A spreadsheet obtained by Jackson Jambalaya shows the E911 fund for Hinds County will run out of money in March 2014 if contracts with Airwave LLC are not terminated in October when it is legal for the county to do so. E911 funds are collected through taxes on telephone service and are used to purchase radios, computers, and other telecommunications equipment used for 911 services. It is a major source of funding for such purchases by county and municipal law enforcement and first responders.
The fund will run out of money as payments to Airwave drain the account. Link to Airwave contract. Fee schedule on p.18. Airwave has two contracts with Hinds County for maintenance of the radio towers and another one for site maintenance. The contract for the radio towers pays Airwave $64,169 per month ($192,507 per quarter). The monthly payments escalate to $67,075 ($201,225 per quarter) in November and $70,429 ($211,287 per quarter) in November 2013. The contract expires in October 2014. The county pays $30,511 quarterly for site maintenance. The contract continues through 2017.
Unfortunately for fire and police departments in Hinds County, the fund runs out of money in March 2014 as the payments force the E911 fund into a deficit. The county make an annual $723,500 to Motorola for the lease/purchase of equipment for the Jackson radio system. The agreement placed integrated the Jackson radio system into the Hinds system. the county provided the equipment for the Hinds system to Jackson in exchange for the transfer of the system from Maycom to Motorola.
The fund enjoys a balance over $1 million until the next Jackson payment is made in March 2013. The fund plunges to a little over $400,000 and stays below $500,000 until the March 2014 payment is made. The fund then falls to a deficit of over $300,000. It climbs to a surplus of over $12,000 (Yes, that is thousand, not million) when the 2015 Jackson payment is made when it plummets to a deficit of $666,316.
Page 2 of the spreadsheet shows the cash flow of the E911 fund if the Airwave contract is terminated in October. The fund continues to enjoy a balance over $1 million even after the annual Jackson payments are made. The fund climbs to nearly $2 million as the year progresses before the $723,500 is paid to Motorola each year. Keep in mind the charts assume a constant monthly revenue stream of $245,000 and no equipment purchases for county and municipal 911 services.
Note: It is also important to remember the county uses the fund as a revolving credit card of sorts each year as it borrows against the fund to pay other bills from the county. The money is repaid in the following late winter when property taxes are paid. Below is a list of the loans made against the fund by the county:
2011: $2.035 million
November 15, 2010: $2,000,000 loan
November 2, 2010: $400,00 loan
October 18, 2010: $650,000 loan
March 1, 2010: $2,300,000 repayment
February 1, 2010: $15,000 repayment
November 16, 2009: $235,000 loan
October 19, 2009: $2,700,000 loan
September 30, 2009: $1,550,000 repayment
August 31, 2009: $750,000 loan
July 20, 2009: $1,500,000 loan
March 2, 2009: $2,900,000 repayment
January 5, 2009: $500,000 loan
December 15, 2008: $600,000 loan
November 17, 2008: $2,500,000 loan
February 19, 2008: $2,220,000 repayment
December 17, 2007: $2,220,000 loan
October 15, 2007: $1,095 loan
February 20, 2007: $3,655,000 repayment
February 5, 2007: $155,000 loan
January 2, 2007: $730,000 loan
December 18, 2006: $2,300,000 loan
December 4, 2006: $700,000 loan
February 21, 2006: $2,560,000 repayment
February 6, 2006: $550,000 repayment
January 3, 2006: $550,000 loan
Synopsis of Airwave : Airwave is owned by Stacy Stowers. Airwave has been the subject of some controversy after WLBT, the Northside Sun, and this website reported on the cozy deals Airwave has with Hinds County. Airwave obtained the following contracts:
*Contract to maintain weather sirens even though the sirens are brand new and covered by a five-year warranty. JJ estimates the payments for the siren contracts are $149,194.
*Contract to maintain professional services for the emergency communications system. The contract price is $122,000 per year to maintain six tower sites.
*Maintenance contract for the 800 Mhz radio system. $4 million contract for six years. Year one: $374,860 ($93,715 per quarter), Year two: $521,885 ($130,463 per quarter), Year three: $736,918 ($184,229 per quarter), Year four: $770,035 ($192,508 per quarter), Year five: $804,908 ($201,227 per quarter), Year six: $845,153 ($211,288 per quarter) Two of the contracts were awarded in 2008 even though Airwave LLC did not exist as a company until 2009.
Related posts Hinds BOS refuse to terminate Airwave contract and bid out services, Hinds awards multi-million dollar contract to non-existent company, , Hinds paid $2.2 million to Airwave, Hinds county did not advertise for bids for Airwave contracts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Airwave contracts will bankrupt Hinds E911 fund in 18 months
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20 comments:
What else is new with the City of Jackson.....City going broke and a Black owned business is living the life!!!
WTF ? The inmates are running the asylum..
