TITLE
RADIO EQUIPMENT INVENTORY REPORT - MOTOROLA RADIO PURCHASES
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a motion to accept the recommendations presented in the City of Stockton Radio Equipment Inventory Report by Trott Communications Group Inc. (Trott Report); approve findings which support and justify an exception to the competitive bid process and authorize the use of the cooperative purchasing agreement with the Houston-Galveston Area Council for the purchase of Motorola radio equipment; authorize the purchase of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015-16 public safety radio system equipment from Motorola Solutions, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $1,500,000; and authorize the City Manager to take appropriate actions to carry out the purpose and intent of the motion.
BODY
Summary
Over the last year, City Information Technology (IT) staff worked with Trott Communications, Inc., to assess the City’s current inventory of radio equipment and develop the Trott Report, Attachment A. The assessment determined that a majority of the City’s radio equipment exceeds or is near end of life, with limited or no support available. Trott recommends that all user radio equipment classified in this report with a "Support" classification for parts being unavailable or problematic (894 total units) be scheduled for replacement as soon as possible.
As with all pieces of equipment, radios have a functional life cycle and should be replaced in accordance with industry-established norms. Due to the City’s financial distress, Stockton’s inventory of radio equipment has not been updated and replaced with regularity. This resulted, not only in an ever-increasing number of radios surpassing the manufacturer's recommended end-of-life replacement date, but also a large number of broken, inoperable radios. Each of the four departments using radios has a variety of needs in terms of radio operability and features. The common denominator is the requirement for 100% reliability. For Firefighters, Police Officers, and utility staff, an operational radio can be more critical to their safety than their weapons or other equipment.
Information Technology recommends an aggressive initial replacement schedule for the end-of-life equipment over the next three years, after which a more gradual, routine replacement schedule is recommended. Significant savings can be achieved based on the volume of purchases and through the use of cooperative purchase agreements. It is recommended that Council adopt findings and authorize the purchase of Motorola radio equipment in line with the replacement plan for FY 2015-16.
DISCUSSION
Background
The City owns and operates a private 13-channel radio communication system utilized by the Fire, Municipal Utilities (MUD), Police, and Public Works departments. The primary function of this system is for public safety purposes to ensure that Police Officers and Firefighters have radio communication capabilities among individuals, vehicles and dispatch/command centers. As part of the overall radio system the City maintains nearly 1,300 portable and mobile radios. Expenditures for Public Safety communication technologies are managed by IT via the Radio Internal Service Fund (ISF). As the City’s fiscal crisis began to take shape, the purchase of new radios was deferred in order to reduce the contributions to the Radio ISF and lessen the burden on the City’s general fund. The general fund is the primary source of Public Safety ISF funding for labor and equipment. Further delay in the replacement of radios cannot continue and still be expected to provide adequate communication support as the equipment has aged out and will continue to deteriorate with time.
IT staff is responsible for managing the radio systems, maintaining the service agreements, and keeping the equipment in operational condition. The average life of a Public Safety radio is seven years for a portable radio and ten years for mobile. Typically when these radios are in service beyond the seven and ten year useful life, the reliability of the radios diminishes quickly. At this time more than 66% of the City’s radio equipment inventory is seven (7) years or older and nearly 80% is five (5) years or older. Thus nearly all of the equipment is at or near the end of useful life. In the current condition the equipment can fail during a shift. This has created an unnecessary burden on Public Safety staff as they are required to return to the station for repair or replacement of the radio.
Present Situation
In August, 2014 Trott Communications Group Inc. (Trott), an established telecommunications company out of Dallas, Texas, was awarded a contract to conduct a full inventory of the City’s entire radio system. The Trott Report was completed in February 2015 which includes 12 recommendations for improvements to our radio program. These recommendations include: improving inventory management, placing all viable radios onto the maintenance plan, purchasing a large number of radios over the next few years, replacing the infrastructure, establishing a sustainable replacement cycle, and evaluating the potential benefits for participating in the proposed county-wide radio program for county-wide communications.
In support of implementing the recommendations contained in the Trott Report, IT prepared a plan which stabilizes the radio program over the next four years, and establishes a long-term management strategy. This plan will require large quantity purchases in FYs 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18. Beginning in FY 2018-19, there will be a fairly steady amount of radios purchased, which allows for a regular replacement cycle and provides the City with a consistent budgeting tool. These replacement tables can be found in Attachment B. The radio program incorporates the recommendations of the Trott Report in concert with the user departments’ requirements and funding opportunities. This plan leverages existing resources and provides flexibility as opportunities such as grants and new cooperative agreements become available. With Council approval, these purchases will fulfill the communication and related safety needs of the various departments.
Purchasing Plan
Over the past two decades, Stockton has used competitively bid, cooperative (co-op) purchase agreements to purchase its radio equipment. In the case of the current request, IT compared pricing from two co-op agreements and determined the discounts would be greatest by leveraging the Houston - Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) Cooperative Purchasing Agreement (Attachment C). If approved, Stockton will purchase the radios through locally owned Delta Wireless Solutions, the only Motorola authorized dealer in Stockton (Attachments D and E). Delta Wireless is also the current support vendor for the City’s existing equipment.
