Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tea Party Members to Question Sheriff DAVID SHOAR About $27 million radio deal
In St. Augustine at the Village Inn tonight at 6 PM, Tea Party members are expected to grill Sheriff DAVID SHOAR about his $27,000,000 radio deal. It's our money.
See below.
See below.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Kudos to St. Augustine Record, Jennifer Edwards, Pete Ellis and MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS for Sheriff's $27 Million Radio Story
Jennifer Edwards' outstanding investigative article (below) on Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's $27 million radio proposal was the lead article in the St. Augustine Record on Easter Sunday.
In Ireland during Easter week 1916, Irish patriots rose up against British oppressors. Here in St. Augustine 94 years later, nearly four dozen reader comments appeared below the article about the Sheriff's $27 million radio plan (click above), which may be a record at the Record.
Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, Greens, Tea Party and Coffee Party people all agree on at least three things -- governments too often waste money and they too often violate human and civil rights and allow damage to wildlife and our environment.
Reformers are empowered in our County and City, and there are now elected officials who actually listen to the people (instead of just the powerful). It gets better.
That's why America's Founders equipped our Constitution with the First Amendment, protecting the rights of the press and of the people to petition for a redress of grievances.
Last year, I saw and heard our County Administrator's budget presentation at World Golf Village, including slide(s) about the $27 million "FCC mandate." Now, thanks to Jennifer Edwards' prize-worthy reporting, it turns out that this "FCC mandate" may be a canard, as her outstanding article on the $27 million radio deal suggests.
As the late United States Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen (R-Illinois) famously said, "a billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
Here, we're talking about $500 per household in St. Johns County -- that's real money in this tough economy.
In the spirit of Senator Dirksen, we must review all government expenditures with a gimlet eye, and this one is no exception. It appears that FCC requirements can be met without spending $27 million, and that the County Sheriff and County Administrator have conflated the FCC requirements with their subjective preferences -- the governmental equivalent of, "but all the other kids have one, dad."
Radio equipment is sold by oligopolists, like Motorola. Oligopolists lack meaningful competition and have the market power to charge high prices.
Our local governments, like our Pentagon, need to knock off the "impulse buying" -- just because an oligopolist with powerful lobbyists and persuasive sales techniques wants you to buy something, you don't have to buy it.
It's our money.
Governments have often too often jumped at the chance to buy high-priced flubdubs from oligopolists.
Here in St. Augustine and St. Johns County, things are getting better. In particular, citizen activists persuaded our Anastasia Mosquito Control District in 2007 to reverse its ill-advised 2006 vote to purchase a no-bid $1.8 million Textron Bell Long Ranger Jet Helicopter. We overcame false AMCD findings that the no-bid purchase was somehow "sole source." Activists were even threatened with arrest by the Mosquito Control District's controversial then-Chair Barbara Bosanko, who called Sheriff's deputies to chill First Amendment rights.
It gets better.
In fact, I would argue that the purchase and cancellation of the helicopter was one of the best things to happen in St. Johns County, because it focused public attention on government waste.
Thankfully, it appears that Morris Communications has heard and in part heeded the concerns local activists expressed in seeking intervention in the MORRIS PUBLISHING bankruptcy case.
Thank you, Jennifer and Pete for a job well done!
By the way, over on the putative "news" website of the Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's political operative, MICHAEL GOLD f/k/a "MICHAEL TOBIN," there's no indication that the $27 million radio scandal story ever happened. www.historiccity.com
Nor is there any mention of the controversy on MICHAEL GOLD's noisome hate website, www.shamefulpeople.com, See also www.michaelgoldexposed.t15.org
Wonder why?
MICHAEL GOLD AND SHERIFF DAVID SHOAR
GOLD is not defending the $27 million radio deal today.
He is apparently exercising his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
Of course, controversial MICHAEL GOLD's "Historic City News" is, like a skimpy bikini, no cover for his hateful views.
Former DAVID SHOAR campaign manager and failed City Commission candidate MICHAEL
GOLD prints regular columns from Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, former County Commissioner BRUCE MAGUIRE, and even a column from the "League of the South," which the Southern Poverty Law Center has termed a racist, neo-Confederate hate group that wants Florida to secede from the Union (and defends slavery).
