Albany City Commission OKs Motorola radio system upgrade

ALBANY — From their concern about the lack of a bid process to whether they were being forced to fund a new radio system, Albany city commissioners peppered staff with questions about the proposed $5.8 million upgrade of the city’s public safety radio system during Tuesday’s commission business meeting.

And staff had ready answers.

“I had the (media reporters’) mics in my face when we had a total system failure before,” Assistant City Manager Stephen Collier said. “I don’t ever want to be a part of something like that again.”

In the end, the commission passed a resolution that will allow for the purchase of theP25 System upgrade from Motorola, a purchase that impacts several other Southwest Georgia communities. With the Lee County Commission voting at its business meeting Tuesday to provide funding for its share of the cost of being added to the system, the city of Thomasville having already OK’d funding, and Decatur and Grady counties expected to come on board as well, the Albany Commission was the pivotal vote for a regional communications upgrade.

But the decision did not come easily.

Ward IV Commissioner Roger Marietta complained about the absence of a bid on the project, and Ward VI’s Tommie Postell expressed concerns about payments from jointly located governments and whether some other entity was trying to make the city upgrade its equipment.

Of the latter concern, Collier told the board, “No one’s making us upgrade this equipment. We have to. This system is 10 years old now, and it’s about to break. Parts of it already have. What we have in place right now is on the verge of becoming obsolete.”

Noting the major expense of the project, Marietta suggested the commission might have saved money by bidding the system instead of contracting with Motorola. Collier pointed out that any savings below the $5.8 million cost would most likely have been negated by other costs.

“If we got another bid that might have been less, the cost of converting our existing equipment to the other system would start at around $3.5 million,” the assistant city manager said. “We’d have to replace 1,300 radios, and Motorola would have to license a competitor to use proprietary technology. That would be costly.

“And, of course, if there was ever an issue, that’s when the finger-pointing would start.”

Collier said Motorola, in addition to being the only provider with a service center within an 80- to 90-mile radius of Albany, had given the community good service over the years.

“A year and a half ago, we had a police officer who said his transmission did not go through,” Collier said. “Motorola did a check and found his radio had drifted off spectrum. They recalibrated every radio in our system at a very minimal cost.

“And several years ago All-Tel complained that our system was interfering with their customers’ calls, and we were told by the FCC to fix the problem. Motorola sent a team of engineers here, and they found the problem was at Cooper Tire, which was an All-Tel customer. Motorola didn’t charge us a dime.”

Postell at first indicated that he was against putting in the system for the benefit of other counties. When Collier pointed out that Lee County, Thomasville and Crisp County had long been a part of the system, Postell said he wasn’t concerned with the city having a “good-neighbor policy” at Albany taxpayers’ expense.

“I’d like to see records where these payments have been made,” he said. “I don’t like giving out things that aren’t paid for in advance.”

When Collier pointed out that other governments had been sharing the system — and its cost — for 10 years, Postell said he did not remember passing any measure that would allow others on the Albany system.

“I’d like for you to show me that,” he said.

The Ward VI commissioner then bristled when Collier said the city had to upgrade its system.

“Who’s saying we have to upgrade our system, the federal government?” he asked Collier.

The assistant city manager calmly replied, “Nobody is saying we have to do this upgrade, and while we are sharing the ‘brains’ of our system with other communities, we are going to have to do this upgrade even if not one of them signed on. Our system is outdated, and we have to do this upgrade for our emergency personnel.”

Ward II Commissioner Bobby Coleman offered a bit of advice for Collier.

“As someone who understands technology, I know that the phone you buy today is outdated three days later,” Coleman said. “Why don’t you tell us what will happen if we don’t upgrade our system?”

That’s when Collier mentioned the system failure of the past.

“This was a situation where we had to ask the news media not to announce what had happened,” he said. “We didn’t want bad guys to know we couldn’t communicate. We had police officers using personal cellphones to make reports. We cannot get into a situation like that again.”

The city’s plan is to use SPLOST VII funding, if the measure is passed by city/county voters on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, to pay for the radio system. Postell asked if funds weren’t available in SPLOST VI to cover the cost.

“No, they aren’t,” City Manager Sharon Subadan answered. “In fact, our SPLOST VI funds are coming in about $6 million below initial projections.”

Collier said another benefit of the Motorola bid is that it includes some 100 radios for the Albany Utility Board, which would put utility staff on the same network with other city emergency responders for the first time.

“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Collier said. “We can communicate with Thomasville, with Lee County and other communities, but because the Utility Board is on a different radio system, we can’t communicate with utilities personnel within our own city.”