Commerce Inspector General to Take Over Probe of Wrongdoing at FirstNet
As an investigation of alleged wrongdoing by members of the FirstNet board continues, the Commerce Department’s inspector general, rather than a special review committee composed of board members, will take over phase two of the probe, FirstNet Chairman Sam Ginn said Friday. Meanwhile, during a meeting by phone, the FirstNet board also agreed to locate the headquarters for the national public safety network in northern Virginia.
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The special committee had been investigating concerns board member Paul Fitzgerald had raised at FirstNet’s April meeting. Fitzgerald, sheriff of Story County, Iowa, questioned (CD April 24 p1) whether the board’s workings were open and transparent, including its hiring of consultants.
On Sept. 23, the board received part one of the report, which cleared FirstNet officials of wrongdoing (CD Sept 24 p1). After meeting for a little more than 30 minutes Friday, Ginn took the board into closed session for a meeting that lasted a little longer than the public session. When Ginn came back on, he said part of the discussion had focused on phase two of the report, on ethics concerns and FirstNet’s procurement activities.
"It’s really due to the complicated nature of procurement and the issues that revolve around that,” Ginn said. “I have asked the board to work cooperatively with the Inspector General."
Meanwhile, FirstNet is zeroing in on a new home. “Northern Virginia was selected for a number of factors including its close proximity to a high concentration of wireless, technical and public safety expertise,” said a FirstNet news release. The location is also close to the Commerce Department and various public safety groups in Washington, FirstNet said.
FirstNet will also open regional offices in each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency regions and a technical, engineering and network design headquarters in Boulder, Colo., the site of various Commerce Department labs, said General Manager Bill D'Agostino.
"We're at a point now where we're really beginning to build out the organization,” Ginn said during the meeting. “The simple notion is you need to tell people where they're going to work when you offer them a job.” The board approved a resolution endorsing the early decisions on FirstNet office space (http://1.usa.gov/18TBqG5).
The board also agreed to a resolution extending through Nov. 15 negotiations on spectrum lease agreements with four Broadband Technology Opportunities Program recipients (http://1.usa.gov/19EQKpv). All four received federal money for early buildout of a public safety network. The four are the states of Mississippi and New Jersey, the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System Authority in San Francisco and the Adams County Communications Center in Adams County, Colo.
"We very much would like to reach an agreement with BTOP locations because I think it gives us an early test of the kind of issues that we are likely to run into as we implement a nationwide system,” Ginn said. “Capital has already been spent in these locations and it seems to me in the interest of everyone to utilize that capital."
"We are continuing to work very hard on trying to make the remaining BTOP grants viable within the FirstNet structure,” said FirstNet Deputy General Manager TJ Kennedy. “We've had some excellent discussions and made some significant progress. ... We do believe that we should be able to close these out over the next few weeks.”