Thu
Feb 12 2015
01:30 pm

Mayor Rogeor has released a statement regarding her office's review of E-911 board email communications about the E-911 radio contract, saying that several emails "indicate potential violations of the state Open Meetings Act by members of the E-911 Board of Directors," including one email that she received.

Full statement after the break...

MAYOR ROGERO’S STATEMENT ON E-911 BOARD COMMUNICATIONS

Mayor Madeline Rogero issued this statement today on communications via email between E-911 Board members:

“In compiling documents for a records request from the News Sentinel, City staff found several emails that indicate potential violations of the state Open Meetings Act by members of the E-911 Board of Directors. Some of them are direct communications by Board members about the proposed radio system contract under consideration by the Board, and others refer to outside conversations and meetings that suggest the possibility of further Sunshine Law violations.

I am the recipient of one of these emails – a note from KPD Chief David Rausch on August 14, 2014. It summarized his conversation with a Harris representative about Chief Rausch’s belief that the City did not get a fair voice in the process and that the transition costs with Harris would be greater. Therefore, Chief Rausch’s inclination was to vote against the contract. He anticipated that the Harris representative would come to see me, and the chief wanted me to understand his position. I was not participating in the contract deliberations directly nor was I directing my proxy, so it did not occur to me that this might be a violation of the Open Meetings Act. I should have recognized it.

I will be voting at the next E-911 Board meeting so, on the advice of the City Law Director, I have not personally reviewed the other emails because I am told they include information that should be discussed only in a properly noticed public meeting. I am told by the Law Department that it isn’t clear from the emails whether Board members were aware of Sunshine restrictions on their communications outside public meetings. Regardless, the Open Meetings Act doesn’t differentiate between deliberate and inadvertent violations.

The Open Meetings act and case law are clear that the remedy for any Sunshine violation is full, public discussion and consideration of the issue at hand. So these apparent violations reinforce the legal and ethical obligation of the E-911 Board to meet and fully discuss the radio system contract. We have already called a special meeting of the Board for next Wednesday, February 18th, and I look forward to full public discussion of the issue.

I have asked the City Law Director to begin a full review of the role of City staff in the process. I want to understand what happened and I want a plan to better communicate our expectations and the proper policies and procedures to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

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R. Neal's picture

Knoxville, Tenn. — Knox

Knoxville, Tenn. — Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett released the following statement this afternoon:

“If in fact members of the E-911 board violated the state’s Open Meetings Act, then the special called meeting on Feb. 18 is the time to make things right. Whether the board votes to approve a contract with Harris Communications or not, the matter needs to be discussed and voted on in an open, public meeting.”

Average Guy's picture

So, Rausch was against it as

So, Rausch was against it as least as far back of August of last year.

This story will continue to make no sense until citizens know who was backing Harris and why they were giving that support.

I don't know the technicalities of how government specs in a RFP are supposed to originate, just know how they do.

If the police Chief wanted to use Dodge vehicles, he would make that known to whomever writing the spec. The person writing the spec would write it including all the things Dodge offered that Ford and Chevy didn't.

How it came to be a spec was written in spite of what all the people that will be using it wanted is simply weird.

reform4's picture

Don't hold your breath.

If there were some shenanigans with the previous board president, and he's no longer involved, the tendency in this community is not to throw someone under the bus once they're already out of the way, sometimes it's a quiet "thank you" for getting out of the way.

Not saying that's what happened, but no matter what happened with the process that got everyone riled up, the fact that no one wants to talk about the past seems to imply that that obstacle is no longer a problem.

There will be strong push to move forward with a fresh, clean process, and leave the past behind. Mayor Burchett's office may want to move forward with Harris, but that may be just expediency and/or concern over a higher cost with Motorola. But there are some differences- Motorola's proposal includes (IIRC) an on-site tech for the first year of the transition, which will save lots of County labor and increase first-year reliability. And Brian Hornback's blog lists a few links to municipalities that had problems with Harris rollouts.

Not trying to say Harris shouldn't be the choice, but if the KCSD and KPD is against them / favors Motorola, it's probably not going to happen. There may be a 10% difference in cost, but this is a system you only buy once every 10+ years, so better to get the system that's right and pay a little more (if that's what we deem Motorola to be), rather than just look at the cost.

Then again, with a clean process that KCSD and KPD trusts, Harris might still come out on top. I hope they keep their mind open to that possibility if there is a re-do.

And kudos to Madeline Rogero for her transparency in this matter. I can see how the 'proxy' issue could have created that oversight.

Bad Paper Original 's picture

interesting question about open system

From the comments section at KNS; is it true that "Harris has an open system that will accept P25 compliant equipment from any vendor, so the equipment can be competitively bid"?

If that is true, that is incredible citizen journalism from a well known source. If I were either Mayor, I would find out right now the answer.

The full comment:

ccjensen

"Here's the rest of the story. Yes, buying field equipment will add several million to the overall cost, but here's the key thing.....Harris has an open system that will accept P25 compliant equipment from any vendor, so the equipment can be competitively bid.

When the Motorola system is installed, it only works with Motorola equipment, so you are locked in to buying the field equipment from Motorola without competitive bids. That's were Motorola screws you into the ground. The Motorola P25 compliant equipment is likely to cost 50% to 100% more than competitively bid equipment. Don't like it? Sorry, with Motorola you have no choice, you must pay whatever price Motorola says you must pay.

That's where the big bucks will be made....enough extra profit for Motorola to take care of Ragsdale, JJ, Anders, and the rest of the leeches."

reform4's picture

Gateway

The Project 25 standard requires all systems be interoperable through an Inter RF Subsystem Interface (P25 ISSI):
(link...)

Harris's gateway is advertised here:
(link...)

Motorola has a gateway as well:
(link...)

What we don't know is if the Knox spec required ISSI gateway(s) or not. Most agencies have not, so I suspect Knox County didn't either.

But it's not a unique capability to Harris. But it may be that they have the only one purchased (Dallas), although Motorola has done some large field trials.

Another factor is that ISSI interoperability is not as comprehensive as the interoperability that occurs when two networks have the same vendor, something that often works to both Motorola’s and Harris’s advantage, Shaughnessy said.

“If we have a customer in County A, and County B right next door is coming on, we want to go in and say, ‘Hey, you’re going to get far better functionality talking to [County A] if you use our proprietary interface than if you resort to this least-common-denominator ISSI interface, which has some functional limitations,” Shaughnessy said.

In other words, some features like multicast messaging might not be supported in a mixed radio network.

Elwood Aspermonte's picture

Mayor threw her police chief under the bus

He's as engaged in the out of public debate on the issue as anybody else, not sure if that was a contemplated sideshow in connection with the larger circus.

Since law enforcement and the first responders are the ordinary users of the 911 equipment, I'd give appreciable deference to their preferences, their familiarity, and input from their peers in other similarly situated cities.

Average Guy's picture

Been one of my contentions

To that end, they and their bosses make the majority of the board.

So, where have they been?

Which is why all the reporting of the bluster over the "what" will remain wanting as long as the "how" and "why" remain ignored.

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