The First Responder Network Authority, working with Department of Commerce human resources officials and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, has seen “significant improvements” in the length of time it takes to hire new employees, Chief Administrative Officer Frank Freeman III told the FirstNet board’s Governance and Personnel and Finance committees at a joint meeting.

Meanwhile, members of the board’s Technology and Consultation and Outreach committees received updates this afternoon on the submission of data by states, progress in completing the state initial consultation process, and plans to broaden outreach efforts in the coming year.

Mr. Freeman said that before an initiative began in March to look for ways to reduce the length of time it takes to bring people on board, it took on average of about 170 days to hire an employee. Now, he said, that period is down to about 130 days with more recent hires taking about 100 days. FirstNet officials have often bemoaned the slow federal government hiring process, saying that it makes it difficult to recruit qualified people.

“Together, we went step by step through all processes, and we were able to eliminate a lot of processes that we thought were redundant and removed review steps that we felt really didn’t give us the value vs. the time that it took to go through the review processes, and we’ve seen just from those process improvement steps significant improvements in the time lines of hiring individuals,” Mr. Freeman told the board.

He added that his staff also worked with HR specialists “at the tactical level in following each hiring action through each step of the hiring process.  In doing that, we found out that, you know, there was a better way to optimize the workload of each hiring specialist … and we identified chokepoints in the process, and once we found those chokepoints, I was able to bring the sledgehammer to them to break up those chokepoints.”

In addition, FirstNet also worked with Commerce human resources officials to get more contractors, and it established an agreement with the Office of Personnel Management for fee-based classification and staffing assistance, Mr. Freeman said.

Mr. Freeman also provided an update on the hiring of dozens of additional employees that officials told the board in June that they wanted to bring on board by the end of fiscal year 2015 (TRDaily, June 2). Of the 62 critical positions that FirstNet officials said they wanted to fill by yesterday, 54 as of Sept. 21 were “in the final hiring stage,” 46 of which were filled with people who had started or had hires with start dates, he said. Candidates had been selected for three or four other positions, but they were still going through the background security process and other administrative procedures, while final interviews were in process for five other candidates. Two positions will be reclassified and posted in FY 2016, while management was not able to find suitable, available candidates for six other positions, Mr. Freeman said.

He also said that in FY 2016, FirstNet will bring on resources to help better recruit candidates to fill positions. He also noted that the following key management jobs at FirstNet are still not filled by permanent candidates: chief technology officer, chief counsel, chief financial officer, and president.

Board Chairwoman Sue Swenson said that while hiring improvements have been made, the process is still too labor intensive. FirstNet President TJ Kennedy agreed, saying, “No doubt, there’s still room for improvement.”

Also, Natasha Coates, an attorney-adviser for FirstNet, outlined FirstNet’s new rules of conduct document, noting that the Government Accountability Office in April urged FirstNet to implement such rules (TRDaily, April 28). The document “is exactly aligned with what the GAO recommended,” she said.

The document makes clear that FirstNet employees are subject to all ethical and behavioral conduct regulations that apply to federal employees, including on the acceptance of gifts, as well as to FirstNet policies, such as concerning travel. Ms. Coates said all FirstNet employees have been trained on the rules of conduct document, and Jason Karp, FirstNet’s acting chief counsel, said that new hires would be trained as well. FirstNet distilled the conduct rules into seven tenets: (1) conflict of interest; (2) anti-discrimination; (3) reporting fraud, waste, and abuse; (4) information disclosure; (5) use of resources; (6) customer service; and (7) teamwork.

Ms. Swenson said that FirstNet developed the rules of conduct in response to the GAO report. But Mr. Karp said that FirstNet was working on such a document “long before the GAO had ever come into FirstNet.”

Mr. Kennedy also outlined six “core values” developed by FirstNet: customer service, openness, entrepreneurial, reliability, innovative, and results-oriented. Board members and FirstNet management stressed the importance of the values. “We do need an entrepreneurial culture,” said board Vice Chairman Jeff Johnson. “We need a non-federal culture.”

FirstNet board members also welcomed former Vermont governor James Douglas as the new chairman of the Finance Committee. He replaces Tim Bryan, who did not want to be reappointed to the board. Several board members praised the service of Mr. Bryan. “This is a big upgrade going to Jim Douglas … but we will miss Tim,” board member Barry Boniface joked, drawing laughter.