1:19 - this is the County, not the City. Granted, the storyline could be the same if it were about the City of Jackson, but the problem here is the crooked deal between the BOS - under direction of Robert Graham - giving a no-bid contract to his buddies for 'radio stuff' and making sure that the contract includes enough for Graham.
WOW how about the 150 Thousand someone is making a month what is the name of that company. Those guys are really living it up. Why don't they cut the most expensive one 150,000 a month. Is that a black owned company to.
Living large and in charge. Heh, Heh, Heh........
They're simply following Obama's example. Nothing more. Nothing less. They firmly believe in the 'money tree'.
KF, are these the same contracts you were posting on earlier that Hinds Supervisors gave to buddies without bids, but that our wonderful State Auditor has refused to question or investigate?
Question: Where is the Honorable Mr. Pickering when you need him?
Answer - going after the deputy clerks and maintenance men stealing $10 grand, but leaving alone the 'elected boys' who might help him in his quest for higher office, maybe even contributing some of their hundreds of thousands of ill-gotten gains.
Stacey Pickering ought to be ashamed. It is right in front of his eyes and he refuses to do anything about it. He needs to be voted out of office at the next possible opportunity.
Wait til the supes start the new jail.
Those kickbacks and bribes will set them each for life.
Let's see...a "consultant" from Atlanta to do "a study" to determine the need and recommend something.
An architect to design a jail and provide plans and blueprints when there are thousands available for little or nothing.
The bid process where the favored kickback contractors present a "low" bid with a list of "change orders" already agreed upon.
And nobody to check the work of the contractor so the place falls apart in 15 years when the current crop of supervisors is forgotten.
I pity those taxpayers in denial who still live in NE Jackson and Fondren pretending, "It's like this everywhere."
This is just an attempt to bring Browns Communication back those guys are all together. Who does Madison, and Rankin use for this type of work. They don't have these type of stories.
Legal question:
Does the State Auditor have the power to investigate contracts (bid, or no bid) if there is an appearance of gross overpayments?
Madison and Rankin do have these type of stories and KF has put them on this site.
And, didn't Lott's elderly mother have a well paying job at Ingalls?
It's called " the spoils of politics".
The difference is that dividing up the spoils from a small kitty is more obvious than gouging out money from a large kitty , the thieves are more sophisticated and the pain to the victimns of the theft is greater.
These guys have less understanding about how much they can take and how well they can rationalize .
The difference in political parties and politicians is whose pocket get filled with your tax dollar!
Now don't go pissing off Lieutenant Graham KF.
just look at Rankin Co last Administrator
What did the last Rankin county administrator do that was wrong??
Anonymous said
1:19 - this is the County, not the City. Granted, the storyline could be the same if it were about the City of Jackson, but the problem here is the crooked deal between the BOS - under direction of Robert Graham - giving a no-bid contract to his buddies for 'radio stuff' and making sure that the contract includes enough for Graham.
Amen let the truth be heard Graham convinced the other board members and now they all look like fools!!!! Airwaves has no, count them, no certifications not a single qualified employee and the county gave a million dollar system to them to maintain with PC anywhere really!!!!! Idiots, so glad I moved from Hinds County
The E 911 budget is part of the over all responsibilty of the EOC directors job thats why Jimmie Lewis was appointed to the job in the first place to cover up all of Airwaves invoices. The State Auditor should audit Hinds County and its contracts. But how many times do we have to say this.
Anonymous said...
Legal question:
Does the State Auditor have the power to investigate contracts (bid, or no bid) if there is an appearance of gross overpayments?
Reply:
Yes, but he's Weak as Water and wont do anything remeber he is WHITE and they are BLACK and if you call anyone black out on thier wrong doing, They will scream rascim, even if they are breaking the law. So what is the point?
Wow you guys don't have a clue. AT&T a white owned company is making $150,000 a month from the county a no bid contract and not one person said anything and now a black company does the same thing and now they are crooks. Hmmm and you don't see anything wrong with that picture. You should be ashamed to even comment without all your facts..
No, YOU don't have a clue. Nice try poetry. The reason why I am not saying anything about the ATT service is because there is a Supreme Court case DIRECTLY on point from 1981 against the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors. The Mississippi Supreme Court specifically exempted then-Bellsouth and now ATT because they were a publicly regulated utility. Got it? AT&T can get all the no-bid contracts it wants and the law and court said there is nothing that can be done about it.
The only thing I am advocating is for Airwave, bid out the contract. Period. I don't give a rat's ass if Airwave gets it after a bid because they have the lowest and best bid, fine with me. Got it? Just like Derrick Johnson, your idol. He charges $40,000 to Hinds for a no-bid contract for redistricting but when Jackson requires bids for its redistricting, he suddenly drops his price to $20,000.
Of course, I don't expect you to discuss any of that or refute it. Its too easy for you to go to the Clarion-Ledger website and just call everyone a racist.
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