County staff ask commissioners to move $1.3M toward radio and microwave upgrades; IS says $115K reduction possible

Beau from Information Services and Emergency Communications (EC) staff outlined a multi-part plan to pay for ongoing county radio and microwave upgrades and asked the Board of Commissioners to approve transfers to finance near-term invoices.

Beau said the overall package discussed with EC totaled about $1.3 million in transfers to fund BCS vendor invoices and the radio upgrade rollout. He detailed scheduled payments: an immediate payment of $543,000 to BCS for the microwave upgrade, a second planned microwave payment of $425,000 in early 2026 and a planned radio upgrade payment of about $824,000 expected around July. He also described a one-time transfer item originally estimated at $200,000 that Beau said could likely be reduced: “I believe we can actually reduce that $200,000 down to $85,000,” Beau said.

How the money flows: Beau said payments from the county would first be processed through Information Services and then transferred to Emergency Communications; EC would bill partner agencies (sheriff, corrections, public works) for their shares afterward. Beau and staff emphasized that many related costs will be recovered through interagency billing, user fees and partner shares as the radio system equipment is issued to county departments.

Why it matters: Commissioners were told the joint procurement and cost-sharing approach with BCS and regional partners (the “big five”) reduces the county’s standalone cost compared with an all‑in local deployment. Beau summarized projected totals over a 10-year horizon when cost-sharing: “Going the route that we’re going right now, just looking at the radio fees, we’re looking at 8,000,000 over 10 years,” he said; he added that an independent county-only approach would have been a much larger multi‑million-dollar expense.

Timing and next steps: Beau said some user fees will not begin until the radio equipment is issued — possibly mid‑2026 — and staff recommended an initial transfer to enable the vendor invoices while the county finalizes billing to partner agencies. Staff suggested a modest downward adjustment to the requested transfer after reconciling vendor billing and department contributions.

Ending: Commissioners asked staff to reflect the reduced one-time transfer estimate in the budget lines and to return updated revenue and billing schedules as they finalize payments to BCS and move into the equipment issuance phase.