The First General Business Session concluded the first day of APCO 2021, APCO’s 87th Annual Conference & Expo, in San Antonio, Texas.
The session included the advancement of an amendment to APCO’s constitution, the elevation of six members to life member status and appointment of others to positions on regional boards and to the Commercial Advisory Committee.
The proposed constitutional amendment would add the chapter offices of Treasurer and Secretary to a list of leadership positions within APCO that may only be held by voting-eligible members. The posts of Chapter President and Executive Council Member have long had this same voting-eligible criteria.
The proposal advanced without opposition, and a vote is scheduled during the second Business Meeting Tuesday at 4:15 p.m.
APCO President Margie Moulin introduced new regional representatives and CAC representatives. Moulin called members to the stage for recognition of years of service to APCO, and she presided over a vote to approve six new APCO Life members.
She also introduced the executive committee, First Vice President Jason Kern, who ascends to the presidency on the final day of APCO 2021, Second Vice President Angela R. Bowen, who will rise to first vice president, and Immediate Past President Tracy M. Hilburn.
Becky Neugent, candidate for second vice president, spoke to assembled members about her dedication to public safety and her desire to help improve members and agencies in her role on the APCO executive committee.
“My goal is to help you accomplish your goals. I want to help your agency succeed,” Neugent said.
Neugent spent most of her career in Clarke County, Alabama, and in January 2020, took the position of E9-1-1 communications manager for Hilton Head Island (South Carolina) Fire Rescue.
APCO members can vote online for the second vice president through Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. Central time. Neugent is running unopposed for the position.
Jeff Cohen, APCO’s chief counsel and director of government relations, delivered an overview of public safety communications as it relates to the current government, regulatory and political environment.
Cohen explained that the Federal Communications Commission recently punished wireless carriers for missing an April deadline to provide vertical location information with 9-1-1 cell phone calls. The FCC fined carriers and increased oversight. Cohen said APCO is pushing to ensure that the eventual resolution for location information in the form of a dispatchable location such as 123 Main St., Apartment 501, rather than z-axis information that makes it much more difficult to establish the caller’s location.
Cohen summarized the status of spectrum of interest to public safety telecommunications:
- 6 GHz band. Public safety uses this spectrum for fixed point-to-point microwave links. APCO is challenging the FCC in federal court for its 2020 ruling opening up this spectrum to hundreds of millions of unlicensed devices operating on the same channel as public safety agencies.
- 9 GHz band. In May 2021, the FCC’s new leadership, appointed with a change in presidential administration, suspended recent rules that would allow states to lease access to this spectrum that had been set aside for use for public safety communications. “For now, the status quo of public safety use is preserved, and we are exploring options for the best path forward to protect current operations while making the band more useful for public safety,” Cohen said.
- T-Band. Thanks to advocacy by APCO and other public safety advocates, in December 2020 Congress repealed the 2012 law that would have auctioned off T-band spectrum used by major cities for land mobile radio.
Cohen said APCO is also working on improving FCC’s outage reporting requirements in addition to addressing 9-1-1 fee diversions. “Regardless of whether fee diversion is taking place, the goal is to ensure 9-1-1 has the funding it needs,” he said.
