FeedEmergency funding and funding emergencies
April 30, 2006 in Local
These are the most important paragraphs in Molly Parker’s and Angela Green’s article about the
Though it’s been seven months since the board chose the $21.6 million M/A-COM OpenSky system over three other proposals, it was just last month when members began talking about how to pay for it.
Currently, the board has about $4 million. That’s money accumulated over the years through a phone tax residents pay - 80 cents a month for a land line; 75 cents for a cell phone (as set by Illinois law).
The board also has the ability to bond another $4 million with the approval of the Peoria County Board. U.S. Rep.
Ray LaHood , R-Peoria, also helped secure a $750,000 federal grant.Still, that leaves them roughly $13.5 million short. The surcharge on land lines could be increased through a countywide referendum, but thus far, board members have steered clear of asking residents for further help in picking up the cost.
Is a working radio system important to public safety? You bet. Does the current one meet the county’s public safety needs. Apparently not. I trust the officials who say that a new one is needed to be telling the truth on that score.
But spending for public safety needs is essentially no different than other spending. Purchases must make sense financially. What other options exist that give Peoria County the “trunk” lines we need to allow for smooth and instantaneous communications police and fire departments need? It’s easy for an unelected board to sit back and insist on nothing but the best when the bill is going to taxpayers.
It seems as though the E-911 board didn’t factor in the fiscal realities when they made their choice. Perhaps some changes in how these board members are appointed would bring some fresh ideas and a broader sense of the board’s responsibilities. Having all of them appointed by one governmental entity — the Peoria County Board — hasn’t been doing the job.
UPDATE: A question has been raised about the representation the City of Peoria has on the board. This note just arraived from Randy Oliver, Peoria City Manager:
The City representatives on the ETSB Board from the City are Roy Modglin, Steve Settingsgaard, David Tuttle, Clarence Myer and Kent Tomblin. My math shows that is 5 of 15 members of one-third of the Board not 50%.
April 30th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Some facts for you Bill:
The ETSB did not chose the “best of the best” in the M/A-Com system. Of the three major options, they chose the middle of the road. Option 1 was to update the existing system to the new FCC standards but do nothing to improve the functionality problems. Option 2 (what they chose) was to install a new trunking system that would be managed by the County. Option 3 was to join the State’s new StarComm21 system (waaay expensive), which would put control out of the County’s hands but give a huge amount of interoperability between agencies across the State. Option 2 was chosen to address the funcionality problems while keeping the cost lower than what Option 3 would be. Not only that, they chose a vendor that is not the most expensive. Typically a Motorola brand trunking system would be considered top of the line, with a TOTL price.
While officially the ETSB members are appointed by the County Board, you need to check on the representation. Overall, the City of Peoria has a majority interest in the radio systems, and this is reflected by their representation. I can’t remember the exact numbers but over 50% of the Board are employees of the City through different agencies (Police, Fire, E911). The City’s communications director is the President of the ETSB. Other than that there representatives from the County Police, Bartonville, one Chief from a vol. fire dept. You say that the current appointment system isn’t doing the job. Actually, you are wrong. They have made an overwhelming effort to see that ALL interests are represented, giving the City the most due to it’s size.
While I will agree the new system is gonna be expensive and hard to pay for, especially for those of us involved with smaller agencies, the ETSB has far from ignored this reality. When the ETSB called all agencies to meet on this a couple years ago, to begin this process, they immediatley acknowledged the problems with funding, and have been researching grants ever since then. If you took the time to do a little research, you would know that part of the cost reflects the responsibilites of the individual agencies. So, it isn’t all coming from the County or City budget, rather it will be from all agencies that use it. I can think of 30+ right now, and I am sure there are more.
It’s easy to point blame at the County or the ETSB, but in reality it has been handled very well. The money is the only problem right now, and the ETSB is showing good judgement by waiting until the funding is secure. How often do governmental agencies spend without the money to back it up?
Of course, it may just be easier for you to lump this into the evil corrupt misguided government category, but thats just not the case.
April 30th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Fiscal responsibility? Ask McLean County about goind cheap? The system they ended up with was worse than the one they had and then had to drop a helluva lot more money in STARCOM21 this past year.
If Peoria County is going to do this, they need to join STARCOM21. The towers are already built and it’s a proven system. Communication between deptartments will be seemless…”in the event of a terror attack”
April 30th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
Never let the facts get in the way of a blogger.
April 30th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
While I agree a better radio network would be nice, the arguements that fire and police, as well as other departments can’t cross communicate is not totally true, we have ISPERN, IREACH, many local police departments use the same frequency ranges, Peoria, East Peoria, Morton, Washington, Bartonville, Peoria Heigts, all use UHF systems, what would be the problem of placing each others channels in their radios for incedents that require communicating with that department? While not a fix, it is a doable band-aid for now. To ask the tax payer to cough up more money at the time are not going to fly, gas prices, lower wages, soon to be rising costs of goods all equate to a hardship on us. Also the proposed systems aren’t exactly perfect in themselves, ask TASCOM just how well their new trunked system works over the older convential radios. McClean County knows all too well the problems with the newer radios.
If we are going to be asked to help pay for the difference in cost, then maybe Peoria needs to start trimming some of the pork they have already, the Kellar Branch/Rock Island trail idea comes to mind. Subsidies to Cat and others that can easily carry their own expenses also comes to mind.
New radio system yes, but if they are going to ask folks living in Peoria to tighten up, then do the same for the pork eaters also.
I didn’t see any addressing of the other side of the river and their radio systems and integration ideas. Not much use if we don’t try and tie the whole Central Illinois area together…
May 1st, 2006 at 11:43 am
Peoria County NEEDS to do something. We do have serious coverage problems with the existing radio system. Right now there are several areas where I cannot reach my base with a handheld radio, and that is just in our small district.
StarCom21 would be a huuuge waste of money. Yes the towers are already there, but do you have any idea what the subscription fees are? Smaller agencies would be screwed.
IREACH is the only police/fire interoperability channel. ISPERN is only for police agencies. You could use the statewide ESDA channel in a pinch. So, really, for a large emergency there is no interoperability between police, fire, and ambulance.