Mission Critical Partners, a public safety consultant, reported the state of the county’s radio system, along with recommendations and strategies for pursuing the upgrade of the radio/communications system at the Dec. 14 Commissioners’ Court.
Bandera County Emergency Management Coordinator Judy Lafevers led off the presentation, telling the court, “Back when you first hired me a year ago, it became readily apparent that our communications, our public radio system, had some challenges and that we needed to make some upgrades to that infrastructure.”
Lafevers said her department convened a communications committee that included each sector of users on the public radio system.
“We strategized how we wanted to tackle this project,” she said. “We proposed hiring a third-party unaffiliated consultant to assist us with assessing our radio system from top to bottom; so taking a look at our technology, our systems, our equipment, our towers, our processes, everything.”
Per LaFever, the committee procured MCP, who brought in their team to evaluate the system.
In July 2023, the county entered into a contract with MCP for $39,126.
Todd Johnson, Senior Technology Specialist at MCP, said that out of a max score of 10, Johnson showed a radar chart of Bandera County’s radio system with a score of 3.31.
This scoring system included factors of coverage, capacity, reliability & use of the network, interoperability, technology & features, subscribers, lifecycle & maintenance, and facilities, with Bandera’s system scoring between 2-4 in all areas except facilities and subscribers — each of those scoring just above 4.
“It was no surprise, and to everyone that I interviewed, that there were issues,” Johnson stated. “This is one of the first physical documents that you can look at and put a finger on it. This is the starting point to what we all feel but we now have graphical representation of what it looks like.”
MCP’s findings said the county’s system needs to be smarter in terms of coverage & capacity and making use of backhaul at the sites.
They also revealed that alias, over-the-air programming, and encryption re-keying features were needed, along with good site locations and sites needing grounding, monitoring, and other clean-up.
Overall, MCP presented the following system recommendations:
• 5-channel conventional simulcast system encryption capable
• Individual channels for Police, Fire and EMS
• TAC channel for Police and Fire
• Programming over the Air, over the Air Re-keying
• Utilize the current repeaters & sites for redundancy and localized tactical channels
• New consoles
• Flexible subscribers for each interoperable needs Johnson added, “My fear, when we initially started this project was that we’d have to use microwave, which is very difficult to do out here, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that fiber was the option.”
Per MCP’s methodology, the way forward with proposed recommendations will cost an estimated $6,212,450.
In Johnson’s intro to the chart, he said, “Most people that see this slide say that I’m in the wrong business. I am in the right business and I still agree that this is too much money.”
Johnson emphasized there is a lot of market margins and mark-ups, like publicly traded radio vendors.
“Sometimes we get up to 25% margins,” he said. “So, realize that there is a premium on public safety radio.”
Among a list of next steps, some of MCP’s suggestions to the court, who will formalize the radio system plan in January, were to write a request for proposals, seek competitive procurement process for consoles, infrastructure and county subscribers and develop a phased approach as funding becomes available.
The court voted all in favor to accept the report and adopt the strategies presented by MCP.
According to Lefevers, MCP’s evaluation and report completes their contract with Bandera County.
