City Administrator Bill LaGrone said the Oroville Police Department radios are outdated, have been failing on a regular basis and need to be replaced to meet U.S. Department of Justice requirements.
"Less than 10 years ago one of the first things I was tasked with when I began as a lieutenant ... was to upgrade the (radio) infrastructure," LaGrone said. "Well here I am now in 2022 letting you know that all of that equipment is obsolete."
LaGrone said the new radios will be attached to Butte County's radio system, allowing radio use anywhere in the county.
The cost of the 50 new radios will not exceed $571,245.10 and will update the city's radio encryption software.
The purchase of the radios was approved by the City Council 6-0 with Councilor Janet Goodson absent.
The City Council considered two narcotics testing devices that will increase safety for police officers who are testing unknown controlled substances.
LaGrone said that the Oroville Police Department has been using narcotics testing kits that are known to have hazardous chemicals which are exposed to officers during use.
The new narcotics testing devices, branded TruNarc, uses laser optics instead of chemicals to identify unknown controlled substances and its evidence may be used in criminal cases. LaGrone said there are only two devices currently that exist in Butte County.
"It protects your officers, it protects the community and it doesn't create any sort of hazardous materials or waste along the way as we do this," LaGrone said.
LaGrone said one device will be available to be used on scene and the other device will be held in reserve in the evidence system.
The cost of the narcotics testing devices will be $51,490 and will come with training for 12 officers. LaGrone said the cost to renew and recalibrate the devices is unknown.
The purchase of the two narcotics testing devices was approved by the City Council 6-0 with Goodson absent.
OTHER BUSINESS
The council considered and approved to continue professional services with Jennifer Arbuckle Consulting for grant management and compliance of Senate Bill 1383.
The council also passed several other items on its consent calendar including:
- Authorizing a task order to provide surveying, design and bid documents for an improvement of exterior access at the Oroville Convention Center.
- Approval of a citywide compensation study.
- Approval of new job descriptions for airport manager, police records supervisor and administrative intern.
- Purchase of one Vactor 2100 truck for the amount of $474,682.46.
- Purchase of two-post automotive lift to aid in city fleet equipment repairs for the amount of $27,811.04.
FACEBOOK CONTROVERSY
At the end of the City Council meeting, Mayor Chuck Reynolds addressed the actions he had taken on Facebook in the past week where he blocked certain people from posting on his mayoral Facebook page.
Reynolds said he has decided to block all comments on his Facebook page for the time being and apologized for closing his page to comments.
"In consulting with my many attorneys, shutting off all the comments is completely legal. I can't pick and choose — there are council members who do that — but we cannot pick and choose who we block or shut off. So I had to shut off everyone," Reynolds said. "I want to apologize to this community for you not being able to interact or participate on my mayor page."
"Until the hyper-sensitivity of the situation clears the air, I think we're just going to leave it that way for a while because believe it or not, Facebook doesn't mean that much to me," Reynolds said.
©2022 Chico Enterprise-Record, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
