CESSA Protocols and Standards Subcommittee Meeting - Approved Minutes 10/02/2025

Time: 2:30-4:00 pm

via Zoom

Call to Order/Review of Official Notices (Cindy Barbera-Brelle)

Meeting called to order by Cindy Barbera-Brelle at 2:33 pm (via Zoom)
Cindy Barbera-Brelle reviewed OMA Official Notices
Cindy Barbera-Brelle reviewed the agenda

Roll Call (Cindy Barbera-Brelle)

Members present: Brent Reynolds, Jessica Gimeno (as designee for Candace Coleman, Cindy Barbera-Brelle (as designee for Alicia Atkinson), Stephanie Frank (as designee for David Albert), Jim Hennessy, Pete Dyer
Members absent: Blanca Campos, Bobby Van Bebber, Drew Hansen, Justin Houcek, Rachel Ahart
Quorum is present

Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes (Cindy Barbera-Brelle)

Jessica Gimeno made a motion to approve the September 18, 2025, minutes; Brent Reynolds seconded the motion
Members voted to approve: Brent Reynolds, Jessica Gimeno (as designee for Candace Coleman, Cindy Barbera-Brelle (as designee for Alicia Atkinson), Stephanie Frank (as designee for David Albert), Jim Hennessy, Pete Dyer
Quroum voted to approve September 18, 2025, minutes

State Updates (Stephanie Frank)

None

Crisis Hub Updates (Dr. Mary Smith)

None

Preamble to the IRLM (Dr. Mary Smith)

Subcommittee members have had the opportunity to review preamble draft and submit comments, which have been considered for the latest version of the preamble
Preamble slide 1
- Removed clause "who are not exhibiting violent behavior or engaging in criminal activity" (from the sentence "PSAPS are required to connect callers facing behavioral health challenges who are not exhibiting violent behavior or engaging in criminal activity with appropriate mental health response")
Removal suggested by Access Living
- Jim Hennessy: Can we incorporate language from the legislation? The two things that they specifically spell out: if the person is a harm to themselves or others, or if there is criminal activity. If we include this in the document, everyone will know what the law is and is stating.
Mary Smith: Are you suggesting we do not strike that clause?
Jim Hennessy: A lot of the misinformation we tackled is that police will not be responding to calls. The two situations according to the legislation when police do respond [either because of potential harm or criminal activity] should be apart of this, so it isn't interpreted as a move away from legislation.
Mary Smith: Is Jessica Gimeno on?
Jessica Gimeno: I am okay with keeping it in.
Jim Hennessy: I would not say "who are not exhibiting violent behavior." I would just go with the exact legislation language. Leave it exactly as the law states.
Jessica Gimeno: I agree, using the language of the law is clearer.
Brent Reynolds: I also fully support reinserting this with the correct language that matches the law.
- Language to be changed to match the letter of the law
Preamble slide 2
- Minor readability changes
- Cindy Barbera-Brelle: When you mention "Statewide Advisory Committe," we have a 911 Statewide Advisory Committee. So, we should call this out as the "CESSA Statewide Advisory Committe."
Mary Smith confirmed change
Preamble slide 3
- Minor readability changes
- Jessica Gimeno: Would like to insert "CESSA" before "vision statement" to be clear.
Mary Smith confirmed change
Preamble slide 4
- For emphasis, bolded sentence about Risk Level Matrix NOT being used directly by telecommunicators or crisis counselors; it is a foundational reference
- No comments
Preamble slide 5
- Added paragraph: "The Risk Level Matrix serves as a guidance tool for incorporating CESSA required adjustments into existing protocols and operational practices, as directed through the statutory process and the Statewide Advisory Committee. While PSAPs are not required to purchase additional protocols under CESSA, it is recognized that CESSA requires the screening and referral of call types that are not included in EMD protocols."
- Brent Reynolds: I appreciate the group's open-mindedness to consider this, although this is not the language that both APCO and NENA suggested. This is something that I am confident we can get support on, but I don't have it yet. I am not sure if I have the full support to vote today.
Mary Smith: No vote on the agenda; goal is to reach consensus.
Brent Reynolds: I want to be confident in my answer. I appreciate the changes but don't want to miss anything that my counterparts might want included.
Brent Reynolds will get back to Mary Smith with an answer within 24 hours
- Jim Hennessy: The last line reads "It will be used, in this form, to advance the full implementation of CESSA." We're early into getting data from pilots and may need to change things as we get data. It says, "to advance," but I don't want it to seem like this is the IRLM until the full implementation of CESSA.
Mary Smith: That is what we agreed to, unless there are statutory requirements. Because we needed to finalize the IRLM so we could move forward with full implementation, we agreed we wouldn't make changes unless statutory changes or something that arises from quality review.
Cindy Barbera-Brelle: We have a fair amount of data from the pilots, particularly Total Response, which is 7-8 months old. We have made some changes because of the data we received, as part of pilot evaluation. The Priority Dispatch pilot protocols were more of a determinate code change; it wasn't the protocol question changes. So those two are really ready to go so we can move forward. APCO hasn't kicked off, but there's only a handful of APCO pilots. In the scheme of things, we are in a position to move forward and as you indicated, Jim, we always have opportunity to revisit within realm of legislative intent, to make changes and adjustments to protocols if necessary.
Jim Hennessy: My concern is that we are releasing the preamble and the IRLM and giving the whole 911 community a chance to look at it. The whole 911 community is going to look at it, and we'll get lots of feedback. When we were discussing it in the Subcommittee before we brought to SAC, it was always going to be internal until we figured this out. I thought the understanding was, "let's get a good document to put out for everyone," but once everyone sees it, they might have feedback that we didn't anticipate, and may need to make adjustments. Same thing with police and firemen; when they see protocols to guide dispatch decisions, they might see something in the IRLM that should be adjusted and open our eyes to something we didn't see in our group.
Cindy Barbera-Brelle: RACs have been meeting for several years with participation from law enforcement, fire, EMS, and resource hospitals. So, they have had every opportunity to participate on this Subcommittee, on the SAC, etc. We are in a good position to start with the first cohort and have identified 20-ish PSAPs that will participate. RACs have been informed or will be informed. It's time to move forward, and we will have a chance to make changes to the IRLM if we feel it is necessary, just like some changes were necessary after evaluating Total Response pilot.
Jim Hennessy: I understand; I just wanted to express concern. I understand that we need to move forward, move towards implementation. I just feel like it's hard to get feedback from the whole group-they might participate in the RAC but not the PSTSC. Some people thought it would get delayed again, so they haven't been as involved.
Pete Dyer: I want to piggyback-as long as we're able to at least change this as we go down the road, because you can vet a policy 100 ways and there still might be something wrong with it. I say we move forward, with the opportunity to fix potential obstacles down the road.
Mary Smith: I am concluding that the Subcommittee has reached consensus on the preamble, with the thought that we will wait to get feedback from Brent, who represents NENA and APCO within the next 24 hours.
- Brent Reynolds: I represent APCO, but APCO and NENA work closely together and Jim and I have not had time to talk about this. We want to have time to get both associations on board.
- Brent Reynolds (APCO) and Jim Hennessy (NENA) confirmed they will respond on behalf of associations within 24 hours

