January Minutes

ITAC MEETING MINUTES

Attendees:
Frieda Artis, Reggie Brown, Sondra Chaffee, Niamh Darcy, John Killebrew, and Darryl McGraw

Wake County:
John Higgins, Velvadine Wallace, Lib Wanner

The meeting began at 9:00 am. Lib Wanner welcomed everyone to the group and asked Sondra Chaffee to introduce herself and provide a brief background of her work history. Then Lib briefly discussed the agenda for today’s meeting and stated that John Higgins would be providing an overview of Wake County Wireless Connectivity Services.

ELECTION PROCESS:
Lib Wanner stated that the purpose of the Information Technology Advisory Committee is to serve as an advisory group to the Board of Commissioners with the charge of reviewing Wake County’s strategic project plans for major and new automated systems. Lib stated the committee consists of ten members, one appointed by each County Commissioner and three appointed by the County Manager. We currently have one vacancy on the committee. Each committee member serves a two-year staggered term.

Lib thanked both Niamh Darcy and Shannon Schelin for serving as chair and vice-chair last year. Lib opened the floor for nominations for chairperson. Niamh nominated Reggie Brown. Reggie stated that he would accept the nomination as chairperson. Lib asked all those in favor of Reggie serving as chairperson say I. Everyone was in favor. Then Lib asked for nominations for vice-chairperson. Reggie nominated Darryl McGraw. Darryl kindly accepted the nomination of serving as vice-chairperson. Lib asked all those in favor of Darryl serving as vice-chairperson say I. Everyone was in favor.

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY SERVICES:
John Higgins gave a brief overview of the Wireless Connectivity Services that are provided by Wake County Government. John Higgins stated that Wake County has provided in-building coverage for wireless mainly in the conference/training rooms. He stated that these are areas where employees/customers would have difficulty connecting their PCs. John Killebrew asked if Wake County ran electricity to the AP’s for our 802.1 wireless deployments. John Higgins replied that all conference/training room AP’s are wired via power over Ethernet and that they worked with General Services for mounting.

Darryl McGraw asked if Wake County uses an access control central management product. John Higgins stated that Wake County is converting their stand-alone AP’s to a centrally managed system. He also stated that Wake County has just signed a contract with Dimension Data to perform that upgrade.

John Higgins then went on to give an overview of the Internet Café project, which will provide wireless access to the public libraries. John Killebrew asked if the libraries are going to e-rate that service? John Higgins replied that he didn’t know the answer to that question but would research it and provide an answer.

Darryl McGraw stated that Wake Technical College is interested in learning more about our wireless services. John Higgins has agreed to discuss this with Darryl sometime in February.

Reggie Brown asked about the wireless mobility platform and asked the determining factor in selecting Sprint as the vendor. John Higgins stated that a core team was put together which consisted of City of Raleigh PD, City of Raleigh Government, Wake County, Municipalities, etc., to research and competitively bid this platform. The core team did an in-depth RFP and subsequent award based on the various vendor’s platform coverage, speed, price, security, etc. John stated that he would be willing to share the RFP and award recommendation documentation with Reggie showing the criteria that Wake County used.

Everyone thanked John Higgins for presenting a great presentation.

Lib Wanner stated that Angela Strickland would be giving the presentation in February to discuss Wake County’s Electronic Workplace. She also stated that she would add the 2006 Report to the Board to the agenda.

Lib asked if there were any comments, questions, or suggestions. There were none. Meeting adjourned at 9:50 am.