December 30, 2010 HISTORIC CITY NEWS column calling for Secession and Defending Slavery: http://www.historiccity.com/2010/staugustine/news/florida/guest-column-florida-marks-150th-anniversary-8754
Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence File re: League of the South:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/league-of-the-south
"What we need in the United States is not hatred": http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2011/01/what-we-need-in-united-states-is-not.html
St. Augustine Record: Is $27M for radios necessary? * No, says FCC, local technology expert | * Yes, say county, fire, police leaders
Published on StAugustine.com (http://staugustine.com)
Is $27M for radios necessary?
By JENNIFER EDWARDS
Created 04/24/2011 - 12:00am
Is $27M for radios necessary?
* No, says FCC, local technology expert | * Yes, say county, fire, police leaders
Summary:
St. Johns County plans to spend $27 million to upgrade its radio system, a move it has said is prompted by a Federal Communications Commission order with a 2013 deadline.
Special to The Record
St. Johns County plans to spend $27 million to upgrade its radio system, a move it has said is prompted by a Federal Communications Commission order with a 2013 deadline.
However, there is no order requiring the county to go to a brand new system, which county officials now acknowledge.
Rather, the FCC regulation requires only that the county go to narrowband technology, something county and law enforcement officials agree they could do for millions of dollars less by reprogramming much of its current equipment and replacing the rest.
Still, the county plans to go forward with the new system, called an 800 megahertz digital system, saying it's necessary to get all county public service organizations on the same system and to talk to all surrounding counties except Putnam County, which is on narrowband technology.
"This is a process that we've been wrestling with for years, ever since I've been in administration," said Assistant County Administrator Jerry Cameron. "There just aren't any easy answers."
He said the county would have to finance the $27 million project and pay for debt service out of the county general fund.
The county originally requested about $36 million in federal and state money for the project, but the price has since dropped to about $27 million.
Cameron said the county received just $250,000 in federal funding to help it comply with the FCC requirement.
THE MANDATE
The FCC has ordered all public safety and business industrial land mobile radio systems to convert to a narrower band by Jan 1, 2013. It has not ordered the more expensive 800 MHz radio system, according to FCC documents.
"The 800 MHz is not part of the narrowbanding at this point," said John Daly, Florida frequency coordinator for the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials.
Daly said that as long as the county equipment was manufactured in the last 10 years, it could be reprogrammed.
Cameron said the reprogramming would still cost half what the new system would. Fire Rescue officials agreed that it would be costly.
"We could install more sites and more repeaters to boost up the (current) system," said Jeff Prevatt, Fire Rescue chief of fire prevention. "But just for the fire department alone that would cost $8 million. The Sheriff's Office (upgrade) would cost somewhere near $15 million."
That money would go to replace or program all the departments' handheld radios as well as reprogram radio towers and other equipment.
But one area communications professional questioned that price tag.
"Oh my gosh!" said Michael Murphy, owner of Jacksonville-based Murphy Communications. "No, it doesn't sound right, because they can use existing equipment. They can utilize much of their existing equipment and it just takes a couple minutes to reprogram one of these radios.
"If they have 1,000 radios to be replaced in the county and it costs them $1,000 each, that's $1 million," Murphy added.
Murphy said he does not do business with the county and has no financial interest in whatever system the county adopts.
Murphy, who said he used to be a radio technician for the FBI and has been in the business "for many years" said he became concerned over the issue when he heard Cameron speak about it on a local radio station.
"I wouldn't say it was a waste of money, but some of the information out there was misleading," Murphy said.
OTHER BENEFITS
Another reason the county wants to go to a new system is so all in-county departments, and several surrounding counties, would be able to communicate to each other -- a problem now for both Fire Rescue and the Sheriff's Office.
"We've had a number of emergencies when deputies have not been able to communicate, some when the fire service was out in Flagler Estates on a brush fire," Cameron said. "They were unable to communicate on a repeater. If we reduce that any further" it could cause serious problems, he said.
He also said that going to narrowband could further reduce the ability to communicate, a point echoed by Col. Art May, St. Johns County Sheriff's Office director of support services.
He said the office already has experienced problems communicating. He gave as an example a 2009 incident in which a Crescent Beach man brandishing a handgun was shot by deputies.
One group of deputies had already arrived at that scene and established a rapport, but they couldn't communicate with the backup who arrived on scene later, he said. The backup officers fatally shot the man, Jackie Byron Beasley, after he pointed the weapon at them.
"It's amazing that (the current) system is working," May said. "But sooner or later, it's going to fail, and it's going to fail big."
He said that every engineer he's consulted about taking current equipment to narrowband has said that the signal gets weaker.
But Murphy, the communications business owner, said any difference would be "negligible."
"You wouldn't even notice it," he said.
May disagreed.
"How would you like to be a firefighter in a (burning) building and unable to get a fire truck or officer on the other end?" May said. "Or a deputy with someone shooting at him trying to call for backup?
"Nobody's trying to put something over on (taxpayer)," May said. "This isn't for toys. It's so when someone calls, they get someone."
May said that the current system also does not allow departments from other counties to communicate with St. Johns County personnel when they come here to help, a process called mutual aid.
Murphy said those benefits come with a recurring price.
Lake County, which just installed the type of system St. Johns County is contemplating, must pay $1.6 million a year to maintain its new system.
May said that cost is not unusual for some types of systems. He added that the county would offset some or all of that cost by renting space on the county's towers to cell phone carriers.
LOWERING QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION?
Prevatt of Fire Rescue also believes reprogramming would lower the quality of the current system.
"The current system works well on mobiles (vehicle-mounted systems) but not as well with the hand-held radios," Prevatt said. "Decreasing that (range) and making communication worse is just not acceptable."
He said that other organizations would also need to upgrade, including the cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach, the School Board and the utilities department, among others.
"But then we'd still have 1970s technology," Prevatt said. "We're going to have to spend money either way. Going to the new technology made more sense ..."
The county makes another argument for the new system.
It applied for FCC licenses for 15 channels on the more expensive system. If it doesn't upgrade by October, it loses the channels.
But Cameron said the county's going to lose the channels now, either way.
"Obviously, we aren't going to be able to make that deadline," he said. He said the county could just reapply, provided the channels are still available.
"There's a high demand for channels," he said.
*
-- Reporter Peter Guinta contributed to this story.
*
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS
What County Administrator Michael Wanchick has said about going to an 800 MHz system:
* "Due to an FCC mandate, the county will not be permitted to use its current obsolete radio system after Dec. 31, 2012."
* "Construction of the interoperable (new, more expensive) radio system must begin in fiscal year 2012, unless the FCC grants an unlikely extension."
-- County's 2010 slide show presentation
What the county says now:
* "We've got a good bit of equipment, particularly the fire department equipment, that can (be reprogrammed) to meet the requirement."
* "If we go to narrowbanding (with the current system), we will spend probably almost half of that $27 million (cost of new system) just to comply and have a radio system that works less well."
-- Assistant County Administrator Jerry Cameron on Thursday
*
Desired vs. required
* The county would like to construct a 800 megahertz radio communications system and to put all public service agencies, including public safety, on the system. That system type is digital. Officials say it would allow more users on the system, provide clearer in-county communication and communication with all surrounding counties except for Putnam County, which is not on an 800 MHz system.
It would also allow Fire Rescue and the Sheriff's Office to more easily pinpoint their firefighters and deputies using GPS or other technologies.
* The Federal Communications Commission mandate requires only that the county go to narrowband, a system in which the channels in the radio spectrum are half the size they used to be. The system is analog and exists at 512 MHz and lower frequencies.
Critics argue that going to narrowband makes for a weaker signal, thus making it harder for public safety workers to communicate, and that reprogramming or upgrading is nearly as expensive as going to a new system.
The main advantage for this system is compliance with the FCC requirement.
Source: FCC documents, county officials, communications experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the final date for wideband operation?
A: All radios must be narrowband by Jan. 1, 2013.
Q: Are we forced to move to 800 MHz?
A: No. Narrowbanding does not require moving to another frequency band.
Q: Will we have to purchase new radios?
A: Depends. Most radios purchased in the last 10 years are already narrowband capable.
Q: Can I operate on a secondary basis if I do not meet the January 1, 2013, deadline?
A: No. The FCC will consider any radio equipment that does not meet the 12.5 kHz efficiency standard to be in violation of FCC rules. You may be subject to daily fines and cancellation of your license if your agency is not in narrowband by Jan. 1, 2013.
Q: Does narrowbanding require me to convert to digital equipment?
A: No. Licensees can operate in either analog or digital formats as long as you operate at 12.5 kHz efficiency.
Source: Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security
QUOTES:
What St. Johns County Sheriff's Col. Art May said on why a new radio system is needed:
"How would you like to be a firefighter in a (burning) building and unable to get a fire truck or officer on the other end? Or a deputy with someone shooting at him trying to call for backup?"
What Michael Murphy, owner of a communications business in Jacksonville, said on why the county does not need a new radio system:
"They can use existing equipment. They can utilize much of their existing equipment and it just takes a couple minutes to reprogram one of these radios. If they have 1,000 radios to be replaced in the county and it costs them $1,000 each, that's $1 million."
