The Hinds County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Monday to keep the contract with Airwave intact for another year. The county awarded a six-year $4.2 million no-bid contract for maintenance of the county radio system in 2008. The debate at times grew raucous as the a representative for Airwave made racist remarks that drew a strong reaction from the audience.
Supervisor Phil Fisher moved to terminate the contract with the company. Airwave is owned by Stacy Stowers. However, Nathan Hargrove of Northstar Wireless represented Airwave while Mr. Stowers sat in the audience. Supervisors Fisher and Peggy Hobson-Calhoun repeatedly told Mr. Hargrove they had requested documents such as logs that would show what work Airwave had done under the contract. Mr. Hargrove said he had given that information to Ms. Hobson-Calhoun. She pointedly told him he had not done so but instead had given her a notebook filled with serial numbers. She then told Mr. Hargrove the city of Jackson told her Airwave did not repair their radios but that Motorola repaired the radios at no cost to Jackson. Mr. Hargrove said that was not true and that JPD police Chief Coleman even called him at "Three in the morning" on radio issues (21:00).
Supervisor Fisher said the contract can "be terminated once a year before the October meeting." He said contract was paid out of the E911 fund and the fund would go broke in 18 months. He also said the company had no other client and showed no certifications to work on manufacturer's equipment. He urged the board to follow any recommendations made by EOC to find a replacement. Supervisor Calhoun said she had received two inquiries from other companies interested in bidding for the contract.
Mr. Hargrove told the Board it could not terminate the contract and "it does not come up for a renewal on an annual basis and it was a fixed term contract." (14:00) Supervisor Fisher immediately asked board attorney Crystal Martin for a copy of the contract and began reading the contract. Meanwhile, Mr. Hargrove said "it was frustrating for us, all the hard work to support the system goes unappreciated (15:44) Mr. Fisher told him he hadn't answered any of his questions and had done a good job of "dancing around" while talking about other "things such as the future."
Mr. Fisher then began reading the renewal clause from the contract:
"This agreement will renew for an additional one year term on every anniversary of the start date unless either the cover page specifically states a termination date or one party notifies the other in writing of its intention to discontinue the agreement not less than thirty days of that anniversary date" (See contract below, second to last page above the signatures in capital letters.)
Mr. Fisher then told Mr. Hargrove "what you're telling us isn't true." Mr. Hargrove said "its a five year term on that contract" to which Mr. Fisher replied "No its not". Supervisor Graham then interrupted to say he wanted to "keep things moving along." Supervisors Graham and Doug Anderson said very little during the entire discussion.
The low point of the meeting came when Mr. Fisher asked why Mr. Stowers was not addressing the board and who worked for who. Mr. Hargrove told Mr. Fisher "I realize we all look alike to you" to much negative reaction from the audience. Supervisor Graham admonished the audience but not Mr. Hargrove for his racist remarks (25:00). The board then voted to keep the contract.
Payments to Airwave:
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)
Media at meeting: Jackson Free Press, Clarion-Ledger, WLBT, WAPT, WJTV, Fox 40
Hinds County did not advertise for bids on Airwave contract, WLBT shines light on Airwave, Hinds awarded $4 million contract to non-existent company, Airwave payments will bankrupty E911 fund in 2014
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Hinds Board keeps Airwave contract, Hargrove makes racist comments to Supervisor
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
its interesting that they do such HARD work yet the system HAS to be FIXED by Motorola who just came and spent 2 weeks working out the issues for another 6 months... what some did not hear was what was being said by the Motorola technicians working... they found where a channel was completely turned off for no reason... they found wires plugged in wrong into other channels... just to name a FEW of the issues found. So Mr. Hargrove who was working so hard and unappreciated?? Oh thats right you all look the same... lazy crooks do all look the same!! I think its time for this smoke and mirrors to end.
Hinds County ... A World of Difference!
There is no effort to even hid the corruption that is going on in Hinds county. Dirty is not a strong enought word..
And the peeps in Madison County think they've got it bad.
Just as Islam condones and encourages deceit in order to prevail, when a certain class and breed of scoundrel assumes a seat of power, he is expected to and forgiven for lying, corruption and graft. "The end justifies the means" comes immediately to mind.
Why doesnt Auditor Stacey Pickering look at this contract?
Where is the friggin' State Auditor??? Isn't this exactly why we have a State Auditor in the first place, so that when the kids in county get stupid the adult can come in and clean up?
Silly sparking wiggles!
Anyone that get a contract from Hinds county will be branded as a crook.
Question for Kingfish. If a resident of Hinds County was to file a complaint with the State Auditor over the illegal awarding to Airwave of a professional services contract would the State Auditor be legally obliged to respond?
That is a very very good question.
6:02,
Seems you may be on to something. If memory serves, that was Stacy's excuse for staying out of Madison for as long as he did. He needed a formal, written complaint before he could act...at least that's what he said.
http://www.osa.state.ms.us/comp.aspx
Next question would be: If a complaint is filed with Auditor, who will represent him? If it is his choice, this issue could actually be cleaned up. If it is Hood's office, well, um.....
Forget that. One of you should enlist the aide of WLBT 3 On Your Side. If they can get a ditch cleaned up surely they can dismantle corruption in Hinds County. Get on it! Shurl can look into it and Magpie will report out on Wednesday.
I'm really baffled. Isn't this a misuse of tax money and aren't there any criminal laws about that with authority to investigate and stop it? And, aren't there loads of attorneys reading this blog who ought to know what the laws are?
And, don't attorneys have ethical obligations to report laws being broken?
This isn't a contract dispute of what is or is not included in the contract, this is a failure to perform when money has been received for performance. That is fraud.
And , who in the hell is the county attorney and treasurer? Why haven't they refused to pay the money until Airwaves meets performance requirements and provides proof they have? Let Airwaves try to recover. It's not the other way around.
Post a Comment