FirstNet Chief Information Officer Jim Gwinn briefed the committees on improvements to the authority’s IT infrastructure, including the deployment of integrated on-premises and cloud solutions, the installation of its own network, planned upgrades to its Boulder, Colo., technical operations, and the addition of infrastructure so employees this month will have mobile LTE and voice cellular service.

Acting CFO Kim Farington briefed the committees on the FY 2015 and 2016 budgets. For FY 2015, she said that FirstNet, as of Aug. 31, had used 85% of its total obligations of $86 million and that it expected to be at close to 100% when accounting is completed for FY 2015. As of Aug. 31, 53% of expenses had been used compared to the budget, and that figure was expected to reach 56% when accounting through the end of FY 2015. She said less money was spent due to the hiring of personnel later than expected in the year and the awarding of procurements later in the year than expected.

Ms. Farington also said FirstNet is working on a five-year strategic plan that will extend past FirstNet’s five-year road map. The plan will include performance targets for each strategic goal and objective and will measure targets annually, she said. Staff will present the plan to the board at a later meeting, she added.

During a joint meeting of the Technology and Consultation and Outreach committees, Rich Reed, director-state planning, announced that FirstNet received 43 submissions from states by yesterday’s deadline for data collection, and that three additional states said they would submit their information today. He added that three other states expect to submit data in the next few days. In addition, “a handful of federal agencies” have submitted data, Mr. Reed said. Mr. Reed also said that FirstNet has decided to make state plans available through an interactive web-based portal, rather than in paper copies that would be difficult to update and keep confidential.

A “single point of update” also can more easily provide “a nationwide perspective,” he said. He said FirstNet might release an executive summary of a state plan for general access while using online access with a username and password “to get to the controlled information,” including confidential data.

David Buchanan, FirstNet’s director-state consultation, noted that 52 initial state or territory consultations have been completed and that the remaining three are scheduled for this month. He also said that federal agency consultation has included reaching out to a dozen agencies and said FirstNet plans to add two more employees in FY 2016 to help in that effort.

For FY 2016, FirstNet’s goal is to broaden its consultation and outreach efforts, Mr. Buchanan said, to (1) continue to get input from a wide range of stakeholders, (2) prepare governors for their decisions on state plans, and (3) prepare stakeholders for the adoption and use of the nationwide public safety broadband network.

Specific consultation will focus on four elements: (1) consulting on critical topics for preparing for the network; (2) planning for radio access network (RAN) deployment, including through data validation; (3) reaching out to governors and their staffs and other state cabinet members who will play key roles in governors’ decisions on state plans; and (4) continuing to explain the value of FirstNet, including to additional stakeholders, Mr. Buchanan said.

While FirstNet officials are still contemplating ways to implement this plan, he said that FirstNet will reach out “in a diverse way with a variety of engagements.” He said it would use next week’s SPOC meeting to get feedback on this overall approach.

Amanda Hilliard, FirstNet’s director-outreach, noted that FirstNet plans to hold its second meeting of state points of contact (SPOCs) next week in Westminster, Colo. The two-day session will include up to two additional state representatives, members of the Public Safety Advisory Committee’s (PSAC) Executive Committee, and members of the PSAC’s tribal working group. More than 130 people from 52 states and territories are registered for the event, which is closed to the news media and the public.

Board member Kevin McGinnis urged board members to attend the meeting, saying that when he attended the first SPOC meeting earlier this year, he found it “invaluable” to get input from state representatives on FirstNet actions.

Ms. Hilliard also said that FirstNet has hired senior advisers to focus on EMS, fire, and 911 issues. Also, two additional tribal outreach staffers have been hired, she said. They are tribal members, she added. She also noted that the PSAC has several new people representing groups on the committee, as well as two new groups represented: the National Volunteer Fire Council and the International Justice and Public Safety Network.

Also during the meeting, acting CTO Jeff Bratcher said that since he briefed the Technical Committee in June, Dean Prochaska had been hired as director-standards. The CTO federal staff now has 23 people who have started or have start dates, he said. During both meetings today, the committees spent considerable time in closed session to discuss final legal interpretations and FirstNet’s acquisition approach – topics that are scheduled to be discussed tomorrow in open session at the full board meeting.- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily