FirstNet Board Greenlights LA-RICS Lease Agreement, GM Acquisition Strategy
The FirstNet board signed off unanimously on two resolutions Thursday. It formally approved the first lease agreement with one of the seven suspended stimulus projects, and decided how to move forward with additional information on the budget and acquisition strategy of FirstNet management. Members met by phone.
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"One down, and several to go,” said FirstNet board member Sue Swenson after the board voted in favor of a resolution (http://1.usa.gov/150aqm3) approving the five-year spectrum lease agreement with the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System, known as LA-RICS. Swenson has led spectrum lease negotiations for FirstNet with the seven public safety broadband projects, recipients of Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grants. NTIA suspended the projects in May 2012 and FirstNet, coordinating with NTIA, has sought as of February to reactivate them as FirstNet pilot projects.
LA-RICS’s board approved a draft of the spectrum lease agreement last week (CD June 20 p3). Other project leaders told us then negotiations were progressing and they were hopeful to reach them before the next negotiation deadline of July 12 without asking for another extension. Swenson called the process “very challenging” but “productive.”
"L.A. gives us enough scale that it will give us a real test bed,” said FirstNet Board Chairman Sam Ginn. “These are and have been complicated negotiations.” They require “a lot of trust,” he said, expressing the stakes that both FirstNet and the project leaders have. Board member Wellington Webb, a former Denver mayor, heard “rave reviews” last week about the LA-RICS agreement from attendees at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, he told Swenson. Board member Tim Bryan, CEO of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, called the draft “very fair” and said Swenson navigated the “tight rope” of different constituencies well.
The agreement enables LA-RICS to ask NTIA to lift its suspension, a request FirstNet will support, but NTIA makes that call, Swenson said. The agreement stresses “continuity of service” as an important consideration of California public safety stakeholders, she said. “It’s important to note the agreement is non-exclusive.” It “assumes evolving standards,” she said. The agreement also calls for the development of a key learning condition plan within 90 days, focused on mutual interests of the project and FirstNet. Swenson said that focus involves topics the jurisdictions have “a particular interest in.” With LA-RICS, “we're really focusing on the ‘public safety entities,'” she said, noting the broadness of the term and “how that plays into the planning, who utilizes the network.” The urban density of L.A. will also be a useful element to study, she said. FirstNet staff will soon meet with LA-RICs staff to plot goals and milestones related to that plan, she said. “We hope to accomplish that well within the 90 days.”
The board also approved a resolution that revisited and provided more information related to a June 4 Resolution 29 that requested $50 million more for this fiscal year as part of FirstNet General Manager Bill D'Agostino’s acquisition strategy. The new resolution resolved that “consistent with Resolution 29, the General Manager’s long-term acquisition strategy as presented to the FirstNet Board is approved,” said the resolution text (http://1.usa.gov/10Zx3rx). It “maps out a personnel acquisition strategy for FirstNet to meet its short-term specialized staffing needs,” FirstNet said in a news release following the meeting (http://1.usa.gov/122UDOd). “This strategy will continue to be used to assist with FirstNet’s immediate, critical work on technical issues, outreach and business planning as FirstNet works to hire full-time employees to fill many of these roles.” FirstNet will announce contract opportunities in the coming weeks, and the Commerce Department is reviewing these strategy and acquisition documents, it said.
Board members discussed the acquisition resolution at length in a session closed to the public due to the confidential nature of the information, Ginn said during the open meeting. A FirstNet overview after the closed session said current funding will expire by September, hence the need for a competitive bidding process for a follow-on contract. Board member Craig Farrill also emphasized the details of the 17 requests for information FirstNet plans to issue soon.