County AFL-CIO asks commissioners to back Harris radio system

Community leaders are continuing to pressure two Lorain County commissioners to move forward with a multimillion-dollar contract to provide new radios to their sheriff's deputies and other interested fire and police agencies. In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to commissioners David Moore and Jeff Riddell, Lorain County AFL-CIO Federation of Labor President Ron Adkins called upon the two Republicans to reconsider their vote to rescind a county contract with Cleveland Communications Inc. to provide emergency radios to Lorain County sheriff's deputies and other first responders. Commissioner Michelle Hung and former commissioner Matt Lundy voted Dec. 21 to approve the nearly $8 million contract, using a portion of Lorain County's share of American Rescue Plan Act funds. Moore and Riddell voted to rescind the contract Jan. 9, saying the bid process was improper and may have been interfered with by Hung. The later accusation is under investigation by the state Auditor's Office. In response, CCI filed a breach of contract lawsuit and the union representing Lorain County sheriff's deputies filed a grievance that appears headed for arbitration. "Your vote to not move forward and rescind the radio contract has the potential to put the citizens of Lorain County in great peril!" Adkins wrote. "The egregious act of denying the safety services of Lorain County a much-needed tool that would enhance and streamline communications for all municipalities and townships is simply political posturing." Adkins wrote that the Lorain County AFL-CIO Federation represents safety services unions "that need this vital communications service." "We stand in lockstep with elected officials in Lorain County, city and township leadership that vehemently oppose your reckless decision," Adkins wrote. A county contractor, Mission Critical Partners, published a study in 2019 recommending Lorain County go with CCI's L3 Harris radio system. The Lorain County Fire Chief's Association, Lorain County Deputies Association, Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti, the mayors of Elyria, Lorain, Sheffield and multiple other community members have encouraged, begged and pressed Moore and Riddell to keep the CCI contract. Moore and Riddell claim CCI, the only company to submit a completed bid, won the bid after an improper process was followed. Motorola, contractor for the state-backed MARCS system, did not bid even after receiving a time extension, and Vasu Communications of Avon submitted only a partial bid. Safety service workers, chiefs and other leaders "have stated that Cleveland Communications Inc. radio contract is what they want and need," Adkins wrote. "Using a bogus bidding excuse is an outrage." "Please reconsider voting to accept the previous contract negotiations with Cleveland Communications Inc., which will allow safety services of Lorain County the equipment and technical services to serve the residents they protect," he wrote. Hung — "the only labor-endorsed commissioner," she noted in a statement emailed to the Chronicle-Telegram — wrote that she "will continue to support the dedicated working men and women in Lorain County." She accused Moore of fleecing organized labor to fund his campaign "only to fist-bump and celebrate rescinding critical safety measures from Lorain County residents and first responders." Hung's boyfriend, Harry Williamson, is the former director of Lorain County 911 as well as the former president of the Lorain County AFL-CIO, which endorsed Hung in her 2020 bid for commissioner while Williamson was its president. According to a lawsuit filed by Williamson against the county after he was fired by Lundy and Moore in August 2021, as well as Hung's deposition in a separate lawsuit against the county by former County Administrator Tom Williams, Hung and Williamson began an extramarital affair with each other in the late stages of the 2020 election. Hung then voted to hire Williamson, by this time her lover, as county 911 director in January 2021, seven months before Lundy and Moore learned of the nature of the Hung-Williamson relationship. That history wasn't lost on Moore when he responded to the letter Saturday night. "It's odd that Mr. Adkins chose to weaponize the local AFL-CIO chapter to help the mistress of the past local president," Moore wrote in a text message to a Chronicle reporter. "It was reported this week that the (Ohio) AFL-CIO took $1.4 million from the criminal organization called Generations Now. Mr. Adkins has other things to concern himself with," Moore also wrote. That was a reference to the ongoing federal bribery trial of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican accused of taking money from FirstEnergy to pass a state law bailing out its nuclear plants. According to the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau, federal prosecutors allege that FirstEnergy put millions of dollars in "dark money" into the nonprofit Generation Now in the form of bribes. In exchange, Householder passed House Bill 6, a bailout that benefited FirstEnergy at taxpayer expense, federal prosecutors have alleged. Attorneys for Ohio AFL-CIO President Timothy Burga said the state organization took money from Generation Now "on the condition that the labor union would 'control the content'" in ads it paid for against a HB 6 referendum, the Statehouse News Bureau reported. The referendum failed and H.B. 6 passed in 2019. In his own text message response, Riddell wrote that Adkins "has evidently not followed closely" and that the Board of Commissioners is already in discussions to redo the bid process. "We will be bidding for a communication system in the coming months. It took 2 years to do the last bid denying open competition. A few months to do it right for the taxpayers" — including AFL-CIO members in Lorain County, he wrote. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT. Read the letter here: