"Purchasing and 911 did an incredibly good job that was really fair," said John Conley, owner of Central Communications in Knoxville.
Central Communications is the local representative of Tait Communications, which came in second on the score cards of a four-member selection committee.
That selection committee deemed Harris Corp. as the best vendor for a digital radio system to replace the nearly 30-year-old Motorola devices now in operation. Harris offered to upgrade five radio sites, provide 17 dispatching consoles, provide maintenance and software upgrades for seven years and add programming to 2,331 law enforcement radios for $8.9 million.
But when the Harris deal went before the Knox County E-911 board of directors Jan. 21, the proposal died for lack of a second. The meeting came after 19 months of work developing standards, soliciting bids and negotiating terms.
When the board failed to embrace the Harris deal, authorities said the entire process must begin anew.
"If there's no one complaining about the request for proposal, why would you start it over?" Conley asked. "We're ready to step forward and start new negotiations."
The E-911 board is slated to meet Feb. 18 in a workshop to discuss the radio contract.
Tait submitted a proposal totaling $7.7 million. Although Tait's submission cost less than the Harris proposal, the selection committee deemed Harris had more technical expertise in the realm of digital radios with Project 25 capability. P-25 is a national standard of radio software that allows emergency workers from different agencies to communicate.
"If the Harris deal is dead, then we should come in as number two, and we're ready and prepared to do so," Conley said.
Besides, Conley said, the current system is old and prone to breakdowns. Spending another year or more repeating the procurement process could put emergency workers and the public in danger in the event of a system failure.
Conley said a provision in the radio request for proposal notes if Knox County cannot successfully negotiate an agreement with the top-rated vendor, then officials can negotiate with the next highest-rated bidder.
No, said E-911 board attorney Don Howell, that's not how the system works.
"I would have to respectfully disagree with that," Howell said. "They (the Knox County Purchasing Department) don't have the authority to just start negotiating with anybody else."
Hugh Holt, director of Knox County purchasing, said Conley misunderstood the request for proposal provision he read.
"If we had been negotiating with Harris and things didn't work out, then we could have went to Tait, if the E-911 director agreed," Holt said.
But the county reached a tentative agreement with Harris. The E-911 board of directors simply hasn't acted on that agreement.
"If the board votes it down, we have to rebid it," Holt said. "This question came up years ago with the Rural/Metro (ambulance service) contract. One of the county commissioners wanted to fall back to AMR (American Medical Response). The law director opined on that, and we had to rebid the entire process."
©2015 the Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tenn.)
