This week, City council unanimously approved the expenditure of $409,422 for a new radio system for the police department. Seems like an insane amount of money to me. It’s ACTUALLY a lot more. The REAL total cost is $663,371. The difference in price is covered by a grant from Central Texas Council of Governments.
It seemed like I had seen this movie before, so I searched the Dispatch archives.
Sure enough, Motorola was in the news back in October and November of 2018 but this time with the Sheriff’s department. At issue there was a $500,000 Motorola radio system and the county was waiting to hear if they would get a grant for part of that.
Seems weird that we need TWO separate half-million-dollar systems to cover essentially the same area. If the sheriff system covers the entire county, shouldn’t that system also, by definition, cover the City as well? We can’t do a piggy-back thing?
Motorola really cleans up around here! I wonder if ANY of this stuff is ever put out for bid.
Turns out, Motorola has a near-monopoly on on fire, police and EMS radio! You know what monopolies mean: ridiculously high prices and shitty service.
But there ARE competitors – like Harris Corp. In fact, when Sedgwick County (Kansas) went with a competitor, it SAVED MILLIONS. Perhaps Lampasas should look into competitors now and then? Instead of the usual 7-0 unanimous votes to pay whatever the Motorola piper demands?
Did City council even LOOK INTO Harris Corp? Or is this a replay of the no-bid Azbell A/V system ripoff and the RKJ Construction elevator ripoff and the $180,000 no-bid bathroom ripoff?
[Read about Motorola’s scumbaggery and shenanigans HERE]
It might even behoove City council to wait a year or two and see if the current move towards two-way radio cell phones destroys Motorola’s near-monopoly on police radios. It’s conceivable that a similar system could be had for $200k in a few years. Perhaps even less!
Here are some other City expenditures with Motorola:
July 2012: City council approves the $54,479 purchase of a Motorola MIP 5000 console and 13 portable radios with chargers, to be used by police patrol officers.
November 2015: Approved the purchase of a replacement MIP 5000 radio console for police department dispatching. The cost through Motorola Solutions is $26,606.
Gee – they spend $54,479 on a brand new console in 2012 and then need another one in 2015? They spilling coffee on these things?
April 2019: The council voted 7-0 for an agreement that will allow the city to use radio communication equipment installed on a tower used by several nearby entities. In March 2017, Lampasas gave Burnet County about
an acre for a radio communication tower at the former city landfill on Old
Georgetown Road. Because of the land donation, the Western Regional Radio System — comprised of Burnet, Blanco and Llano counties, as well as the city of Marble Falls — is allowing Lampasas to use the tower at no cost. That provides significant savings, the assistant city manager said, as the usual charge is $15-$18 per month per radio.
Use of the Western Regional Radio System equipment, Cox said, will give Lampasas’ public safety departments better radio coverage inside buildings and will improve communications with nearby agencies.
Ooohhh…better radio coverage! This was all of 18 months ago. What happened to THAT deal that Gary Cox (RIP!) negotiated for the City?
Weird how the price of a 70″ TV has dropped from like $10,000 to $500 over the last decade and every other electronic gizmo/computer/camera plummets in price over time. But when it comes to GOVERNMENT prices for radio (which has been around OVER A CENTURY!), the price is outrageous.
Probably just a coincidence that all these electronics places (*cough* Azbell Electronics*cough*) seem to jam it up the government’s butt with higher and higher prices while prices plummet for the rest of us.
Yeah, that’s it. A coincidence.