HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-07-1997 Meeting
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PUBLIC SAFETY
COMMITTEE
COMMITTEE ROOM - July 7, 1997
3:30 P.M.
PRESENT: Hon. Larry E. Sconyers, Mayor; H. Brigham, Chairman;
Kuhlke, Mays, Zetterberg, Members; R. Oliver, Administrator; L.
D'Alessio, County Attorney's office; R. Few, Fire Chief;
J. Brigham, Todd, Commissioners; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission;
and Belinda Brown of the Clerks office.
ALSO PRESENT: Sylvia Cooper, Augusta Chronicle.
The Clerk: We have one addendum item;
A request from the Fire Chief to purchase communications equipment
from Motorola in the amount of $32,030.00
Mr. H. Brigham:
agenda?
Do we have a motion to add that to the
Mr. Mays: So move.
Mr. Kuhlke: Second.
Motion carried unanimously.
A Request authorization to
(Garbage Collection) to lowest
1997, CSRA Waste Disposal.
award the contract for container
bidder for Bid Item #97-058, May 26,
Mr. Zetterberg: So move.
Mr. Mays: Second.
Motion carried unanimously.
A communication from the Fire Chief for Approval of request to
purchase communications equipment from Motorola in the amount of
$32,030.00.
Chief Few: In coming here they had just signed a contract for
$300,000 for communications equipment. When I looked at the
equipment, I noticed that they still had the system split, where
they were doing the County one way and the City another way. So I
asked Mr. Rushton, who had just come on board and the consultant
who was actually performing the work to sit down with me and tell
me exactly what they were doing and if the system was going to
work, so that every station would be monitored the same way and
tone out identical. They told me that it would and then they came
back and said that no it didn't work that way. Rushton and I looked
at what we had purchased and we felt that if we were going to clear
it up we may as well clear it up now. So that every station in
this County would be actually toned out the same way and they would
get the alarm the same way. Because you can't keep having two
split systems. When that phone call comes into that 911 system,
you can not service a person, you have to make sure that the system
is going to work the same way. As we bring on different people who
worked at consul t, I wanted to make sure that we never had an
incident where we never got there or there was some confusion. So,
I told they to go back and look at it again and then they came back
up with the price. I did not want to pay that for that, it was no
way around it. I asked Mr. Rushton to meet with them again to ask
if they would just eat that $32, 000, because they had actually put
in $300,000 worth of equipment was put into the 911 center for fire
operations and they said they just could not do that. So
subsequently what I am doing now is asking you to approve a
$32,000, that would actually clear up the toning out and
dispatching calls on two different frequencies.
Mr. Zetterberg:
I'll make a motion to put it on the table.
Mr. Mays: Second.
Mr. Todd: Who did the specs for the $300,000 project that we
had out on contract?
Chief Few: Let me just say, I only met with that consultant
twice, so I don't know who speced it out at the time. It was done
before I got here. Everything was already purchased before I got
here.
Mr. Zetterberg: What do you mean toned out?
Chief Few:
type of signal,
there and flip a
way.
Actually what they do is they have a different
if it's a county fire station he would go over
button and then he would tone them out a different
Mr. Kuhlke: Is it just a different frequency?
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Chief Few: Yes, that was a problem also. They were doing it
on a different frequency so that they couldn't hear it at the
station. It was so confusing, that it was confusing to me and I was
the Fire Chief going it looking at it and trying to access the
system, and see what was going wrong. So, that was why I asked if ..,
this was going to be toned out on the same system that everybody
receives the same alarm. In some places half of the fire stations
could hear the alarm and half of them couldn't. So what they would
do is tone out on one frequency in the station and receive it in
the truck on a different one.
Mr. Oliver: They would have to change frequencies based on
I had Mr. Rushton sign off on this because he is the radio
expert at this point.
Chief Few: That's one of the things I did, is to get together
with him to make an assessment of what we had coming. It was to
late. What ever was purchased, was already on its way. I just
held it up for the last three months, because I thought that they
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should get that system working so that it would be just one
frequency and one way of toning out.
Mr. Todd: I would suggest that we look at whether we can go
back on the consultant, if the consultant drew up the specs, the
consultant then would have been the architect or the engineer, whom
ever, and if that's the case we should look at that persons
insurance and see if we can go back on that person to recoup the
$32,000. I don't have a problem with going on and spending the
$32,000, but it should have been some bonding in there somewhere
and if it's our fault, I guess we'll have to eat it.
Chief Few: We'll have to.
is that they didn't ask for those
put them on the same frequency.
Because in essence what happened
certain items that would actually
After further discussion;
Mr. Zetterberg: The financial impact, Randy is nothing?
Mr. Oliver: This should have been signed off by Finance
before it got here and I asked someone to do that. I would suggest
this be approved subject to funding in that account.
Mr. Zetterberg: We have a motion to approve this subject to
funding.
Mr. Mays:
Second.
Motion carried unanimously.
Mr. Todd: To get the DFACs air conditioner back in working
condition will cost more than the $10,000 and when I mentioned a
letter a little earlier, I thought that you were aware of it.
Mr. Oliver: Here's what I would suggest, with an air
conditioner out in the middle of July, I consider that to be an
emergency, unless anybody has any objection, I plan to handle it
that way. The tell me that it will cost about $25,000 to replace
the compressor, that seems a little high, but we'll check into
that.
Mr. Todd: You don't want a letter signed, you don't want six
signatures, you're ok with that.
Mr. Oliver: No, I'm ok with that, unless somebody else has
some concern, I see that as an emergency.
With no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.
Lena J. Bonner
Clerk of Commission