Good question as to what the status of employees is to be. And it seems to me the state would be competing with private enterprise, but what do I know. I keep hearing that the state will maintain the state's infrastructure and their own portables and mobiles and peripheral equipment while the MotherMoto MSS organizations will be responsible for the participating local departments' sites and portables and mobiles, etc. I also hear that the state will hire techs to meet the proposed manpower requirements, and will purchase the test equipment, service vehicles, etc., to maintain the system, and that the techs will be schooled in the new equipment. I'll be surprised if it happens. No permanent employee in our shop has ANY Motorola wallpaper. I'm the temporary flunky employee and I have enough to decorate most of my living room.
Go figure.
All I can say is that if past perfromance is any indication, the current techs will be thrown into the midst of this technical upgrade armed only with a brief 10 minute second or third hand overview of the system and whatever knowledge and resources they can scrounge up for themselves. The state is not known for paying competitive wages nor is it known for sending anyone to a real Motorola tech school session to learn something about the equipment they'll be facing. When they do send personnel to schools, seminars, etc., it always seems to be the supervisory personnel, not the ones who'll be actually placing hands upon the equipment. In addition, not one piece of test/service gear in our shop has any sign of traceable standard calibration certification on it beyond the manufacturer's original certificate, some of which are banging on 20 years old, and I'll bet that's probably true for every other shop in the state also, maybe even includes Mecca (Raleigh C&L HQ). Try that kind of operation in the private sector and see what happens.
VIPER proposals will mean the state will have one helluva task on its hands to catch up on wages, equipment, education, and personnel issues. I can't wait to see what happens since it will certainly prove to be a complete departure from past performance. After all, we are experts at making chicken salad out of chicken s**t.
Please excuse my rant.