Is $27M for radios necessary?
By JENNIFER EDWARDS
Created 04/24/2011 - 12:00am
Is $27M for radios necessary?
* No, says FCC, local technology expert | * Yes, say county, fire, police leaders
Summary:
St. Johns County plans to spend $27 million to upgrade its radio system, a move it has said is prompted by a Federal Communications Commission order with a 2013 deadline.
Special to The Record
St. Johns County plans to spend $27 million to upgrade its radio system, a move it has said is prompted by a Federal Communications Commission order with a 2013 deadline.
However, there is no order requiring the county to go to a brand new system, which county officials now acknowledge.
Rather, the FCC regulation requires only that the county go to narrowband technology, something county and law enforcement officials agree they could do for millions of dollars less by reprogramming much of its current equipment and replacing the rest.
Still, the county plans to go forward with the new system, called an 800 megahertz digital system, saying it's necessary to get all county public service organizations on the same system and to talk to all surrounding counties except Putnam County, which is on narrowband technology.
"This is a process that we've been wrestling with for years, ever since I've been in administration," said Assistant County Administrator Jerry Cameron. "There just aren't any easy answers."
He said the county would have to finance the $27 million project and pay for debt service out of the county general fund.
The county originally requested about $36 million in federal and state money for the project, but the price has since dropped to about $27 million.
Cameron said the county received just $250,000 in federal funding to help it comply with the FCC requirement.
THE MANDATE
The FCC has ordered all public safety and business industrial land mobile radio systems to convert to a narrower band by Jan 1, 2013. It has not ordered the more expensive 800 MHz radio system, according to FCC documents.
"The 800 MHz is not part of the narrowbanding at this point," said John Daly, Florida frequency coordinator for the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials.
Daly said that as long as the county equipment was manufactured in the last 10 years, it could be reprogrammed.
Cameron said the reprogramming would still cost half what the new system would. Fire Rescue officials agreed that it would be costly.
"We could install more sites and more repeaters to boost up the (current) system," said Jeff Prevatt, Fire Rescue chief of fire prevention. "But just for the fire department alone that would cost $8 million. The Sheriff's Office (upgrade) would cost somewhere near $15 million."
That money would go to replace or program all the departments' handheld radios as well as reprogram radio towers and other equipment.
But one area communications professional questioned that price tag.
"Oh my gosh!" said Michael Murphy, owner of Jacksonville-based Murphy Communications. "No, it doesn't sound right, because they can use existing equipment. They can utilize much of their existing equipment and it just takes a couple minutes to reprogram one of these radios.
"If they have 1,000 radios to be replaced in the county and it costs them $1,000 each, that's $1 million," Murphy added.
Murphy said he does not do business with the county and has no financial interest in whatever system the county adopts.
Murphy, who said he used to be a radio technician for the FBI and has been in the business "for many years" said he became concerned over the issue when he heard Cameron speak about it on a local radio station.
"I wouldn't say it was a waste of money, but some of the information out there was misleading," Murphy said.
OTHER BENEFITS
Another reason the county wants to go to a new system is so all in-county departments, and several surrounding counties, would be able to communicate to each other -- a problem now for both Fire Rescue and the Sheriff's Office.
"We've had a number of emergencies when deputies have not been able to communicate, some when the fire service was out in Flagler Estates on a brush fire," Cameron said. "They were unable to communicate on a repeater. If we reduce that any further" it could cause serious problems, he said.
He also said that going to narrowband could further reduce the ability to communicate, a point echoed by Col. Art May, St. Johns County Sheriff's Office director of support services.
He said the office already has experienced problems communicating. He gave as an example a 2009 incident in which a Crescent Beach man brandishing a handgun was shot by deputies.
One group of deputies had already arrived at that scene and established a rapport, but they couldn't communicate with the backup who arrived on scene later, he said. The backup officers fatally shot the man, Jackie Byron Beasley, after he pointed the weapon at them.
"It's amazing that (the current) system is working," May said. "But sooner or later, it's going to fail, and it's going to fail big."
He said that every engineer he's consulted about taking current equipment to narrowband has said that the signal gets weaker.
But Murphy, the communications business owner, said any difference would be "negligible."
"You wouldn't even notice it," he said.
May disagreed.
"How would you like to be a firefighter in a (burning) building and unable to get a fire truck or officer on the other end?" May said. "Or a deputy with someone shooting at him trying to call for backup?
