06-04-85 Safety Comm MinutesJune 4, 1485 4:00 P. M.
._ SAFETY COMMITTEE
The Committee met in the Conference Room, present were Chairman Schindler, Committee
member Saverud, Chief Stefanic, Asst. Chief Hellman, Fire Chief Doty, Sheriff Rhodes,
John Jaeger of North Star Communications and Roger Hopkins, DIL.
C. Schindler asked the Sheriff to address the group on his philosophy of consolidation
of city and county radio systems. Rhodes stated that he felt it would not be a way to
save money right now. There is so much traffic in each agency that each would need
their own frequency. The costs would probably be the same as separate systems in the
long run. His office is short now and is hoping to add one or two dispatchers; their
volume keeps increasing and they are unable to cut back on personnel. Consolidation
would require radios with separate frequency for separate dispatches, with a dedicated
dispatcher to the City to pick up fire, slack calls. A base station would be needed.
Chief Stefanic explained that his department wanted repeater satellite co -stations.
The Sheriff said he couldnt speak for the County commissioners but felt sure that if
we consolidate, they would require the city to pay a portion of equipment, dispatch
salaries, but he has bad feelings about trying to make the Fire Department, for in-
stance, pay for it because it is a county entity. He felt you could even go to the
point of having to pay for maintenance, electricity and heating proportionately, but
that is up to the Commissioners. He stated that the satellite idea is really good.
Sheriff Rhodes stated that his department was planning to purchase Motorola equipment.
The main office at the Sheriff's office is open from 8 to 5, they already have quite
a bit of walk in traffic, and adding Police Department.traffic to this would add an-
other burden to them. Studies would have to be done, he said, but another person
would probably have to be dedicated at the main office. Right now Corky takes care
of the front desk, but also works records. Doris takes care of civil matters and
walk-ins. At 5:00 PM the door is closed and services are through the jail control
center. If joined, when a complaint came in the jailer, who is locked up in the center,
dbwould call in a city or county officer to take care of whatever is needed.
He feels there would be an advantage to consolidating records'and felt they would all
fit into the same computer. It was brought out that record keeping is not handled in
the same way in the two offices. Chief Stefanic pointed out that we need a radio
system whether records are consolidated or not. Sheriff Rhodes said that if a new
dispatch center is put in, the City would have to pay for their portion.
Fire Chief Doty reminded the group that he still has to have a console put in his
department; he has to communicate through the fire station.
Rhodes stated that if we consolidate, another consideration is that the Fire Department
frequencywouldhave to be included --even if no more than remote dispatch, that would
be another expense. If consolidated, all phones would have to go through the County
and that is not feasible for the Fire Department.
It was agreed there would be only small -if any -financial gain in consolidation but
possibly there would be some efficiency improvement. Before leaving for another
meeting, the Sheriff mentioned that we should consider in the case of a prisoner,
we must have a jailer and the Fire Department could not act as jailers.
Chief Stefanic stated that the committee needs to review the bids, go over the budget
and see what can be done. His department has some desires and recommendations. The
Council deserves an explanation on why the bids were much higher than we were looking
at initially. Reasons: the equipment is naturally more expensive four estimates were
based on a year ago figures), also the concept of the system has been changed some,
going to portable radios for all officers has substantially increased the amount. The
addition of 3 base stations further raises the total price. A few items have been
deleted from the total.
Safety Committee
Page 2 June 6, 1985
Chief Doty explained that the total cost is increased by $6,800 for 3 ambulance radios;
when everything goes to hi band, all things must be changed. Some substantial equip-
ment items have been added for the Fire Department since original estimates. The pro-
jected Police budget is $70,000; Fire budget $21,000.
Jack Jaeger gave a run-down on the two companies and mentioned the problem of getting -
and lack of support in receiving -parts from GE. He was recently approached about his
shop becoming a GE service center but would not consider this without a guarantee of
parts being returned in a reasonable time. Be had to wait 39 days in one instance for
a part!
His shop has around $20,000 Motorola parts inventory. It is authorized for service,
installation and subcontract to Motorola, tho his business is a private one. He said
that GE consoles are 2nd state technology, Motorola is state of the art console, yet
actually costs less. GE console has been out for years: Motorola has updated theirs
twice in the same length of time this product has been out. Motorola parts -excluding
mobile -can be here the next day, GE cannot match that performance. It comes down to
the price of the product vs cost of the system. If something does go down and the
console cannot be fixed on local level, Motorola engineering department will fly
people out for repair. There will always be a shop to maintain equipment, there are
endless resources with Motorola. The overall cost in 10-20 years would be less than
GE.
John said that the GE bid did not meet specs. He pointed out the advantages'in buying
an entire unit as a package rather than in 3 or 4 pieces. It would also cost more to
build racks to put together. He compared bids; future resale of mobile equipment
and specific items, such as under -the -dash radios were discussed.
