Commission rejects P25 radio upgrade after procurement missteps; city grapples with in-building radio gaps and BDA costs

The Fort Lauderdale City Commission on Oct. 7 voted to reject all proposals for the city’s P25 public-safety radio refresh after procurement staff deemed the three submissions nonresponsive, and launched a broad discussion about in-building radio coverage requirements and who pays when buildings cannot be reached by first-responder radios.

Commissioner Ben Glassman moved to reject the proposals, saying the expenditure process needed to be redone; her motion passed on a 5-0 roll call after city procurement warned that the three respondents failed to meet solicitation requirements. Chief Procurement Officer Glenn Markel told the commission the documents would be “sanitized” and reissued promptly.

Why it matters: Commissioners and speakers said reliable two-way radio communications are a core public-safety requirement. Condominium boards and building managers reported new requirements that buildings show minimum radio signal strength during inspections and said vendors are charging large sums to install BDAs, which amplify signals inside structures.

Key points from the commission meeting - Commissioner Ben Glassman said, “I can’t think of anything more important than public safety,” and pressed staff for a clearer explanation of the procurement outcome and of the state statute that now requires minimum radio coverage in certain buildings. - Chris Cooper, assistant city manager, said staff has begun an outreach and education plan, and will reissue the solicitation quickly. He explained the city’s fire inspectors notify buildings when on-scene radios do not work; a full technical assessment then typically must be done by a third party. - Fire Marshal Jason Miller said the code requires officials to enforce minimum radio signal strength; he summarized that the enforcement standard is whether fire radios work inside a building and noted cases where buildings that passed earlier have failed on subsequent inspections. - Interim assistant IT director Jason Swift said Florida will demolish the state tower the city currently uses; the city has an MOU to construct a new tower near the juvenile justice center and has asked respondents to propose total-coverage solutions. Swift said the city plans to increase its number of tower sites from three to at least four to improve outdoor and indoor coverage in some areas. - Commissioners and staff agreed the issue is partly technical (construction materials such as low-E glass reduce penetration) and partly systemic: development and new towers change the radio environment over time.

Concerns from building owners and condo managers Owners and managers of condominium buildings described a pattern they said began in early 2025: during routine or annual inspections, fire personnel reported that radios did not reach stairwells or floors. Cooper and others described the resulting process: a building hires a vendor to test, and that vendor may recommend BDAs or other changes. Multiple speakers said some firms provided testing and the remediation proposals, creating a perceived conflict of interest. Commissioner Glassman said she had heard BDA installation estimates “upwards in the $200,000 range” for buildings that historically had no problems.

Staff response and next steps City staff said they will: - Reissue the P25 solicitation after revising submission requirements (procurement expects to reissue before the end of the calendar year); - Roll out an education and outreach package (webinar, brochure, web pages and direct email to potentially affected property owners) to describe what the state statute requires and what owners can do; and - Work with state legislative contacts about whether changes are needed at Tallahassee to reduce the local burden on condo associations.

Fire Marshal Miller and representatives from Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue and the police department underscored that BDAs are often the most reliable remedy for signal problems inside large or radio-impermeable buildings; Miller said this is a difficult enforcement area because the state statute treats failure to provide adequate radio coverage as a code violation.

Action recorded - Motion rejecting all proposals for the P25 radio-system refresh (CM9). Mover: Commissioner Ben Glassman; second: Commissioner Ben Sorensen. Vote: 5–0 to reject all proposals. Procurement cited three nonresponsive proposals as the reason for rejection.

What’s next Staff said they would sanitize the solicitation, reissue the RFP/RFQ, and return to the commission with a faster procurement timeline. Officials also said they will keep working with condominium associations, fire and police staff to create clearer guidance and, where possible, funding or mitigation strategies.

Ending Commissioners and staff signaled urgency and agreed to move quickly to re-run procurement while expanding public education about what BDAs are, what the state requires, and why some buildings that once passed inspections may now fail.