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Consider approving Resolution No. 2013-041 authorizing the City Manager to enter into contract with Harris Inc. to purchase, install, and maintain a public safety radio system to serve the Cities of Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Coppell and the Town of Addison, and take appropriate action.
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BACKGROUND:
The Cities of Farmers Branch, Carrollton and the Town of Addison currently share a four-tower, nine-channel 800Mhz Analog Trunked Simulcast Radio System. This system provides public safety radio coverage for each of the Cities, and is critical to the provision of police, fire and emergency medical services. The primary radio tower site is owned and operated by the City of Carrollton. The City of Farmers Branch owns two of the radio towers, which were purchased in 2003. Farmers Branch pays the City of Carrollton an annual fee to use the system control components and to maintain its two tower sites. The radio system is nearing the end of its maintainable life, and must be replaced. A Metrocrest Quad Cities (MQC) public safety radio system committee was selected with representatives from the Town of Addison, City of Carrollton, City of Coppell and the City of Farmers Branch.
Over the past two years, RCC Consultants, Inc. (RCC) has been retained to evaluate the old system and make recommendations. In Phase I of this project, RCC recommended the four Cities should upgrade to a six tower site “Project 25” digital trunked simulcast radio system. In Phase II of this project, RCC provided services to facilitate implementation of the upgrade, including the design of and preparation of procurement specifications, evaluation of vendor proposals, and recommendation of a vendor to provide and install the new radio system. It was determined that the City of Farmers Branch would be the purchasing city. The Town of Addison, City of Carrollton, and the City of Coppell would pay their agreed-upon percentages of the system cost to the City of Farmers Branch.
On August 10, 2012 a request for competitive sealed proposals (RFCSP) for the new system was released. After an exhaustive review of the written responses to the RFCSP by the Committee and RCC, two vendors were invited to give an oral presentation to the MQC Stakeholders. The two vendors were Harris Corporation and Motorola Solutions, Inc. Following the oral presentations, and after written correspondences to both vendors requesting clarifications of their written RFCSP responses, RCC provided a side-by-side comparison of the vendor offerings. At that point, the Committee agreed that Harris’ proposal offered the best value. Contract negotiations were then begun with Harris.
RCC estimated that the public safety radio system could cost as much as $19 million, based on current State Contract level pricing. The contract being offered by Harris is a Project 25 digital trunked simulcast radio system with six ten-channel tower sites. It includes a one year warranty with four additional years of maintenance, software upgrades, full redundancy, inter-system connectivity, guaranteed 97% coverage, and smart-phone access. The total base cost is $12,745,464. The City of Farmers Branch’s portion is $2,124,244, not including the cost for any future change orders. The price is figured on a distribution dispatch scenario. A change order would be needed to go from distributed dispatch to a consolidated dispatch center. If the change order is made before August 2014 no additional cost is expected. If the change order is made subsequently, it would cost approximately $800,000.
This amount includes the shared and non-shared radio equipment. The shared equipment includes the central control components for all six tower sites and a microwave connection system. Non-shared equipment costs, which are specific to each city, include dispatch consoles, portable radios, mobile radios, and accessories.
This price does not include obligations for the City of Farmers Branch to provide electrical power and suitable radio site provisions at the two existing locations located within the City. The cost to provide those provisions is expected to be less than $200,000.
Note that the above system costs are inclusive of a $1.5 million incentive from Harris based on an executed contract on or before June 27, 2013.
In order to sign the contract with Harris to purchase the radio system, an inter-local agreement (ILA) among the Cities must be approved, which was also on tonight’s agenda (see Resolution No. 2013-040). In the ILA, each of the four Cities have confirmed they have appropriated funds to pay for their respective shares of the purchase, installation and maintenance costs of the radio system.
On December 4, 2012 City Council adopted Ordinance No. 3213 authorizing the issuance of Combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation, Series 2012, in the aggregate principal amount of approximately $3 million to secure the funding for this project.
If approval is granted and the contract is signed, the radio project is forecasted to be installed and fully functional no later than January 2015.
This item is consistent with Core Value #1, providing safety and security for citizens, visitors and businesses through progressive public safety programs.
RECOMMENDATION:
City Administration recommends approving Resolution No. 2013-041 authorizing the City Manager to enter into contract with Harris Inc. to purchase, install, and maintain a public safety radio system to serve the Cities of Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Coppell and the Town of Addison, and take appropriate action.
ACTIONS:
1) Motion to approve Resolution No. 2013-041 authorizing the City Manager to enter into a contract with Harris Inc. to purchase, install, and maintain a public safety radio system to serve the Cities of Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Coppell and the Town of Addison, and take appropriate action.
2) Motion to deny Resolution No. 2013-041 authorizing the City Manager to enter into a contract with Harris Inc. to purchase, install, and maintain a public safety radio system to serve the Cities of Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Coppell and the Town of Addison, and take appropriate action.
3) Motion to modify to meet the needs of the Council.
4) Motion to table the issue for further study or take no action.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Resolution No. 2013-041
2. Harris Contract Documents (350 page document is available to review in the City Manager’s Office, upon request)