Discussion of Byram police radios starts at 13:00 mark. First portion of video is discussion with Federal Signal, vendor for the early warning sirens.
The agenda for the meeting of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors yesterday stated the Board would consider a request by the City of Byram to be allowed to take 911 calls. What actually took place was a Board blindsided by the fact Byram's Board of Alderman voted last week to purchase 60 Motorola police radios for its fledgling police force and reject the EF Johnson radios purchase by Hinds County through its "consultant", Nathan Hargrove of Northstar Wireless. WLBT report on Byram decision. Video posted below.
The Supervisors became agitated when they learned of Byram's actions (The video below is quite entertaining at times.) Supervisor Smith said "These radios have already been purchased. The Board approved those radios. Those radios made it here in four days and we can attest to that. The next day after they were delivered, Northstar went down there and discussed it with y'all... My question is that these radios have already been purchase by 911 funds. How do you tax the taxpayers for additional radios when they are already ordered, here, and ready to be installed? We've done exactly what Byram wanted" (13:30 to 16:40 mark).
Nathan Hargove of Northstar Wireless, the county "consultant" and the vendor for EF Johnson, protested, stated "there's been a tremendous amount of effort expended on alot of people's part" (27:00). Mr. Hargrove later stated "Money has started to change hands." It appears to me the train is down the track....I propose we continue on the track." The Supervisors and Mr. Hargrove said they have not been notified by Byram it will not be accepting the radios.
Byram PD Commander Brad Davis told the Board "I will say for all this work that supposedly has been going on for the last month, we've not head about it (30:00)." We saw Nathan stop by one time and we have have a time deadline." He said the city had exactly one visit from Mr. Hargrove and never saw the radios (Anyone notice how Mr. Hargrove is not rushing up to volunteer to deliver the radios, radios that he supposedly has?). Commander Davis said "The City has not been advised of anything." Mr. Graham said very little during the entire discussion over Byram's decision to purchase Motorolas. Hinds County Emergency Operations Center Director Jimmie Lewis recommended Byram accept the radios from the county. Another Byram representative defended Byram (34:40), stating the city has not received any radios. The matter ended with Supervisor Smith asking aloud what the county should do with these radios it has ordered (34:00).
Background: Byram requested Hinds County approve a purchase for 60 police radios (30 mobiles and 30 vehicle units) last year. Byram Police Department will begin operations on June 1, 2011. Municipalities typically use county E911 funds to purchase such equipment. Most cities have interlocal agreements with Hinds County giving the control over the selection of the equipment. Byram's interlocal agreement with Hinds County was approved yesterday. The Board delayed approving Byram's request as its "consultant", Nathan Hargove, recommend Byram purchase EF Johnson radios, the only brand he happens to sell. Independent law enforcement sources inform this correspondent the Motorolas are much better radios, are cheaper, and require less maintenance. Motorola radios are usually repaired locally while EF Johnsons are shipped out of state for repair for several weeks or months. The Motorola quote was $230,000 while the EF Johnson quote was $243,000.
The Board approved a purchase of police radios for Byram on March 7 but with several conditions. Mr. Graham moved the county and not the city directly purchase the radios and thus select the manufacturer. Mr. Graham included in his motion a clause that stated the purchase was to be made for the lowest contract price. Mr. Graham also said the purchase was for radios without TDMA function. The Motorolas have TDMA capability, one brand of EF Johnson does not and thus is cheaper than the Motorolas requested by Byram.
What is TDMA? TDMA allows a radio to use the MSWIN system. In two years all law enforcement and first responders will be using the a statewide radio system. This is a big deal in Hinds County as Hinds' radio system is not compatible with the statewide system nor with surrounding counties and law enforcement agencies. Not that big a deal unless you have a police chase start in Flowood or Pearl that winds up halfway in Jackson and no one knew about it because thanks to the actions of the Board a few years ago, the police can't talk to each other to warn them of such emergencies. However, Mr. Graham tried to ram down Byram's throat radios that are not compatible with the statewide system. The result is that in two years, Byram will have useless or "trash-can" radios requiring either a new round of radio purchases or software upgrades costing $1,400.
WLBT reports State Auditor looking at contracts
Hinds awarded $4 million contract to non-existent company.
WLBT reports on early warning sirens contract
Other posts on this topic (on Hinds County page)
9 comments:
Graham's meddling and attempt to micro-manage the effort of Byram PD's to be self-directing in setting up their dispatch center is at the heart of this mess. His push to shove down the throats of all involved equipment that has a functionality shelf life of two years or less is irresponsible and an outrageous waste of taxpayers dollars.
Smith's repeated plaintive questions of 'what do we do with these radios now' reveals his true understanding of the county screw up. Graham's maneuvers to give a sweatheart deal to his sweatheart vendors must be investigated for a conflict of interest. There is no other way to explain his determination to specifically feather the nests of Hargrove and Stowers.
No amount of marketing spin or rebranding can make the ineptness and incompetence on display by the Hinds BOS go away.
Smith keeps asking what the county will do the radios. Is Byram the only agency in Hinds County that can use the radios? Doesn't every other agency in the County use the county's system? Didn't Jackson PD just buy a lot of new cars? Maybe they could put those radios in those cars. I'm sure the other agencies dispatched by the Sheriff's office could use extra radios.
From his body language in the video KF provided Graham looks mighty uncomfortable.
He was very quiet yesterday. Also watch the siren discussion for the first ten minutes. Looks like they might be throwing Airwave over a little bit when they mentioned RFP's.
It's a pity Chief Thompson wasn't there. But I have a feeling that fight is coming soon enough.
It's also telling that the puppetmaster who has had his hands all over this fiasco from the start sat in silence the entire time. Smith kept looking and gesturing to him throughout the discussion. You can almost hear him ask, "Am, am, am I saying this right? This IS what happened, right?"
KF, is that $1,400 total or per radio for the software upgrade?
per radio.
Yeah 3:16. The way Smith in the clip keeps going harpy about the 4 day delivery sounds like someone (as to be Graham) definitely gave him a handful of talking points but nothing else of substance from which to look credible. Because, let's face it, Byram told 'em all to go f' themselves.
KF did you see the comments George Smith posted over at WAPT? He still doesn't get it. Nor has WAPT done their homework but no surprise there.
http://www.wapt.com/news/27603162/detail.html
I listened to the WAPT 6 pm news on the radio and the guy from Byrum totally failed to make the salient point that the radios the BOS insisted on will be obsolete in two years. WAOT also totally failed to mention the TOTALLY suspicious conflict of interest regarding the insistence on buying inappropriate radios from a sole-source vender on the recommendation of that same vendor. They totally blew it, but I'm more surprised by the Byrum spokesman (police chief?) for failing to mention to most important point. Maybe it was edited out by WAPT, whose reporter seemed clueless as to the big picture.
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