APCO, NENA seek changes in PSST

Jun 24, 2008 2:50 PM, By Donny Jackson

In its filing, APCO recommended that the FCC require the PSST to reduce the size of its board to 8-12 members to “allow for a more inclusive decision-making process,” with about half of the board being members of organizations that represent potential users of the proposed broadband network.

APCO also expressed concern that the PSST is too similar to the governing board of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), which has entered into several arrangements with the PSST.

“While these NPSTC-related arrangements may provide quality advice and service to PSST, they do not promote diversity of viewpoints or enhance PSST’s scope of knowledge,” the APCO filing states. “They might even pose potential conflicts of interest.”

NPSTC Chairman Ralph Haller said that NPSTC is “an organization of organizations,” so the fact that NPSTC—not represented on the PSST board—is helping the PSST should not be a problem.

“The goals of the PSST and NPSTC are not different, so why shouldn’t there be cooperation?” he said.

Haller said he does not believe the APCO and NENA positions represent the kind of division within the public-safety community that could jeopardize the viability of a public-private partnership.

“I think there’s so much more agreement than disagreement that the little tweaks suggested here shouldn’t be blown out of proportion,” Haller said.

McEwen echoed this sentiment but acknowledged that there is “some danger” if public safety does not provide a united front on this issue.

As for concerns about a lack of openness regarding PSST deliberations, McEwen noted that much of the PSST’s work to date has been in preparation for negotiations with a potential D Block winner, which the PSST wants to keep private for regulatory and strategic reasons. In addition, an FCC gag order from early December to April also greatly limited the amount of disclosure the PSST could make during that time.

McEwen said he believes the PSST would be much more open after negotiations with the D Block winner are completed.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I believe in an open and transparent process, but we have been in some ways hampered by the fact that we’ve been developing strategies for negotiations.”

In addition, the PSST’s uncertain financial position is not helping matters, McEwen said.

“[PSST board members] are not meeting face-to-face right now, because we don’t have funds to pay for people to travel to meetings,” he said.

Attempts by MRT to contact APCO President Willis Carter for comment on this article were unsuccessful.