Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Panel OK's funding to fix Nevada troopers' flawed radio system

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:02:46 -0400

Today: October 14, 2003 at 12:10:15 PDT
Panel OK's funding to fix Nevada troopers' flawed radio system
By BRENDAN RILEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - An agreement enabling the Nevada Highway Patrol and other
agencies to quickly move ahead with about $11 million in equipment purchases to
replace a flawed radio communications system was approved Tuesday by a state
panel.

The state Board of Examiners, chaired by Gov. Kenny Guinn, approved the agreement
with Massachusetts-based M/A-Com Inc., which will provide nearly 1,800 radios to
the NHP and the other agencies. The exact amount of the deal is still being
negotiated.

Besides the radios, radio towers and other equipment will bring the total to about
$15 million to get rid of the old system and comply with a Federal Communications
Commission order to stop using more than 140 unauthorized radio frequencies.

The NHP had spent $14 million on a contract with Motorola to build the existing
computer radio system linking troopers with one another, dispatchers and other
police agencies. That system was activated in 2000 - but nobody applied to the FCC
for the frequency licenses.

NHP Chief Dave Hosmer, who inherited the flawed system, has overseen a massive
investigation to determine whether prosecution is warranted. After Tuesday's Board
of Examiners meeting, he said about 1,300 pages of reports and back-up materials
will be turned over to Attorney General Brian Sandoval by Friday.

Asked whether he thought criminal charges could result, Hosmer said he thought so
when the probe opened but with the investigation nearly done there's "no smoking
gun to it."

By January, the state hopes to have the new system operating in the major
population centers of Las Vegas and Reno. Outlying areas of Nevada should be
linked to the new system by next fall.
The FCC had threatened to levy big fines unless Nevada quickly set up the new
system, and Hosmer said that even with the progress that's been made he doesn't
expect the federal agency to be "totally happy."

"The ball's clearly in our court," Hosmer added in stressing that a rapid
resolution of the problem should improve the state's chances of avoiding
penalties.

"Nobody is pleased or proud we're in this situation," said Greg Smith of the state
Purchasing Division, who explained the M/A-Com agreement to the Board of
Examiners.

"Everbody learned a lesson here," Guinn said as he joined with Sandoval and
Secretary of State Dean Heller, the other two Board of Examiners members, in
endorsing the deal.

More discussion of the spending is expected at next month's Interim Finance
Committee meeting. The legislative panel is chaired by Assemblyman Morse Arberry,
D-Las Vegas, who has said the state "boondoggled" the $14 million system that
started up only a few years ago.

Arberry said his concerns about the NHP radio system stem in part from a major
change in the state's computer system for welfare programs several years ago - a
project that started out at about $13 million and wound up costing more than $100
million.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2003/oct/14/101410713.html

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