you some facts, some figures on a budget in terms of how we would spend the remaining money. Last time I was here, you detailed the appropriated funds over the last two years towards public safety communications task force. Now, before I begin, I'll just reference back that you've already received our comprehensive review system. We've given you, the task force has given you recommendations based upon that plan, And the budget I'm gonna speak to right now is really those, recommendations. Now, of course, you can pick and choose which of the recommendations you would like to include in this in, in the initial draft language. There were some that were included, some that weren't. I'm just going to give you the whole list of our recommendations with the figures and understanding that the dollar figures will adjust depending upon which of those recommendations you'd like to include or not. Alright. The first of our recommendations that we laid out was a governance model, an independent board. We've had some discussion on that. You know, when I wear my Department of Public Safety hat, we oppose an independent board for that. But governance model does have a dollar figure attached to it. The dollar figure that we proposed in our task force recommendations was about 1,770,000.00. Now that number represents a couple of things. In the conceived recommendations, it represents executive director and some staff, and that is about 500,000 or, you know, again, I'll give you these numbers more specifically in a little bit, but, roughly $550,000 a year for staff and support and that sort thing. I also added into that the cost of developing standards and training, which we estimated would be about think I think that was sort of about, $77,000 or something like that. Again, I'll break that down for you. But that total of 1.77 is the total cost of staff and the development of standards and the development of certification and the development of all the things that the government's, board would do. Now, your draft did not include governance. I respect that. And I think if we if we were to come to that conclusion, I think it would be quite reasonable to take that 1,770,000.00 and place it into any number of the other elements that I'm about to detail down. So we could shift on the fly with no problem and go to those other places. Right. Thank you.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: So because we're not going to recommend that an independent board be set up, that approximately $1,770,000 would be available for the actual setup of a system to provide public safety communications.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: I think it would make logical sense to shift it to that, and I'll talk about that in just a moment.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And there are there were no restrictions on the original appropriation that you had to use that money for, a governance system?

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yeah. I'd wanna verify that before no. No. There was no specific earmark for governance system. Okay. I'd wanna verify exactly how the breakdown and the restrictions are before I give you a final answer on any of these.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: If you could provide that later today, that would be, really helpful. I just don't wanna do something that was previously decided by the legislature that would violate that. But it seems to me that that's a big chunk of money that could be utilized for actual equipment and labor to install that equipment.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: I appreciate that. And I don't believe so, but I'll just want to verify that for All what I say for right. The second of our recommendations was to implement a multidisciplinary computer aided dispatch system. That is the Say that one more time. I've learned a great deal about the technology of communication since I've started this process. The computer aided dispatch or CAD, as we, colloquially refer to it, has, both an upfront cost and an ongoing cost. So the ongoing cost is the cost of software licensing every single year. We think now now I just wanna be very clear with you on this. We've not done an RFP yet. Great. We know that we will want it to talk to the current Valcour system that we use as a records management system for law enforcement. And to do that, we're gonna have to get a whole bunch of smart people together in a room and say, you know, design this. What we have done, however, is our technical experts with the task force have reached out to a couple of vendors and said, in in broad strokes, if we were to conceive of a CAD system that wouldn't be able to at least at a minimum communicate with that records management system, what's a ballpark figure? So what I'm giving you is this ballpark figure. It could be more, it could be less, once we get a full fully conceived process out there, but I think this is gonna get you at least into the ballpark. And what we think, with that is that there's probably a $2,000,000 price tag on that, probably a $1,000,000 upfront and then, roughly 250,000 a year for the licensing system. You know, the licensing, ongoing licensing. And just 200 k rolling? 250 k rolling. And with the idea being is that this that that 2,000,000 would give it to us for a five year period.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: So that would take care of it for the next five years, and then we'd have to think about how to fund it. We'd have to either come back to you or talk about fees for the system in general, which we've talked about in our recommendations, although I'm not gonna get into that today. Alright. So that's, that's the second one. The third, recommendation that we offered you was to improve cybersecurity expand the use of RapidSOS and State GIS resources. RapidSOS and State GIS is mapping software, and we are currently using it at some of our dispatch centers, but not all of our dispatch centers. We think it would be a good idea to extend that capability out to all dispatch centers and therefore be able to communicate on the same platform, for for those purposes. The cost of that, and and by the way, that's that's all included. So everything that we've just I've just mentioned there is about a $190,000. We know that, the GIS software itself is about $20,000 a year. We're going to suggest, a two year period of implementation for that. So $40,000 of that is the two year licensing of it. The rest is the cost of the actual software, hardware, whatever the stuff is.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Okay. So that's all rolled into the $1.90? Yes.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: So cybersecurity total is $1.90?

