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HomeMy WebLinkAbout15-City Administrator CITY OF SAN BERNODINO - REQUEST ~ COUNCIL ACTION From: FRED WILSON Assistant City Administrator Subject: Authorization to negotiate with Motorola, Inc. for the purchase of a trunked 800 Mhz radio system. Dept: Date: May 23, 1994 Synopsis of Previous Council action: 12/93 Motorola awarded contract for purchase of 800 MHz dispatch equipment and portable radios. 6/93 10/92 Motorola awarded purchase order for 800 portable 800 MHz radios. Agreement approved with Omnicom to provide consulting services for implementation of City's 800 MHz trunked radio system. 8/92 Agreement approved with Motorola for purchase of MDT system. 8/90 7/90 Action plan represented to Council and approved. to prepare plan for purchase/installation 800 MHz Authorization system. Recommended motion: That authorization be given to negotiate with Motorola, Inc. for the purchase of a trunked 800 MHz radio communication system. lid S;_~ Contact person: Fred Wilson Phone: 5122 Supporting data attached: yes Ward: FUNDING REQUIREMENTS: Amount: Approx. $2,000,000 or $252,000/yr. for 10 yrs. Ii Source: (Acct. No.) 001-092-55500 ;"J (Acct. Descriotion) Finance: @,/JpA.,1 ~k. Council Notes: 75-0262 Agenda Item No /5 o o Overview The City has been pursuing the acquisition and start up of an 800 MHz radio system for the City for the past three years. The need for the system was documented in earlier reports and is primarily based on the inability of the current communication system to accommodate existing and future growth. This agenda item addresses the second phase of the proposed implementation plan for the transition of the City to the 800 MHz radio system. The 1st phase of the transition plan for this project involved the purchase, programming and installation of mobile and portable radios for the police and fire departments and the design and cutover of the police and fire dispatch facility to 800 MHz. This plan was approved by the Mayor and Council at the December 6, 1993 Council Meeting. The cost for this phase was $1,536,398 and was financed over a ten year period. The second phase of the project involves the purchase of the two site, 10 channel simulcast system with 3 bi-directional amplifiers; a single site, 5 channel repeater system; and an eleven site, fire station alerting system. Initial discussions have taken place between the City and Motorola in terms of identifying an approximate cost. Based on these discussions, it is anticipated that the cost to construct this project will be approximately $2,000,000. The project is anticipated to be financed over a ten year period with a combination of general fund and asset forfeiture monies. Backl!round In the three years preceding August 1990, the County of San Bernardino and the cities had been dealing with the issue of purchasing and installing an 800 MHz radio communication system. The County acted as the lead agency on this project and proceeded with the purchase and construction of a county-wide 800 MHz system. In July 1990, the County requested all cities to make a decision relative to participating with the County or developing other alternatives. Based on a cost analysis performed at that time, it was apparent that the establishment and implementation of a city-owned 800 MHz system would be more cost effective than participating in a County system. Formal action was taken by the Mayor and Council in July 1990 in terms of directing the City Administrator to prepare an action plan for the start-up of a city-owned 800 MHz system. This action plan was developed and submitted to the Mayor and Council in August 1990 which recommended that a two-phase process be implemented. The first phase was a purchase of mobile data terminals (MDT) system in order to achieve immediate savings in radio air-time usage with the second phase involving the actual development of the 800 MHz voice system. The contract for purchase of the MDT system was awarded in March 1992 and the project was completed in June 1993. The communication engineering work on the 800 MHz project began shortly after this date and was completed in November 1993. The contract for the purchase and installation of the mobile radios and the design/cutover of police and fire dispatch was awarded in December 1993. Testing of the ten frequencies assigned to the City has also taken place since December 1993. It is important to recall that the testing of these frequencies was necessary because of the period of time that had elapsed between the originailicensing of the radio channels by the County and the proposed - o o construction of ten of those frequencies by the City. The original testing of these frequencies occurred more than four years ago. Since that time, there has been activity by commercial and private companies to try to license these frequencies, and adjacent frequencies, for their own use. Pursuant to FCC guidelines, if these parties could show that there was no activity on any of these frequencies, they could have petitioned the FCC to have the frequency licensed for their use. The testing, however, which was recently completed by the City in conjunction with the County and Motorola indicated that these channels were interference free and, as such, usable by the City. Need for 800 MHz Radio The need for this system is based on the following issues: 1. A directive from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) referred to as the "Ref arming of the Radio Spectrum" which, in effect, forces public agencies to replace the existing 450 MHz frequencies and equipment with the 800 MHz frequencies and equipment by 1996. 