Iowa County agrees to radio contract

MARENGO — After listening to an hourlong presentation from Motorola Solutions Friday and asking questions of the company’s representatives, Iowa County Supervisors voted 4-1 to contract with RACOM to upgrade and maintain its emergency management communications system.

Supervisor Abby Maas cast the dissenting vote.

“I have a lot of concern about their maintenance bids,” said Maas. She believes the county could buy radios for less, she said, and she wants to know if the county would spend less money operating on the state’s communications system rather than the Shared Area Radio Agreement radio system currently used by Iowa County and surrounding counties.

Motorola explained during the Board of Supervisors meeting Friday what it has to offer the county in the way of communications, and Haley Nichols, Statewide Interoperability coordinator, explained the benefits of the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications System.

Motorola said that it would have to look at the county’s communications infrastructure and talk to the users of the equipment before it could estimate the cost to the county of switching to Motorola and ISICS.

After that, if a contract were approved, Motorola would need 16-18 months to set up the system.

Maas said that the county shouldn’t totally disregard an option because of the timeline. She wondered if the county could extend its maintenance contract with RACOM for a year while it researches other options.

Officials agreed that such a contract would probably carry a substantial cost.

“I’m a little confused,” said Marengo Police Chief Ben Gray. “Radio Governance Board came to you with a recommendation for a refresh of a radio system at X cost. The concern was the cost was too much.”

Emergency services departments pared down what they were replacing and found ways to cut costs, said Gray. “Now we’re talking about replacing the whole system, and we think that’s going to be cheaper?”

Maas said she didn’t know if upgrading the current system would be less expensive than building a new one. That’s why she asked for information from Motorola.

If the county uses the state’s tower in Williamsburg rather than paying for equipment at the Williamsburg tower the county is currently using, the cost might be less, she said.

Maas said an article in the Iowa City Press Citizen from 2016, when RACOM was awarded the initial contract, appears to show that the county didn’t get a bid from Motorola at that time, so the county has never been able to compare offers from the two companies.

Iowa County Sheriff Rob Rotter told Maas that Motorola sent a bid in 2016, but it didn’t provide a cost for the paging piece of the system.

The company asked for an additional week, which the county granted, said Rotter, but Motorola didn’t come back with a proposal, he said.

“The opportunity was there,” said Rotter. “We tried, and we didn’t get it.”

Motorola gave the county a verbal estimate of $2 million for pagers, Rotter said. That would have taken its bid to $6.5 to $7 million. That was information that the previous board operated under when it awarded the contract to RACOM, said Rotter.

Maas said she didn’t request the Motorola presentation to disparage anyone. “The goal of this was to hear the options,” she said. “This is just part of making a good, sound decision.”

“I absolutely appreciated that you do that,” said Rotter, but it should have been done 12-18 months ago. “Doing it at month 10 is just too late, in my opinion,” he said.

“I think even a refresh is going to be challenging at this point because we haven’t even had the go ahead. There’s no equipment on the way. Nothing’s happening,” Rotter said.

“Did anybody reach out to anyone in our county before I responded?” asked Maas.

Iowa Emergency Management Coordinator Josh Humphrey said he got a radio price from Motorola in December 2024 and passed it on to the radio governance board, but at that time no one was talking about building a new system.

The governance board should have considered that option a year ago, Maas said.

“And it was always a discussion at Radio Governance,” said Rotter. “It always has been.” The governance board discussed a refresh versus a build, he said.

“We have enough radio knowledge to know that a build is expensive, and we know that price is everything,” Rotter said. That’s why emergency services are keeping older radios and not buying things they don’t need.

“It wasn’t done in a vacuum,” said Rotter. “Those things were discussed all the time. That’s why the Board of Supervisors has a place on that other board, to be part of that conversation the entire 10 years of that contract.

“So this didn’t just come up now,” Rotter said. “It’s always been talked about.”

“But never pursued?” Abby said

“No, because of … what we thought was an obvious expense,” Rotter said.

“We don’t know, though,” said Abby.

“I have a darned good idea,” said Rotter. “Just knowing what we spent the first time and knowing what has happened to pricing since then.”

Long-term planning has been done, said Rotter, and that’s switched in the last three or four months. “And that’s the problem that we’re facing right now,” said Rotter, not whether it's a Motorola radio or a Harris radio.

Ultimately, the majority of the Board of Supervisors thought the county had run out of time for further investigation and agreed that refreshing the current system will cost less than building a new one.

“I really appreciate Abby’s concern,” said Supervisor Jon Degen, who attended the meeting via phone. “I just don’t see how a complete buildup will be cheaper than a refresh.”

“My concern is the timeline,” said Supervisor Seth Meyer before the vote. “And I trust Rob [Rotter] … and his opinion.”

“I can’t believe anything new is going to be cheaper than a refresh,” said Supervisor Kevin Heitshusen. “I think the governance group did its research.”

Supervisor Chris Montross said his biggest concern was the time crunch. “I wish we would have started this a year ago,” said Montross, but he’s not willing to roll the dice with public safety.