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Well, all told. Cybersecurity plus the GIS plus the, rapid SOS, all told is $1.90. Now, if my math is correct, and, it may very well not be, quite frankly. That leaves us with roughly 4 and a half million, give or take a little bit. And that what we would suggest and what we have suggest already in our recommendations is we use that 4,500,000.0 to build out the land mobile radio network and improve and do, like so so we know that if we really wanted to have a fully robust improvement in in communications, we would need to spend about $36,000,000 to build towers and antennas and all of the the actual stuff that needs to happen. We're not asking for that. But we think we could use that 4 and a half million that's left over to look at the system in its in its worst places or places that have some, like, turnkey ready projects and say, here's an infusion of money to improve your area. Now, what does that mean? That means, primarily infrastructure stuff. So antennas, you know, the cabling, and all of the things that we would do on the towers and stuff like that to basically improve that. It also means some of the communications standards being laid out to like. So for instance, we we think it would make good sense if we said, we have a vision for a VHF statewide network. Right? So that that means something if you're a radio guy. It means that we would significantly enhance the ability for dispatch centers to hear one another over larger distances. We know we can't do it all at once, but what we think we can do is do it in small chunks and say, for example, Addison County, you need some help. We know that there's some pretty big gaps in your coverage. We're going to give you some money to get your teams together and put this technology to work and build up your radio antennas and that sort of stuff, and we'll start there. And by the way, I'm not necessarily guaranteeing it will be absent county. No. No. No.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: I got what you're saying there, man. I mean, I wouldn't complain if it was.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: County, you you have you you've done some work towards this process, with the notion that at the end of this outcome, they will the improvements that we do, the improvements that we invest in, will be investing in a system of systems. So the work that they're doing would go towards enhancing that broader VHF network, that broader, bigger system. And as we go on, we could continue these projects and say, more money somehow becomes available. Well, maybe Washington County is next and maybe Wyndham County is next. We know we can't do it all once, but we think we could take that money and very efficiently use it to basically for infrastructure improvements. Thank

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: you. So does this include the labor to do all of

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: that? Yeah, I can give you so the language that the that the vendors have given us, I wanna be careful that we're using vendor afforded language here, right, which is always a little tricky because, of course, it's gonna highlight how we're gonna use them. But, so statewide conceptual design, including tower site selection, simulcast cell definition, site equipment requirements, backhaul configuration, and frequency assignments. So we're gonna we're gonna, at least in theory, pay some technical experts to say, hey, Addison County, this is how we think you should design it. This is how it would work within the broader, bigger system. Detailed design for one or more proof of concept projects, initial implementation of the chosen pilot projects, so build out of the sites, which means antennas and wires and dispatch consoles and that sort of thing. Again, thinking it in terms of the system of systems, thinking it in terms of the bigger piece. And remember, there's two elements to that. One is the technology element, radios and towers. The other is the dispatch processes and things like that. I think both of those would have to be in play.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay. And my other question was my understanding of building out the LMR network is it already exists. And the other chunk of money that we have no control over, the congressionally directed spending, is being used to beef that up currently. So this will augment what is being done there

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yes.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: In the hopes that eventually the state will have better coverage.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yes. So the $9,000,000 in congressionally directed spending, again, not what we're talking about now, different pot of money, is being used on the state owned infrastructure. So the towers were used for state police dispatch centers, and all that. We dispatch currently for 47 towns across Vermont. So when you augment us, you augment all of our capabilities and it reaches out pretty widely for any number of things, also for AOT and for the warden service and a number of other associated partners with yes, then I think we can what we're also doing with this is leveraging the work that's gonna happen from that project to help us with the non state owned assets. So while we're up on the towers, we can also put up the specialized antenna that will enable us in the future, if we decide to use this for a statewide VHF radio network, be able to utilize. And again, it's significantly less expensive to do it while the guys are already up on the tower than it is three years from now when we have to basically climb the tower again.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay, so same tower, but two different services, one for state owned equipment and the other for municipal owned or It's not

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: quite that black and white. No. In some in some occasions, is. Okay. But remember that some occasions, it actually is the statewide power dispatching for that town. So Okay. So it's both.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Got it. And you said 47 municipalities?

