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Commissioner Carey said that after reading the abstract, he gathers the staff has been <br />working with the other jurisdictions and stakeholders. He said that on page 2 near the bottom, <br />there is a concern whether the elected leaders would see the project through in pursuing full <br />funding. He asked what this means. Rod Uisser said that they have been working on this for a <br />while and would include radio towers and other associated hardware necessary to transmit <br />signals. This concern was raised at the stakeholder meeting in October and they just wanted to <br />make sure all elected bodies were supportive of this. He said that this is an opportunity to <br />indicate support. The County will have to address the issue of providing radio units over a <br />period of some years. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has heard that the switch over to an 800-megahertz <br />infrastructure could be millions of dollars. Rod Uisser said that a consultant's initial assessment <br />was that it could run $15-$20 million for an Orange County owned, operated, and designed <br />system . <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that if Homeland Security means that we will subsidize <br />Motorola, then he cannot support this with this language about having a commitment of elected <br />and staff leaders by pursuing full funding when they do not even know what the full funding is. <br />The County cannot afford this kind of money to get this system. Rod Uisser said that the <br />numbers that were bounced around were for an Orange County built system from the ground <br />up. They are still talking about $3-4 million for radios and the infrastructure costs should be <br />addressed by the grants. <br />Commissioner Carey asked when the plan would be available. Rod Uisser said that the <br />state highway patrol is managing this project. One of the conditions of the County and the Town <br />receiving the grant funding was that they had to sign an with the highway patrol managing the <br />project on their behalf. They have been waiting several months for a memorandum of <br />agreement far a boilerplate that would be used for Orange County, Chapel Hill, and other <br />grantees across the state. They have been told that the language has not been worked out <br />between the state and the federal government. There is an upcoming meeting in Raleigh with <br />other stakeholders and there will be a report back after this meeting. <br />John Link assured the Board that their plan is clearly to make the best use of outside <br />revenues and to move methodically and slowly so these funds can kick in. The <br />recommendation tonight is not to commit to any amount of money for the future. The plan is to <br />move as fast as the resources are available from the federal and state governments. <br />Commissioner Gordan made reference to page 4 under Duties and Responsibilities of <br />the Division of Emergency Management and the County of Orange, and she read, "agree to <br />comply with the duties and responsibilities assigned by DHS as outlined in Annex A, <br />Appendices A through J"and said that they do not have Annex A, but only Annex B. She asked <br />about the urgency of this and if they could see Annex A. Rod Uisser said that part of the <br />urgency is that the state has asked the County to make sure this grant money gets approved. <br />Emergency Management Specialist Eric Griffin said that they have been told that what <br />happens is that when the federal government appropriates money, then Congress mandates a <br />45-day window of time far the appropriated money to be approved by the local governments. <br />The state time in getting the information down to the County and gave them a little over a month <br />to get this process done. He has not been told definitively that the money will disappear. He <br />thinks it is unlikely that the money will disappear. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that they da not know what their duties and responsibilities <br />are. She asked if this was committing the County to any particular amount of funding. Eric <br />Griffin said that this is a no-match grant. It is considered free money. <br />Chair Jacobs asked if there was along-term commitment for Orange County to provide <br />resources and Eric Griffin said yes, but it does not commit Orange County to spend any <br />additional money other than what is given through the grant. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Brown to <br />approve acceptance of a State pass-through grant allocation of federal Homeland Security <br />