Judge OKs restraining order against Lorain County Board of Commissioners over emergency radio contract

The Lorain County Board of Commissioners was prepared to award a $13.9 million contract for emergency radios infrastructure to Motorola Solutions Inc. at the meeting Friday, but a court order halted those plans. The agenda item, awarding the contract for labor, material and equipment for new public safety radio infrastructure under the state's Multi-Agency Radio Communication System, was removed from the board's agenda Friday morning after a ruling by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Melissa Kobasher.She granted the temporary order at a hearing in her courtroom before Friday morning's board meeting. Her order prevents the board from taking any further votes on the Motorola/MARCS contract until further notice, according to a copy reviewed by The Chronicle-Telegram. Retired Summit County Common Pleas and 9th District Court of Appeals judge Thomas Teodosio has been appointed as visiting judge on the case. Nothing in court records said when he will rule on the temporary restraining order. Just before the Commissioners' meeting started, the board was hand-delivered a copy of the restraining order. "We're well aware of it," Commissioner David Moore said, as Lorain County sheriff's Capt. Robert Vansant handed him a copy. The order was obtained by attorneys working on behalf of the Lorain County Chiefs Law Enforcement Association and Lorain County Fire Chiefs Association. Attorney Steve Albenze said none of the chiefs he represents are in favor of the Motorola/MARCS contract, which he said will cost taxpayers more than twice as much as the original Cleveland Communications Inc. and L3 Harris radio contract that Republicans Moore and Commissioner Jeff Riddell voted to rescind in January. Commissioner Michelle Hung, also a Republican, voted to keep the CCI contract but was outvoted 2-1. CCI has sued the county in federal court in Cleveland. The lawsuit is pending before U.S. District Judge Charles Esque Fleming. The county has asked Fleming to dismiss the case, and CCI has requested permission to amend its legal complaint, according to federal court records. An item calling for a vote on the Motorola/MARCS contract was on the board's Friday agenda Thursday afternoon. Law enforcement officers and other first responders put their lives on the line every day for public safety, and they need to be able to effectively and clearly communicate through their radios, Albenze said. "We're just trying to get the officers heard," he said. "This is all about officer and public safety. Police and first responders want to make sure the radios being contracted for will make officers and the public safe. That's the only goal in these proceedings." If the commissioners are right, they need to educate the first responder community. If the officers are right, they should get the contract they prefer, Albenze said. "All these guys want is to know that they're going to work safe every day," he said. "I don't think that's too much to ask." The board had not filed a response to either the chiefs' complaint or Kobasher's decision by the end of the day Friday according to Chief Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Dan Petticord, the board's legal counsel. Moore and Riddell have said the new contract isn't about which radios individual police and fire departments are allowed to use. It's about installing the proper infrastructure so that the radios work. Hung on Friday said the CCI contract, worth $7.7 million, wasn't about building the infrastructure. CCI "had already done that," she said. More than half of that $7.7 million, or about $4 million, was for grants for other political subdivisions to purchase L3 Harris radios "if their political subdivisions needed help," Hung said. Prior to opening Friday's meeting, Moore told the many first responders in attendance they could go into another room to learn more about the Motorola/MARCS contract from representatives of MCM, a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm hired in March. MCM recommended the county approve the Motorola/MARCS system on Tuesday. Lorain Police Chief Jim McCann then stood up and told the many first responders present not to leave the board meeting to attend a meeting in another room. After less than nine months of study, MCM issued a report Tuesday recommending Motorola/MARCS — one of only two bids that were received. CCI declined to bid on the contract this time around, and a bid by EFJohnson and Vasu Communications was not chosen. Cops speak Sheffield Police Chief William Visalden, president of the county police chiefs association, said Friday he had met with the commissioners individually earlier in the year and requested that the chiefs have "a seat at the table" when the board decided it wanted to move forward with a radio communications system. "I deserve a seat at this table to speak about radio communications for the safety of law enforcement officers and fire department people who work here," Visalden said. "More importantly for the taxpaying citizens of Lorain County, they deserve better than that. We should have a seat at the table." He encouraged the board to better work with the general public and law enforcement and not "conceal the voices" of police and fire personnel when it comes to radio systems. MCM "should have talked to us," Visalden. His department will not take part in the MARCS radio system. Most of the first responder agencies in Sheffield, Sheffield Lake, Avon, Avon Lake and North Ridgeville already use CCI-provided L3 Harris radios to great effect, police and fire chiefs in those towns have said. Riddell said he met with everyone who asked to meet on the radio issue, but that he couldn't answer some of their questions because of CCI's lawsuit, which was first filed in common pleas court and then later moved to federal court. Visalden wasn't the only chief with criticisms. "We all should have had a seat at the table in the very beginning," McCann, vice president of the police chiefs association, told the board. Some of the law enforcement officers