Emergency radio pact considered by county
A year after sales tax defeat, deal with Portland possible
Sunday, April 12 | 10:16 p.m.
BY JEFFREY MIZE
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
It seems voters knew what they were doing a year ago when they killed a sales tax increase.
Sixty percent of Clark County voters shot down an April 2008 plan to add 0.1 percent to the countywide sales tax for a new emergency radio system.
Motorola had told the county it would no longer provide replacement parts and technical support after 2012 on the radio system dispatchers use to communicate with police officers and firefighters and emergency responders rely on to talk with each other.
One year later, Motorola has agreed to support the system for another three years, through 2015. And the county is crafting a regional — and presumably more cost-effective — radio partnership with Portland, Washington County and a portion of Clackamas County.
"It's the economics of the whole thing," said Tom Griffith, director of the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency. "Unless someone has an inheritance from grandma they want to put forward, I don't see how we can do it alone."
There's an added plus: continued interoperability. Clark County and Portland have similar but different radio systems that are interconnected.
"If we move forward independently, the interoperability we have in place today would suffer," said Mark Gray, infrastructure and engineering manager for the Portland Bureau of Technology Services.
A modest step toward a regional radio system covering most of the four-county metro area could take place next Wednesday when the city of Portland, using proceeds from a $1 million U.S. Commerce Department grant, awards a consultant contract to study different options.
Expensive equipment
The potential costs are substantial. Last year, Clark County was looking at spending a total of $45 million for backbone infrastructure — radio and network controllers, repeaters, routers and other electronics — and for field equipment, namely radios worn by police officers and firefighters, radios in fire engines and patrol cars and modems for mobile computers.
Griffith, who serves as board chairman for the Regional Radio System Partnership forged last September, said he doesn't know how much a regional system would cost and how much the county could save by going that route instead of buying its own system.
But he has no doubt that sharing a master controller — "Sort of the brains of the whole system," he explained — would yield cost savings for everyone.
"This controller is the most expensive component of the system," Griffith said. "You can buy one individually or you can buy one, albeit with larger capacity, and we can all share."
The consultant will take about a year to examine options and costs, leading to what Griffith called "a trigger point."
"At that point, the partners, having all this information, can decide whether the partnership makes sense to each of them or whether they want to go off on different paths," he said.
Griffith and Gray both suspect a regional system is likely.
"What we're doing is extremely progressive, especially when you are working across state lines," Gray said.
800 MHz systems
Portland's 800 MHz radio system is older than Clark County's. Portland's system is self-maintained, with city employees trained in maintaining the system, Gray said. Even though Portland has a stockpile of spare parts, Motorola is no longer manufacturing components or training its employees, he said.
"What they are basically saying is, 'As long as we have people to help you, we are going to help you,'" Gray said.
Clark County's 800 MHz radio system is slightly more than 11 years old, but it, too, will become obsolete as part of the nationwide conversion from analog to digital technology.
At this time last year, county police and fire departments were facing a December 2012 deadline to have a new system up and running. Motorola agreed to support the system for another three years because of pressure from Seattle and larger communities that have the same system, Griffith said.
"When we complained, which we did, we didn't get a lot of traction," he said.
Motorola also has developed a "migration plan" where Clark County could slowly upgrade its system, incrementally adding converter boxes at individual radio towers, instead of having to replace the entire system in one fell swoop, he said.
Griffith, however, wasn't prepared to say that last April's sales tax measure was premature.
"I think we based that off the facts we knew at the time," he said. "At the time Motorola said, 'We will not support your system past 2012.' They did not have a migration plan. So we believed we did not have a lot of time."
A year after sales tax defeat, deal with Portland possible
Sunday, April 12 | 10:16 p.m.
BY JEFFREY MIZE
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
It seems voters knew what they were doing a year ago when they killed a sales tax increase.
Sixty percent of Clark County voters shot down an April 2008 plan to add 0.1 percent to the countywide sales tax for a new emergency radio system.
Motorola had told the county it would no longer provide replacement parts and technical support after 2012 on the radio system dispatchers use to communicate with police officers and firefighters and emergency responders rely on to talk with each other.
One year later, Motorola has agreed to support the system for another three years, through 2015. And the county is crafting a regional — and presumably more cost-effective — radio partnership with Portland, Washington County and a portion of Clackamas County.
"It's the economics of the whole thing," said Tom Griffith, director of the Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency. "Unless someone has an inheritance from grandma they want to put forward, I don't see how we can do it alone."
There's an added plus: continued interoperability. Clark County and Portland have similar but different radio systems that are interconnected.
"If we move forward independently, the interoperability we have in place today would suffer," said Mark Gray, infrastructure and engineering manager for the Portland Bureau of Technology Services.
A modest step toward a regional radio system covering most of the four-county metro area could take place next Wednesday when the city of Portland, using proceeds from a $1 million U.S. Commerce Department grant, awards a consultant contract to study different options.
Expensive equipment
The potential costs are substantial. Last year, Clark County was looking at spending a total of $45 million for backbone infrastructure — radio and network controllers, repeaters, routers and other electronics — and for field equipment, namely radios worn by police officers and firefighters, radios in fire engines and patrol cars and modems for mobile computers.
Griffith, who serves as board chairman for the Regional Radio System Partnership forged last September, said he doesn't know how much a regional system would cost and how much the county could save by going that route instead of buying its own system.
But he has no doubt that sharing a master controller — "Sort of the brains of the whole system," he explained — would yield cost savings for everyone.
"This controller is the most expensive component of the system," Griffith said. "You can buy one individually or you can buy one, albeit with larger capacity, and we can all share."
The consultant will take about a year to examine options and costs, leading to what Griffith called "a trigger point."
"At that point, the partners, having all this information, can decide whether the partnership makes sense to each of them or whether they want to go off on different paths," he said.
Griffith and Gray both suspect a regional system is likely.
"What we're doing is extremely progressive, especially when you are working across state lines," Gray said.
800 MHz systems
Portland's 800 MHz radio system is older than Clark County's. Portland's system is self-maintained, with city employees trained in maintaining the system, Gray said. Even though Portland has a stockpile of spare parts, Motorola is no longer manufacturing components or training its employees, he said.
"What they are basically saying is, 'As long as we have people to help you, we are going to help you,'" Gray said.
Clark County's 800 MHz radio system is slightly more than 11 years old, but it, too, will become obsolete as part of the nationwide conversion from analog to digital technology.
At this time last year, county police and fire departments were facing a December 2012 deadline to have a new system up and running. Motorola agreed to support the system for another three years because of pressure from Seattle and larger communities that have the same system, Griffith said.
"When we complained, which we did, we didn't get a lot of traction," he said.
Motorola also has developed a "migration plan" where Clark County could slowly upgrade its system, incrementally adding converter boxes at individual radio towers, instead of having to replace the entire system in one fell swoop, he said.
Griffith, however, wasn't prepared to say that last April's sales tax measure was premature.
"I think we based that off the facts we knew at the time," he said. "At the time Motorola said, 'We will not support your system past 2012.' They did not have a migration plan. So we believed we did not have a lot of time."