At this time we are requesting approval to purchase the radios as summarized in the table below and further detailed in the Radio Replacement graphs for fiscal years 2015-16 through 2017-18 (Attachment B This will include replacement of older radios and the purchase of new radios as required by the departments. The current request includes purchase of the majority of equipment identified in Fiscal Year 2015-16 with the exception of the Fire Department which may be eligible for grant funding. We will address the purchase of the Fire Department radios once the grant funding decision is made by the granting agency in early September. As outlined in the table below, the recommended expenditure for radios (not including the Fire Department) is $1.5 million in FY 2015-16, $887,109 in FY 2016-17 and $572,818 in FY 2017-18 for a total expenditure of $2,959, 927. Funding strategies for radio systems include utilizing the ISF fund and Measure A. In addition, the pie chart below offers a visual representation of the share of expenditures between the respective City departments. The recommended purchases in future fiscal years will be made each year according to the plan and in accordance with budgeted funding included in the City’s Annual Budget.
Three-Year Radio Replacement Forecast
|
|
|
FYI 15/16 |
FYI 16/17 |
FYI 17/18 |
Totals |
|
Dept / Radio Type |
Funding Source |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
Quantity |
|
MUD/PW Portable |
ISF |
30 |
- |
17 |
47 |
|
MUD Mobile |
ISF |
18 |
19 |
34 |
71 |
|
Police Portable |
Measure A |
342 |
150 |
90 |
582 |
|
Police Mobile |
Measure A |
70 |
60 |
26 |
156 |
|
Annual Totals |
Radio Count |
460 |
229 |
167 |
856 |
|
Annual Totals |
Estimated Cost |
$1,500,000 |
$887,109 |
$572,817 |
$2,959,926 |
Three-Year Radio Proportionate Cost Forecast for Police and MUD/PW
Fire Department Grant Opportunities
This plan calls for the Fire Department to 150 new radios in FY 15/16 and 52 new radios in FY 16/17. Because of a Federal grant opportunity, we will return at a later date to discuss these purchases. If the Federal funding comes through, the City will save about 88% of the cost. This grant, submitted by the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District (LMFD)in conjunction with the recently formed San Joaquin County Regional Fire Dispatch Authority provides funding for Fire Emergency Dispatch and associated equipment. LMFD expects notification of the 2014 award to be issued by the end of August, 2015, at which time IT will return to Council with a recommendation for how Fire should replace their equipment. Incidentally, this same grant opportunity is before your Council on this same agenda. Staff is proposing to utilize additional grant funding to purchase Fire dispatch consoles to improve the equipment in the emergency communications dispatch center.
Infrastructure Improvements
While the action we are requesting the Council to take does not include the purchase of infrastructure equipment, we feel it is important to mention that in addition to the radios, the City owns and operates radio infrastructure utilized by the Fire, MUD, Police, and Public Works departments. As stated previously, the primary function of this system is for public safety purposes to ensure that Police Officers and Firefighters have radio communication capabilities between individuals, vehicles and dispatch/command centers. The bulk of the infrastructure is over 13-years old and needs to be replaced in early 2017. This equipment consists of radio tower equipment, dispatch center consoles, server room equipment, services, and software. IT will bring forward plans in the coming months for the needed upgrades and replacements. Part of this project will be to investigate the possibility for participating in a potential Joint Powers Authority (JPA) County Trunked Radio System, with other public service agencies throughout San Joaquin County. All equipment proposed to be purchased is compatible with proposed Trunked system. As identified in the Trott Report, the JPA has the potential for providing a higher level of service to residents throughout the County by providing interoperable communications for all public service staff at a substantial savings.
Purchase of Motorola equipment
Stockton has utilized Motorola radio system equipment to support Public Safety for over 30-years. It is necessary to deploy the same type of equipment across operational assignments to reduce user error, synchronize training, and to reduce maintenance costs and required expertise to service multiple systems. As part of the plan to create interoperability for all Public Safety providers in San Joaquin County, the County purchased a Motorola M-Core, the backend of a trunked radio system. Motorola equipment is designed specifically to work as a complete ecosystem to allow all agencies to coordinate activities when necessary. Stockton chose to also use Motorola since they are the only vendor who can provide all the features needed by Police and Fire within the ecosystem. There is no other product that would seamlessly integrate with this infrastructure and allow for interoperability. This is consistent with the County-wide Radio Master plan.
Findings
Stockton Municipal Code section 3.68.070 provides that the City Council can authorize the award of a contract without the requirement of competitive bidding in those cases where facts exist that support and justify the exception. In this item, the following facts exist which, if adopted by Council, would constitute sufficient grounds for making such a finding:
1. The Houston-Galveston Area Council has established a cooperative purchase agreement with Motorola, Inc. as part of a cooperative purchasing process for the purpose of pooling various agencies’ purchasing volume to directly reduce the cost of radio systems.
2. By purchasing radio goods and services under the cooperative purchase agreement, the City will realize savings of 35% off retail.
3. The bid specifications used by the Houston-Galveston Area Council have been assessed by Purchasing as compatible to the City of Stockton standards with regards to the formal process, lowest pricing, awarded contract, and piggy-back able language allowing public agencies to avail of such process and pricing.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Sufficient funds for the recommended equipment purchases in Fiscal Year 2015-16 are included in the adopted Fiscal Year 2015-16 Budget from the following sources:
Measure A - 014-2470-603 - $1,400,000
Radio Internal Service Fund 503-5201-670 - $100,000
Equipment purchases proposed in future fiscal years will be included in the annual budget process.
Attachment A - City of Stockton Radio Equipment Inventory Report (Trott Report)
Attachment B - Radio Deployment Tables
Attachment C - Houston-Galveston Area Council- Motorola Solutions Inc.
Attachment D - Motorola Solutions Inc./Delta Wireless Letter
Attachment E - Agreement between City of Stockton and Motorola Solutions, Inc.