FirstNet董事会成员明天将不会像许多人所希望的那样投票批准完整的征求建议书草案。FirstNet财务委员会主席蒂姆·布赖恩表示，FirstNet的财务委员会今天决定投票反对建议征求建议书草案，直到员工“几周后”能另一次会议上解决一些挥之不去的商业计划问题
. 数月来，FirstNet的官员已经宣布计划本月底发布征求建议书草案。
FirstNet董事会成员明天将不会像许多人所希望的那样投票批准完整的征求建议书（RFP）草案。FirstNet财务委员会主席蒂姆·布赖恩（Tim Bryan）表示，FirstNet的财务委员会今天决定投票反对建议征求建议书草案，直到员工“几周后”能另一次会议上解决一些挥之不去的商业计划问题
“底线是，我们作为一个委员会，已经就我们今天讨论的许多问题达成了一致，但我们仍然需要更多信息的事情很少，”布赖恩财务委员会会议上说，这次会议是FirstNet网站。“因此，我们已经询问了（FirstNet的主要员工）和收购团队，他们是否会接下来的几周内帮助我们，只解决一些问题
“坏消息是，不久的将来，当我们再次开会时，我们将讨论最后几个问题。我认为这是FirstNet和业务计划的一个非常重要的部分，也是业务计划的基础，我认为我们愿意花几个星期的时间来真正实现最后几点。”
布赖恩是财务委员会成员结束近两个小时的非公开会议后发表上述声明的，他们讨论了拟议的征求建议书草案的财务细节
与FirstNet其他三个董事会委员会一样，财务委员会今天的非公开会议时间比会议组织者预期的要长。与FirstNet的其他三个董事会委员会不同，财务委员会没有投票建议提议的征求建议书草案供董事会全体批准
如果没有财务委员会的建议，FirstNet董事会成员将无法明天的FirstNet董事会全体会议上批准备受期待的RFP草案。据FirstNet的一位发言人说，董事会全体成员将能够审议当天早些时候由FirstNet的治理、技术、外联和咨询委员会批准的征求建议书草案的其他方面
发言人说：“大多数条款今天已经达成一致，我们只讨论几个问题。”
据FirstNet的发言人说，FirstNet财务委员会尚未安排好重新召开会议并解决对遗留问题的担忧
发表“坏消息”之前，布赖恩说，财务委员会的成员非公开会议期间就第一个网络商业案例进行了“非常激烈的辩论”
布赖恩会议上说：“我确信，我们有FirstNet的商业案例，这对任何人来说都不奇怪。”。“商业案例的基础是大量的假设，而本RFP本身并不是一个过程；它帮助我们真正巩固了FirstNet商业案例基础上的一些至关重要的假设。所以，你可以理解为什么我们真的要花时间和精力去经历这一切，尽可能的人性化
“非公开会议上，我们讨论了与商业计划和财务有关的一切，以及FirstNet将如何推出。我们谈了很多你以前听说过的事情，包括收购战略、拟议合作伙伴的数量、地理范围、州、国家、地区。我们讨论了将应用于收购的各种其他定价和结构机制。”
数月来，FirstNet的官员已经宣布计划本月底发布征求建议书草案。除非董事会采取不可预见的行动，完整的征求建议书草案可能至少要到4月的第二周才会发布
FirstNet board members tomorrow will not vote to approve the complete draft request for proposal (RFP), as many had hoped. Instead, FirstNet’s finance committee today opted against voting to recommend the proposed draft RFP until staff members can address a few lingering business-plan questions at another meeting “in a few weeks,” according to Tim Bryan, chairman of FirstNet’s finance committee.
“The bottom line is that we, as a committee, have come to agreement on a lot of what we discussed today, but there are few things that we still want a little bit more information on,” Bryan said during the finance-committee meeting, which was webcast on the FirstNet web site. “So, we have asked [key FirstNet staff members] and the acquisition team if they would help us over the next few weeks and just work on a few issues ….
“The bad news is that you will have to see us again sometime in the very near future, when we reconvene and we’ll talk a little bit about these last few issues. I think this is such a critically important part of FirstNet and the business plan—and the underpinning of the business plan—that I think we’re willing to take the few weeks to really hit those last few points.”
Bryan made his statement after finance-committee members emerged from being convened in closed session for almost two hours to discuss the financial details of the proposed draft RFP.
Like the other three FirstNet board committees, the finance committee today met in closed session longer than meeting organizers had anticipated. Unlike the other three FirstNet board committees, the finance committee did not vote to recommend the proposed draft RFP for full board approval.
Without a recommendation from the finance committee, FirstNet board members will not be able to approve the much-anticipated draft RFP in its entirety during tomorrow’s meeting of the tomorrow’s meeting of the full FirstNet board. The full board will be able to consider other aspects of the proposed draft RFP that were approved earlier in the day by FirstNet’s governance, technology and outreach-and-consultation committees, according to a FirstNet spokesman.
“The majority of terms were agreed to today, and we are just down to a few issues,” according to the spokesman.
No date has been scheduled yet for the FirstNet finance committee to reconvene and address concerns about the remaining outstanding issues, according to the FirstNet spokesman.
Prior to delivering his “bad news,” Bryan said that members of the finance committee engaged in “very robust debate” about the FirstNet business case while in closed session.
“I’m sure that it comes as no surprise for anybody that we have a business case for FirstNet,” Bryan said during the meeting. “Underlying the business case are a considerable number of assumptions, and this RFP is not a process unto itself; it’s a process that helps us really solidify a number of critically important assumptions that underlie FirstNet’s business case. So, you can understand why we’re really taking the time and effort to go through this, as much as humanly possible.
“In the closed session, we talked about everything that relates to the business plan and finances and how FirstNet would roll out. We talked about a lot of the things you’ve heard about before, in terms of the acquisition strategy, the number of proposed partners, the geographic scope, the states, the nation, regions. We talked about a variety of other pricing and structural mechanisms that would be applied to the acquisition.”
For months, FirstNet officials have stated plans to release the draft RFP by the end of this month. Barring unforeseen action by the board, the complete draft RFP likely would not be released until at least the second week of April. |