in the room Friday were involved in the testing of CCI's L3 Harris radios back in 2022 before commissioners Michelle Hung and Matt Lundy voted to approve the multimillion-dollar contract in December 2022. No police officials were involved in choosing Motorola/MARCS this time around, McCann said. Some radios used by his officers simply don't work anymore, he said. "We weren't being unreasonable. Right now you're being unreasonable," McCann said, saying the chiefs just wanted a "time out" to work on an agreement. Lorain police and fire "are not going to MARCS," as Lorain City Council has already purchased L3 Harris radios preferred by the rank-and-file, McCann said. The Lorain County Deputies Association has had similar complaints, saying its current radios are unsafe. The deputies union filed a safety grievance with Sheriff Phil Stammitti over the issue. Deputies Association President Adam Shaw told the commissioners they will now be paying double what the CCI contract initially cost for the Motorola/MARCS contract, and that the four-year Mission Critical Partners study that recommended L3 Harris radios took longer than MCM's nine-month study that ended with the Motorola/MARCS recommendation. "There's been zero transparency," he said. MARCS radios don't work in buildings, "we know that," Shaw said. He also traded barbs with Riddell, with both men calling each other "juvenile." Technical aspects The State Highway Patrol, Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio Department of Natural Resources all use MARCS. So do approximately 150,000 users in 77 out of 88 counties, according to MCM. MARCS is a Phase 1 system, while L3 Harris radios are a Phase 2 system. Phase 2 provides more effective channels per bandwidth — or greater capacity — and better function in urban areas, according to Tait Communications, a New Zealand-based radio communications company. "The main difference between the two phases is system capacity, so the primary reason for opting for Phase 2 is additional capacity," according to Tait's website, p25bestpractice.com. MCM said MARCS will be better for interoperability between state and local agencies and has a built-in capacity for growth as well as the ability to handle both Phase 1 and Phase 2 radios used by law enforcement, firefighters and EMS. McCann said MARCS works for state troopers because each of their patrol cars has a MARCS radio repeater installed. Most departments can't afford to pay for the same, he said. Fire chiefs who want the L3 Harris radios have told The Chronicle-Telegram that MARCS works well outdoors in the open air and along highways, but that it could require expensive antenna equipment to be installed in large buildings, especially those built for energy efficiency. Critics of MARCS have questioned that cost. MCM said last week that Motorola/MARCS will take on those costs as part of its contract with Lorain County. Wellington Fire Chief Mike Wetherbee told the board on Friday that CCI's L3 Harris radios wouldn't need those expensive bi-directional antennas or BDAs, and that the MARCS proposal provides for them only "at additional cost to the taxpayers." Michael McGrady of MCM said there is a $750,000 allocation in the contract for those BDAs in 88 buildings identified as possibly needing them, "so we can make sure we can give the public safety responder the coverage that they need." If additional buildings in Lorain County need BDAs, it will be up to Motorola to pick up the tab for that equipment, McGrady said. "This is Ohio MARCS but it's being augmented to get the additional portable radio coverage that police, fire and EMS want when they're in the field," he said, promising to meet with police and fire officials to discuss details. The chiefs of the Amherst, Sheffield Township, Elyria Township, South Amherst, Florence Township and Vermilion fire departments announced Thursday "the intention ... to start using the 700/800 (MHz) L3 Harris radio system when it becomes operational in February or March of 2024," the group's chiefs wrote in a letter to the board of commissioners reviewed by The Chronicle. The group of fire departments has already signed contracts with CCI, which will provide the infrastructure they need for their preferred system, the chiefs wrote. Wetherbee said Friday that southwestern Lorain County fire departments intend to go to the L3 Harris system so they aren't "handcuffed by the state rules and regulations" under Motorola/MARCS. "All you had to do is work with us a little bit," he told the board. Elyria City Council's Finance Committee on Monday tabled the discussion over transitioning its police force over to CCI's L3 Harris radio system. Background and investigation In 2022, Motorola declined to bid on the countywide radio contract even after receiving an extension on the bid deadline. Vasu Communications made only a partial bid that was not chosen. Hung and Lundy awarded the contract, which was vetted by the county prosecutor's office. When they rescinded the CCI contract in January, Riddell and Moore claimed the lone CCI bid and process behind it were "bad." They have provided no evidence to back up their claims. Two separate criminal investigations into the bidding process that resulted in the contract being awarded to CCI found no criminal conduct — one by the Lorain County Sheriff's Office, and another by Auditor of State Keith Faber's office. Riddell and Moore, citing legal advice from an outside law firm, declined to take part in the sheriff's office investigation. During a public comment period at Friday's meeting, Vansant told the board he would have liked to have spoken to Riddell and Moore during his investigation of their claims about the CCI radio contract, but they declined for the reason above. As part of the state auditor's investigation, Moore gave the agent the information he said might prove Hung and her boyfriend, former Lorain County 911 director and Lorain County AFL-CIO office, steered the radios contract to CCI. No such steering or bid-rigging was uncovered, according to the state auditor's office. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.