"Nobody's trying to put something over on (taxpayer)," May said. "This isn't for toys. It's so when someone calls, they get someone."
May said that the current system also does not allow departments from other counties to communicate with St. Johns County personnel when they come here to help, a process called mutual aid.
Murphy said those benefits come with a recurring price.
Lake County, which just installed the type of system St. Johns County is contemplating, must pay $1.6 million a year to maintain its new system.
May said that cost is not unusual for some types of systems. He added that the county would offset some or all of that cost by renting space on the county's towers to cell phone carriers.
LOWERING QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION?
Prevatt of Fire Rescue also believes reprogramming would lower the quality of the current system.
"The current system works well on mobiles (vehicle-mounted systems) but not as well with the hand-held radios," Prevatt said. "Decreasing that (range) and making communication worse is just not acceptable."
He said that other organizations would also need to upgrade, including the cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach, the School Board and the utilities department, among others.
"But then we'd still have 1970s technology," Prevatt said. "We're going to have to spend money either way. Going to the new technology made more sense ..."
The county makes another argument for the new system.
It applied for FCC licenses for 15 channels on the more expensive system. If it doesn't upgrade by October, it loses the channels.
But Cameron said the county's going to lose the channels now, either way.
"Obviously, we aren't going to be able to make that deadline," he said. He said the county could just reapply, provided the channels are still available.
"There's a high demand for channels," he said.
*
-- Reporter Peter Guinta contributed to this story.
*
WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS
What County Administrator Michael Wanchick has said about going to an 800 MHz system:
* "Due to an FCC mandate, the county will not be permitted to use its current obsolete radio system after Dec. 31, 2012."
* "Construction of the interoperable (new, more expensive) radio system must begin in fiscal year 2012, unless the FCC grants an unlikely extension."
-- County's 2010 slide show presentation
What the county says now:
* "We've got a good bit of equipment, particularly the fire department equipment, that can (be reprogrammed) to meet the requirement."
* "If we go to narrowbanding (with the current system), we will spend probably almost half of that $27 million (cost of new system) just to comply and have a radio system that works less well."
-- Assistant County Administrator Jerry Cameron on Thursday
*
Desired vs. required
* The county would like to construct a 800 megahertz radio communications system and to put all public service agencies, including public safety, on the system. That system type is digital. Officials say it would allow more users on the system, provide clearer in-county communication and communication with all surrounding counties except for Putnam County, which is not on an 800 MHz system.
It would also allow Fire Rescue and the Sheriff's Office to more easily pinpoint their firefighters and deputies using GPS or other technologies.
* The Federal Communications Commission mandate requires only that the county go to narrowband, a system in which the channels in the radio spectrum are half the size they used to be. The system is analog and exists at 512 MHz and lower frequencies.
Critics argue that going to narrowband makes for a weaker signal, thus making it harder for public safety workers to communicate, and that reprogramming or upgrading is nearly as expensive as going to a new system.
The main advantage for this system is compliance with the FCC requirement.
Source: FCC documents, county officials, communications experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the final date for wideband operation?
A: All radios must be narrowband by Jan. 1, 2013.
Q: Are we forced to move to 800 MHz?
A: No. Narrowbanding does not require moving to another frequency band.
Q: Will we have to purchase new radios?
A: Depends. Most radios purchased in the last 10 years are already narrowband capable.
Q: Can I operate on a secondary basis if I do not meet the January 1, 2013, deadline?
A: No. The FCC will consider any radio equipment that does not meet the 12.5 kHz efficiency standard to be in violation of FCC rules. You may be subject to daily fines and cancellation of your license if your agency is not in narrowband by Jan. 1, 2013.
Q: Does narrowbanding require me to convert to digital equipment?
A: No. Licensees can operate in either analog or digital formats as long as you operate at 12.5 kHz efficiency.
Source: Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security
QUOTES:
What St. Johns County Sheriff's Col. Art May said on why a new radio system is needed:
"How would you like to be a firefighter in a (burning) building and unable to get a fire truck or officer on the other end? Or a deputy with someone shooting at him trying to call for backup?"
What Michael Murphy, owner of a communications business in Jacksonville, said on why the county does not need a new radio system:
"They can use existing equipment. They can utilize much of their existing equipment and it just takes a couple minutes to reprogram one of these radios. If they have 1,000 radios to be replaced in the county and it costs them $1,000 each, that's $1 million."
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