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: That the state police currently dispatches for.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay. So the state owned equipment would include VSPs? Yes.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: We're not talking about with the with the appropriate funds for this, we are not talking about augmenting any VSP related stuff.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay. This is strictly for municipalities and other entities that are dispatching in our little towns.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Correct. What what I'm discussing, the appropriated funds, we're not talking about building any new state police towers or that sort of thing. This is just purely communication for everybody. Right. Now, by the way, does the state police benefit from that? Sure. And I'll disclose that. I mean, you know, again, we we do a lot of dispatching

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: the

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: state police. So as we improve communications in that regard, there would be benefit. But it is not the express benefit of the state police that we're talking about here, which is oftentimes, a concern of many of our stakeholders is that we're we, the Department of Public Safety is just padding the nest, and saying, you know, we're gonna use this money for us and make it better for us than nobody else. And that's not what I'm talking about under these circumstances.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I really appreciate the clarification because as a co chair of the rural caucus, it's really important to us that our rural towns have similar capacity and are really struggling at the moment with coverage. Thanks.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: So that should take us to the full total. And again, I'll just say, you can choose to implement all of these recommendations, some of these recommendations. And, if you choose not to put in pieces of them, you can certainly shift that additional remaining funding over to land, mobile, radio, networking, etcetera. So that's a that's a very flexible number. We'll we'll we'll take it as far as it will let us run. So

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: if, obviously, we've talked about not setting up an independent board in this committee, So, that 1,770,000.00 approximately could go to any of the other three pots of money that you just discussed. Okay.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: For instance, you could take it and make the CAD available longer, right? Make a five year period, a ten year period.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: You

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: could take it to land mobile radio. You could the other thing that we've discussed, but didn't I didn't include in here specifically because we weren't talking about governance is fee structures. We could use some of that to say, if we do create a fee structure, is there a way to make this a soft landing for some towns that are gonna have a fee that didn't have a fee last year? By the way, we're not there yet, and I'm not here to say we're, ready to start laying fees out in any of that place, but we are going to have to think about how to fund this system in the long run, and I think that discussion needs to be on the table.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And that's really important. I appreciate you bringing that up because there are some small towns that are already worried about this and have reached out and are obviously very concerned.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: We should clarify. There's nothing in our recommendations that suggests anybody should be paying anything more immediately. Again, it's just a future consideration.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: But for the committee and folks who are listening online, it is important to note that there are entities that are receiving all of these services for free, and there are others who are paying, and that's not equitable. So at some point in time down the road, there may have to be a change to that fee structure, which is what you're alluding to. And that $1,770,000 could be used to alleviate that.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: That's right. I think what you see with our recommendations from the task force is that our first step is to create a standardized approach. The simplest way to address equity is to demand of dispatch centers, a standardized approach, right? Whether that's training standards, whether that's quality assurance, whether that's protocol, you name it, I'm not in the weeds on that so much. But we know that we want to say if you're going to be a dispatch center of Vermont, that we have a certain expectation for you, that immediately brings equity to the table. The next step, once we have those standards and certifications is to say, okay, now that we know that everybody's playing on the same ball field, let's make sure that everybody is chipping in their fair share. And, again, that's complicated, and we're not quite there yet. But I think you're absolutely right, representative, that it's a competition we have to have because it's gotta come from somewhere.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Yeah. We've heard a lot about that from small towns, either those who are paying and those who aren't. So my last question about that $1,770,000 I'm not sure how House Appropriations wants us to structure this language, but I wonder if, and this is just a wonder if that that chunk of money could be something that is left I don't know the word, but it could be discretionary, and it could be up to the task force to advise how to use that money. And I see Barbara Neal is online, so I'd like a reaction from you and perhaps Barbara if that's something that would be agreeable if House Appropriations likes that language.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: I think it makes a lot of sense. But I'll I'll let director Neal.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, 911 Board; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Good morning, everybody. For the record, I'm Barb Neil, executive director of the nine one one board. Excuse me. And co chair of this public safety communications task force. And I agree with what Dan was just saying. I think that makes a lot of sense. And I think we've identified a couple places where it actually three really now where it could potentially go. And as the discussions continue to evolve within the task force, we can pin down where those dollars would be put to best use really as the whole topic moves forward and the work around it. So yes, I agree.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you. Quick question for both of you. What do you feel is a reasonable timeframe for any of this to actually expend these funds?

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Well, I I would suggest that most of what I've described to you is a sort of one year time frame. We can we can turn this around, pretty rapidly. I think the exception to that will be some of the land mobile radio stuff because we don't know what it is yet. And again, depending upon the project and what that is, I think it would be perfectly reasonable. However, we we certainly have some partners that are very eager to start pilot projects. Now, again, I wanna be very careful that we don't wanna select people just because they're ready to go and want money that we're gonna wanna take a comprehensive look at the system and say, where is it most needed? But, looking around, there are certainly partners out there who are ready to go with turnkey projects that I think we could at least get a large portion of that encumbered for it anyway.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: And your RFPs could go out fairly quickly? I don't know how quickly government works.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yes.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I think

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, 911 Board; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: oh, go ahead, Dan.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yeah. I mean, I think it's gonna take some time. We we've historically looked at an RFP for, CAD in an eighteen month process. However, I think we could certainly get work on the books. I mean, we know that the val core system for law enforcement has to be replaced. Contract has to be renewed. That ends at the end of this year. We're likely gonna have to extend because we know we're trying to account for, do we add this process in, do we put them both together, those sorts of things. Unfortunately, it's just not that simple, and there's a lot of complexity. As as you've heard from our stakeholders, there's a lot of complexity into this. So, but I think the bulk and substance of work for any of these projects is gonna be in that sort of one year, year and a half timeframe where we can at least get started and money appropriated in the right direction.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Great. Thank you. And I think that probably will be acceptable to

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Should probably yield to Barb to ask that question as well.

