City Council OKs $93,870.60 purchase to replace 911 recording system

The San Angelo City Council on a 7-0 vote approved a contract under HGAC to buy 9-1-1 and public-safety recording equipment for $93,870.60, funded from the general capital projects balance.

The contract covers replacements for the city’s dispatch and radio recording systems and continues a regional arrangement managed by the Concho Valley Council of Governments (COG). Sergeant John Bellini, San Angelo Police Department communications director, said the region replaces recording systems every five years and that the new arrangement combines previously separate recorders for 9-1-1 and other channels into a single system.

That consolidation, Bellini said, reduces duplicated servers and makes procurement and maintenance simpler. “Every five years these recorders are needing to be replaced,” Bellini said. Jeff Lopez of the Concho Valley COG told the council the program covers 14 counties and multiple public-safety answering points (PSAPs), and that the COG typically handles procurement and ongoing maintenance through existing vendor contracts.

Under the purchase, the COG covers a baseline portion of the regional system. San Angelo is paying additional city-specific costs for “bells and whistles” requested by local departments — such as recording of radio channels used when fire or police want to review operations — and for features beyond the COG’s standard coverage.

Councilmember Harry Thomas moved approval; Councilmember Tommy Hebert seconded. The motion passed 7-0.

Council members asked whether old recorders are repurposed; Bellini said equipment with recorded material is generally destroyed for security reasons, and that disposal practices are governed by the police department’s IT and records policies.

The city will work with finance and purchasing to budget for future replacement cycles so the cost is not a one-time unplanned purchase.