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After repeated outages, staff recommends reviewing replacement for city phone service — AirSpring cited as option
Summary
Police Chief Erica Carl Bryant told the council the city has experienced multi-day phone outages and lacks promised backup lines; staff proposed a replacement contract (AirSpring) that would include backup Internet and call recording at a lower monthly cost, with options to be reviewed in executive session.
Police Chief Erica Carl Bryant said the city has had frequent phone and Internet-related outages with the current vendor and recommended considering a replacement. "We've been having a lot of problems with them. We've had service where we didn't have service for days ... we've asked them for backup lines, and we haven't received those," Chief Bryant said when explaining the operational impacts of the outages.
Staff presented a vendor option (AirSpring) that would add backup Internet, backup lines and call recording. Council members asked about price differences and contract terms; staff said the preferred option would reduce the monthly cost by about $200 versus the current plan and that staff is aiming for a multi-year arrangement. Concerns were raised about the vendor's Better Business Bureau rating and responsiveness; council asked staff and legal to do additional due diligence and to discuss procurement options further in executive session. Agenda language included an item to approve a contract with AirSpring not to exceed $800 per month (general fund), but no formal vote was recorded in the transcript.
The council scheduled an executive-session review with legal staff to receive further recommendations before a purchasing decision.