2. Every law enforcement and fire agency in San Bernardino County is currently on the 800 MHz system with the exception of the City of San Bernardino. Allowing the Police and Fire Departments to move to 800 MHz will allow for significantly improved communications between these agencies during disasters and other mutual aid occurrences. The only means of current mutual aid communications is the state provided VHF mutual aid radio frequencies. Under this system, for other agencies to talk to us, they must "patch" a radio to this channel. This delays responses and makes communications difficult. 3. The existing radio communications network of the police department which consists of three VHF radio channels is massively overloaded. Industry standards recommend that a police radio channel never be loaded above 40 percent use. Two of the three channels are regularly loaded at or above 90 percent use. 4. The VHF spectrum system, which the City implemented more than 20 years ago, is obsolete. Voice transmissions are often unclear, and the existing system cannot manage group communications. 5. Improved radio coverage. A Police Officer on the west side of the city, using a portable radio, can not hear a Police Officer who is on the east side of town. Only one person can be heard by the dispatcher at a time. When 2 people transmit at the same time, both are currently blocked out. The Police Department has documented incidents where a Police Officer has literally screamed for help on his/her portable radio and their emergency transmission were "covered" by someone who could not hear the emergency transmission. This is one of t. . o o the wQrst safety problems facing our Police personnel. This problem will be alleviated since radio transmissions will be repeated and broadcast with enough signal strength that everyone with a portable radio can hear anyone else with a portable radio anywhere in our city. 6. Immediate addition of more operational channels for radio traffic. The Police Department will immediately separate its current 2 channel operations into 6 "talk groups. " Dispatchers will be able to listen to multiple talk groups if necessary with much more ease than listening to several single user frequencies. 7. Each of the new 800 MHz radios have a red emergency button that can be used to instantly signal a request for immediate help. ProDosed 800 MHz Trunked Svstem Overview Motorola is recommending a Smart Net wide-area trunked communications system for the City of San Bernardino. The trunked system design includes a two site, 10 channel simulcast system with 3 bi-directional RF amplifiers; a single site, 5 channel repeater system; and, an eleven site fire station reporting system located at each fire station. The 10 channel trunked simulcast system will have repeaters located at Jurupa and Little Sunset with directional antennas pointed toward the City of San Bernardino. In order to provide RF coverage in the area behind Shandin Hills, a stand-alone, 5 channel trunked SmartWorks repeater system will be located at the Kendall Fire Station. Three bi-directional amplifiers will also be used to provide RF penetration into the large facilities of City Hall, Carousel Mall and Inland Center Mall. The fire station reporting sub-system will be incorporated on the simulcast trunked system to provide remote control of each of the eleven City fire station garage doors. The City's dispatch console will be interconnected to the trunked system's prime site controller located on Little Mountain over the existing microwave radio system. In addition to the prime site controller, Little Mountain will also be the location of the simulcast distribution amplifier. digital channel banks and data modems. Two new microwave hops will be added to the system between Little Mountain and Jurupa and Little Mountain and Little Sunset. Motorola guarantees that the proposed system design will provide 95% or better RF coverage to mobiles and portables on the street and 90% RF coverage of portables in small to medium size buildings above ground level. The cost to the City for this system is estimated to be approximately $2 million. Financing these costs over a 10 year period would result in annual payments of approximately $252,200/year plus annual maintenance. This compares to a cost of approximately $258,900/year if the City were to contract with the County to use their system. With the approval of this system, the City will have incurred the following costs in transitioning to 800 MHz: - - o o e Police/Fire portable radio equipment $149,959* (3 yr. lease/purchase) e PolicelFire mobile radio & dispatch equipment $234,326 (10 yr. lease/purchase) $252.200 (10 yr. lease/purchase) $636,485 eTrunked radio system * Asset forfeiture funding $100,000 of annual cost. It should be noted that a budget of $575,000 has been included in the proposed FY 94/95 budget. Adoption of the form motion is recommended. It is anticipated that the negotiations with Motorola should be completed in approximately one month.