Washington County receives three bids for new 911 emergency radio system
No details released on proposals or costs of implementing upgrades
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Washington County received three bids to install a new 911 emergency radio system for first responders, although no details about any of the proposals were released during the public bid opening.
The three bids submitted before Tuesday morning’s deadline came from MRA Inc. of North Strabane, Motorola Solutions Inc. of Chicago, and BK Technologies Inc. of Melbourne, Fla., to overhaul the multimillion-dollar emergency communications system.
The county requested proposals for the new system earlier this year after terminating a $22.545 million contract with MRA Inc. that was awarded in March 2023. Board of Commissioners Chairman Nick Sherman at the time cited questions about MRA’s effectiveness along with technical concerns raised by first responders as the reasons for the termination despite already spending nearly $9 million in the months after approving the original contract. Motorola also submitted a bid in early 2023, but was not chosen and later submitted a subsequent bid in July, which was well past the deadline.
This time around, Motorola submitted two proposals – a primary bid and an alternate – while MRA and BK Technologies, which also included samples of its radio system, each submitted one bid.
Less than 10 minutes after the bid opening began at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the county controller’s office in Courthouse Square, the process was complete, but no information on the proposals was released. Numerous boxes from the three companies containing the bids and other information were then whisked away by workers and taken across the street to the purchasing department at the Crossroads Center county office building to undergo a review before the commissioners eventually award the contract at a future meeting.
“None of the numbers are read,” county Director of Purchasing Randy Van Kirk said as the boxes were being opened. “Nothing is official until the bids are reviewed and voted on by the commissioners.”
That raises transparency questions about the process and whether an actual public bid opening was held, according to Melissa Melewsky, who is a media law attorney for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association in Harrisburg.
“The fact that this was supposed to be public, but all they did was slice open the boxes is a problem. That’s not transparency,” Melewsky said. “Either they opened them publicly or they haven’t, and I don’t think they have. They should’ve cut open the boxes, announced the bidder and read the amount.”
Dalton Thompson, who serves as contract manager in the county’s purchasing department, cited the “best value procurement” clause in the county code as the reason for not releasing any figures. He said the information would not be released until after the commissioners approve a contract.
Melewsky disagreed with that viewpoint and said there are basic details that should have been released to fulfill the requirements of a public bid opening.
“At a minimum, they should’ve said, ‘This is the first bid and here’s how much they bid. Here’s the second bid and here’s how much they bid. Here’s the third bid and here’s how much they bid.’ When they go around talking about these various bids, that has to be done at a public meeting,” Melewsky said about when the commissioners deliberate and vote on the contract.
Tuesday’s opening process was attended by several county officials, including Commissioner Larry Maggi, Controller April Sloane and Public Safety Director Gerry Coleman. Assistant 911 Operations Manager Joe Bendik, whose hiring in May to oversee the 911 radio project has come under scrutiny, also attended and introduced himself to Sloane, who initially did not know who he was during the opening process.
“Oh, so you’re the topic of conversation,” Sloane said of Bendik’s new role as special projects coordinator in county government. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Sloane then asked Bendik to send her a copy of his resume to keep on file at her office, which he said he would do.
It’s not known when the county commissioners will award the emergency radio system contract or how long it could take to implement. The commissioners previously said they intended to use federal American Rescue Plan Act stimulus money to pay for the project, which must be allocated by the end of this year and spent by the end of 2026.