Pilot and Implementation Updates (Cindy Barbera-Brelle)

Total Response pilot is done; PSAPs continue to transfer calls to 988 as laid out in the pilot; continuing to touch base a few times per month and collect data
Priority Dispatch pilot is almost complete; similar evaluation to be completed with all pilot sites
APCO pilot: Latest version of the protocols needs some tweaking; final protocols expected at some time next week
- 2 pilot sites identified of ~10 APCO sites across the state
Implementation: Working with PSAPs across the state to determine readiness; ~20 sites identified for the first cohort
- Similar preparation process as was the case for pilots
- Rolling start based on capacity to complete trainings, etc.
- Ongoing engagement and opportunities to provide feedback and concerns

Next Meeting Dates (Cindy Barbera-Brelle)

Meetings are held virtually 2:30-4:00 PM on the first and third Thursdays of each month starting in August 2025, unless otherwise noted.
- Thursday, October 16
- Thursday, November 6
- Thursday, November 20
Note: The meeting scheduled for January 1, 2026, will be rescheduled for January 8, 2026

Public Comment

None

Adjournment

Brent Reynolds motioned to adjourn the meeting; Pete Dyer seconded the motion.
Voted to adjourn: Brent Reynolds, Jessica Gimeno (as designee for Candace Coleman, Cindy Barbera-Brelle (as designee for Alicia Atkinson), Stephanie Frank (as designee for David Albert), Jim Hennessy, Pete Dyer
Motion passed. Cindy Barbera-Brelle adjourned the meeting at 3:05 pm.