C. Saverud asked if the specs were broad enough for GE to meet them if they wanted to.
. C. Stefanie stated that the specs were written for Motorola equipment, not for the
equipment itself, but to meet the quality of Motorola merchandise. The specs were put
together to deal with noise levels, assessibility to outside interferences, clarity
of transmission, signal,quality of sounds and durability of radio. They were written
to spec out really minor brands -not GE. He anticipated the possibility of getting
bids for portion pieces of equipment, minor mobiles and portables. GE radios do not
meet some of the ranges, Motorola has clearer transmission.
C. Schindler stressed that we need a system for total communication virtually all of
the time.
Discussion of location of stations: Chief Stefanic stated that they were looking at
the old hospital building, Buffalo Hill, on the west side of town possibly the mall
or Crop Hail building or the Black Angus.
C. Saverud asked if we were looking at installed, working, proven price as opposed
to getting hardware and trying to set it up. Chief Stefanic said that was the main
reason bids to tied to a package instead of piecing it out. If the bid is awarded
as a package, we can hold either GE or Motorola that the system will function as
specified. Motorola's offer is 100% Performance Bond for 1 year, GE's is only 100.
C. Schindler stated that are options are to work with what we have; the GE rep is
to be in town tomorrow, the bids can be gone over to see if they can be relieved of
frills, or we can scale the specs down and start over.
C. Saverud stated that it should be verified that GE was not trying to meet specs,
then they should be informed and the bid bond returned if theirs was not a legitimate
• response to the proposal.
Safety Committee Page 3 June 4, 1985
C. Saverud suggests that we take either or both bid, segregate costs by department,
compare with this and last year's budget and actually break costs down. It was
recognized that certain pieces were certain departments and that some were common
items. When this is broken down, the City Attorney should review if the GE bid
should not stay on table.
Chief Stefanic feels we certainly can reject the GE bid, that it is not in the best
interests of the City and that we should stay with the technical specs.
If the City Attorney concurs, C. Saverud recommends that the committee suggest to
the City Council that the GE proposal not be considered, then rebudget, go over
negotiations with all city departments tied in.
Chief Stefanie stressed that this will be a main control center for all city com-
munication. No fluff involved, but we will be installing a first class system.
Chief Doty agrees, he states that we have gone too long with piecemeal communication
system.
C. Schindler announced that we will get the City Attorney's opinion, break down
costs/budgets and present this information to the Council as Whole.
The meeting adjourned at 4:55.
Markie Sabol
Recording Secretary
ENC: Copies of bids with original minutes
•
is
General Electric Company • Mobile Cmrum,nications Division PROPOSAL
%bdd Headquarters • Lynchburg, Virgu,ia 24502 USA
GENERAL* ELECTRIC* Citycofbepartment
USA- Kalisoell. MP
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ECX.395G
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Recap Sheet
Police Department CcaTland
Control Center complete as described.
Phone Patch
Fire Department Command Control Center,
complete as described.
Optional DTMF Encoder
Mobile Relay
Voting Selector
Auxialliary Receiver
Base Stations
Voting tone Board
Mobile Radios
Mobile Radios
Ambulance Radios
Portables, 2 channel
Portable, MPX
1 year warranty
Installation and optimization of system
All orders subject to written acceptance by General
Electric Company, Lynchburg, Virginia.
This quotation is void unless accepted within thirty (30)
days, and is subject to standard conditions of sale as
appears on ECR-1663.
_0JN0191M RAD/O
1 1
PAGE OF
DATE May 31, 1985
24,725.00
(1,450.00)
10,192.50
(637.50)
3,691.00
2,947.06
1,932.50
3,735.50
49.00
817.00
1,487.00
1,978.50
818.00
962.50
6.875.00
24,725.00
10,192.50
3,691.00
2,947.00
3,865.00
11,206.50
49.00
6,536.00
8,922.00
5,935.50
18,814.00
962.50
2.964.00
$107,685.00
Tradem✓k of General Electric Company U.S.A.
Printed in uS.A.
MOTORO L A
Communications and Electronics Inc.
TOTAL BID PRICES
Console Equipment
$33,866.00
(Police and Fire)
Repeater - P.D. ('TYPE A)
y5,852.00
Base Stations - P.D.
Two Receiver Base (TYPE
C 1r2)
$40130.00
One Receiver Base (TYPE
B)
$4,111.00
3ase :cations - Fire De7artmer.t
T1 (2) receiver bases
rY E c r1
�V!,793.00
TYPEE C ;7`3
1 t4,130. 00
Votiz; Seceiver/Comparator Sys em
37,389.00
mobile Radios
"1/O Siren/PA
8 �7j :j1,097.00
28,776.00
,! Siren/PA
6 ? 1,`96.00
S9,j7o.00
Arioulance
3 :;2,295.00
:6,885.00
(i.
Portable Radios
2 Channel/Pa.ge 23 A1,178.00 y27,094.00
Taulti Channel & Scan 1 ? 6.1,430.00 $1,430.00
Total Equipment Installation 58,190.00
Y
TOTAL BID PRICE 4;126,222.00
1301 E. Algcnpuin.Rd.. Scha-mburg. ilhna,s C0196 (312) 397-1000