Minutes

1. Call to Order

Chair David Westbrook called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, John Magnusson, David Westbrook

Members Absent: Dale Rodell

Others Present: Charles Grawe, Nathan Bang, David Asp, Todd Oliver

2. Approval of Agenda

Mr. Westbrook asked for changes to the agenda and there were none offered.

MOTION: Mr. Magnusson moved, second by Mr. Brown, to approve the agenda as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

3. Approval Minutes of December 5, 2005

MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Hugstad-Vaa, to approve the minutes of December 5, 2005. Motion passed unanimously.

4. Update on Audit Review with the Cities of Lakeville, Farmington, and Rosemount

Mr. Grawe said the joint powers Commission tabled the matter until a proposed settlement between Charter and the City of Lakeville was finalized. Mr. Grawe said he believed the matter was on the Lakeville Council agenda on the same night as this meeting, so he was not yet aware of the terms of the settlement.

5. Presentation on Apple Valley and Dakota County Fiber Projects

Mr. Bang provided a brief introduction to the Apple Valley cooperative fiber optic project with several other cities, school districts, and Dakota County. The project interconnects many of the City of Apple Valley buildings at seven general locations. Many of the buildings are currently connected with T-1 lines, but fiber will provide a higher capacity connection as the volume of data between buildings increases. The conduit has been installed and most of the fiber pulled, but terminations and testing remain to be completed. Mr. Bible asked about connectivity for the other buildings not included in the project. Mr. Bang said other solutions such as leased lines or wireless connectivity could be implemented. Mr. Oliver asked what types of applications are driving the City's need for bandwidth. Mr. Bang noted a number of non-public safety applications with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) functions, such as the Pictometry application, use very large databases.

Mr. Asp explained that the State of Minnesota manages some of the fiber infrastructure owned by the County. He briefly explained some of the networks of which Dakota County is a part. He noted that a nine-county Metro area public safety group is looking at a 700 MHz data network to compliment the 800 MHz radio network. He noted that such a network would be owned by government units for government services and would not be used for use by the general public. He said he believes it would be possible to develop partnerships between governments and private communications providers to provide wireless services to the public. Mr. Oliver asked why Mr. Asp has a mix of government owned and privately owned connections in the network. Mr. Asp said there are multiple paths providing redundancy and back-up.

Mr. Bible asked if the City of Apple Valley has a plan for wireless service. Mr. Bang said the IT Division is working on a pilot program for wireless service for the City's public safety employees. There is also consideration to providing some public Internet access within City buildings so that visitor's making presentations can pull material up through the Internet. In general, the IT Division has been gathering information about wireless technologies and wireless trends, but there have been no staff proposals to provide wireless service to the public at this time.

6. Set Possible Dates for Meetings with City Council

Mr. Grawe said the City Council has requested to set-up meetings with the advisory committees. Mr. Grawe asked for possible dates that could work for the Committee and noted that Thursday Council meeting nights might be dates to consider since the Council would be meeting anyway. The group suggested a meeting on 6:00 p.m. on April 13th.

7. 1st Quarter Complaint Log

Mr. Grawe said there were no first quarter complaints.

8. 1st Quarter Coordinator's Report

Mr. Grawe briefly discussed events in the first quarter. He noted that Mr. Moore was unable to attend as he was working to implement the digital recording in one of the control rooms.

9. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues

Mr. Grawe noted there were several new wireless articles distributed with the packet. Mr. Bible indicated that this would be a potential topic for discussion during the meeting with the City Council.

10. Other

There were no other discussion items.

11. Adjourn

MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, second by Mr. Magnusson to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:04 p.m.