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Committee recommends $13M multi-year radio replacement to full council after safety briefing
Summary
County staff told the joint committee that about 1,200 public-safety radios have exceeded their expected 10-year service life and recommended roughly $13 million in replacements over four years; the committee recommended the plan to the full council after staff and vendor remarks on safety and liability.
County staff presented a recommended FY27–32 capital improvement plan item to replace aging voice radios used by first responders and recommended the joint committee forward the purchase to the full council.
Ms. Farag told the committee the recommendation covers about four years of phased radio replacements and totals roughly $13,000,000, a decrease of about $18,000,000 (about 58%) from the prior FY25–30 plan. She said the radios purchased in 2011 reached the end of an expected 10‑year service life and that the executive identified about 1,200 radios beyond their service life and still in use as of FY27.
Jerry Adcock of the Radio Communications Group told members the radios remain operational but expressed concern about vendor liability and the risk of failure for equipment beyond its expected life. “They are still safe...However...if something were to go wrong...the vendor could say that you were past the life cycle on it,” he said, explaining why replacement is advised rather than continued indefinite use.
Staff noted a FY25 pilot (budgeted at $148,000) that tested approximately 26 radios from an alternative manufacturer; the pilot concluded those radios worked on the public-safety network but could not use many system features and were not less expensive. The total project cost cited in materials remained $55,200,000; council staff recommended approval of the CIP element as submitted.
Without objection the committee recommended the radio lifecycle replacement item to the full council.
Next steps: the committee’s recommendation moves the CIP item to the full County Council for consideration and appropriation decisions.