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, 911 Board; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yeah. Yes. I I don't disagree, with any of what Dan just said. I I think a year and a half for CAD is reasonable and same for at least some of the initial work and identification of partners for the LMR build out. I'm a little bit less familiar with what exactly that would entail and and the timelines, but, I don't think it would be, much different perhaps than than a CAD implementation.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: We could certainly show you progress on it. We know that our folks are gonna be up on the towers this fall, right? So that's gonna happen whether whether you give us any money or not. So if there is money to be spent there, they're already up on there, there's gonna be work that's immediately accessible to us. And again, like I said, there's a lot of very willing partners that want I

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, 911 Board; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: have one more thing to add, actually, just the expanded use of RapidSOS and the line item that goes with that is part of a bigger line item, I believe, the way it was presented earlier. That's another thing that can happen, right away or like within the coming months. So RapidSOS is the mapping solution that's already in place with the nine eleven system. So this is really to support an expansion of access to that through an existing contract. Well, there would need to be an amendment, but the pieces to that, the foundations of that are already in place. So that could happen fairly quickly as well.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. And one last thing, one last thought that I'm having is building into this bill, the ability for the task force to come back to the legislature and give a report on progress. And I'm thinking that maybe by the time we reconvene next January, Is that a possibility? Is that agreeable to you all?

[Barbara Neal (Executive Director, 911 Board; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: I think that's reasonable. You're looking for a status report on whatever it is that it gets approved here, I think that's perfectly fine.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: That's exactly what was going through my head is I think it's reasonable. You know, just I guess it depends on how comprehensive a report you want. If it's just a status report, I no

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: think we can talk about that as a committee for sure. But I think it might be reassuring to house appropriations if we keep up with this and show that you're making progress and that you're going to have what you need to get the job done. I'm going to stop asking questions. Mr. Chair, do you want to open it up to anybody else? Yeah, there are absolutely

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: open it up to the table.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: I'm actually good. That last part was the one thing I had a question for if we were going to get any information on how the progress was going that this was actually happening. So that answered. I don't think our stakeholders will let

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: us mill about long on this. There will be no milkingly looking. Sorry, that's a joint assembly joke.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Mild milling.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: Yeah. Mildly milling about. Anyway, our committee, that was a great slug of information and insight from our guests. Barring any other questions, we're still trying, right, Angus?

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I just want to thank you all for coming through with this in a concise manner and with consensus and so quickly. I'm just really amazed at how you've come together.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: And grateful. Yes. Know. Want to leave out the gratitude. Yes. And

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: we should also reflect the work of our team, the task force, not just Barb and I, but any number of our consultants and our vice chair have all contributed to this in the last twenty four hours.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Great. Thank thank you, Paul.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: I will I will come back I I will just check my math, on this, and then I'll get it to you by the end of the day. But I'm confident where we are, but I just wanna just triple check before Yes. Putting it on the record.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Okay. Great. Thank you. We're gonna be meeting with our attorney at both 01:00 and 02:00. Yes. So

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: Yes. I think I'm comfortable in you discussing this in round figures. You know, again, I just wanna make sure that as I do this, somebody doesn't say, wait a second. And especially with regard to the limitations, that's the that's the other thing I wanna just triple check for not stepping on any legislative requirements.

[Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you. We appreciate you taking so much time out of your day to do this.

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: And as far as the math is concerned, like, I think, like, the focus right now is to have the structure dialed in at the policy level, and we can have an ish on the math. Yeah. And then that conversation can continue with money.

[Dan Batsie (Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety; Co-Chair, Public Safety Communications Task Force)]: If you're using that framework, I'm quite comfortable with

[Matthew Birong (Chair)]: these numbers. Yeah. Five of the limitations of a number and focusing on the structure. Great. Cool. Alright, committee. Right now, we, we were trying to get some folks to come in at 10:30 to discuss a note section of the bill, but they are unavailable. So as of now, we have tons of other bills that we're tracking. We have floor reports that we can work on. I know there is no shortage of constituent emails and other activities. So right now, I'm gonna say we may come back at eleven, but that is an open question at the moment. So I'm putting a maybe back at