Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Council agrees to buy more radios for city employees

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 13:53:27 -0500

Council agrees to buy more radios for city employees

By DEANNA SHEFFIELD, Citizen staff March 10, 2004

Despite reservations from a councilman, Pasadena City Council
preliminarily approved $150,000 for handheld radios Tuesday - six months
after city officials said additional equipment was unwarranted.

The city's computer information systems department conducted an
inventory of radios in use last August after District D Councilman Jack
Douglass raised concerns that too many had been issued but not tracked.
"But at that point we didn't need to buy any," noted Chief Financial
Officer Mike Loftin.

The initiative, which determined that more than two dozen radios were
missing or lost, was the first such inventory in a decade.
Following the study, several additional radios were located. But because
the city's radios were reprogrammed to operate under the Regional Radio
System in December, still missing radios are now defunct.

"The ones that haven't been found aren't working because the systems
have been upgraded in the meantime," Loftin noted. "And it's likely
those won't come in - that's why we need to buy more."

Robin Green, assistant to the mayor for public works, said departments
have since been keeping more accurate records of which city employees
have radios.

"I'm just not sure that we need any more of these," Douglass said. "Just
about everybody has one."
Nearly 700 handheld radios are currently in use by city employees. Three
additional radios are being repaired and 22 are missing. City officials
presume that some of the lost radios were destroyed in a fire.

"We only have 14 spares. That's a small number to handle breakage and
loss," said Computer Information Systems Director Lois Craft.

Harris County recommends that a pool of 3 percent of the total inventory
be maintained on hand as backup. Under that criteria, the city would
need to store 23 spare radios.

Douglass also brought up a previous inventory which found 831 radios.
Craft called that inventory "highly inaccurate," and emphasized that
this purchase of radios is in response to requests by various department
heads.

"Each department listed in writing the number of radios they need and
don't have," said Craft, who noted that nine of those would go to recent
police academy graduates.

The new high-tech Motorola radios, which are compatible with Harris
County's system, will be used by the Pasadena Police Department. Police
officers will pass their radios down to employees in public works,
permits, human resources, parks and maintenance services who spend
extensive time in the field.

Council must approve the final reading of the ordinance on Tuesday to
guarantee the purchase.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11095944&BRD=1579&PAG=461&dept_id=181233&rfi=6

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