County, Cleveland Communications Inc. settle legal dispute over ending Elyria radio tower lease

Cleveland Communications Inc. and the Lorain County Board of Commissioners reached an agreement Wednesday in federal court to resolve a dispute over the board's cancellation in August of a lease for the company's radio equipment on a county-owned tower in Elyria. The company, also known by the initials CCI, last month sought a restraining order and injunction against the county to prohibit officials from terminating a lease CCI had to put its equipment on a county-owned radio tower at Lorain County 911 on Burns Road in Elyria. In an agreement reached Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, the board and CCI agreed to a list of conditions. According to a consent decree ordered by federal Judge Charles Fleming, the company withdrew its request for a restraining order and injunction. The parties agreed CCI will continue to lease space on the county-owned radio tower through March 14, 2026. CCI will pay $1,700 per month through Oct. 21, after which it will pay $1,750 per month through March 14, 2026. The lease will not be extended or renewed. CCI may terminate the lease early with 14 days written notice, according to the consent decree. Over the next six months, CCI will work "as diligently as reasonably possible to relocate its equipment," and the county "will not intentionally impede CCI's efforts," according to the agreement. The agreement says only Fleming may modify it further. A lawsuit CCI filed against Lorain County after the Board of Commissioners rescinded its contract to provide radio communications to county first responders remains pending in Fleming's court. Both parties said Thursday that they won the legal battle over the tower lease. CCI owner and president Alan Close called the consent decree "an important victory (and) a step toward the conclusion of the whole matter" in an email to his clients, a copy of which was provided to The Chronicle-Telegram by CCI's attorney, Dean DePiero. "The order also enjoins the parties to cooperate and act in good faith during this extension period," Close wrote. "... There are other motions before the court yet to be resolved, both old and new." Close told his clients he is actively working to find a new location for his company's radio equipment, has three options and would update his clients as the situation developed. "My promise to you is, you will not see a degradation in coverage from whatever site I end up at," Close wrote. "As I've often said, CCI remains completely focused on providing you with the best, most reliable radio system possible," he wrote. "Our commitment to you and the entire first responder community in Lorain County and throughout northern Ohio. With this behind us, we can finally focus on implementing the overall coverage increases we've long planned for." Commissioners David Moore and Jeff Riddell, the Republicans who in 2023 rescinded CCI's weeks-old contract to provide L3 Harris radios to Lorain County first responders, also declared victory. "We only needed to give CCI 30 days" notice to terminate the tower lease, Moore wrote Thursday in a text message. "We gave them 70. They responded with a (temporary restraining order, or TRO). I guess after trying for a week looking for a site they must have panicked and instead of calling us for more time they filed the injunctive relief and a TRO." Moore and Riddell said the court ordered CCI off the tower. Riddell said it was a good resolution. CCI didn't get the temporary restraining order, or TRO, they had asked for nor an injunction against the county forcing it to allow CCI to stay on the tower, he said. "We ended up giving them some more time which we would have ended up giving them without the court case" had CCI negotiated with the county instead of taking the matter to federal court, Riddell said. "We had the right to kick 'em off the tower. We did. And they got some more time. And it's their job to have a plan B to take care of their customers, it's not our job to take care of their customers," Riddell said. "We're where we need to be. They need to find another tower ... They knew once our system was up and running they'd have to find a new lease. Commissioner Marty Gallagher, a Republican, didn't respond to a message seeking comment. The county's new multi million-dollar emergency radio communications system is the soon-to-be completed Multi-Agency Radio Communications System, or MARCS. It is used by the State Highway Patrol, the Ohio Department of Transportation and for emergency communications in a majority of counties in Ohio. After rescinding CCI's $7.7 million contract in early 2023, Commissioners Moore and Riddell chose MARCS in late 2023 over the objection of former Commissioner Michelle Hung, a fellow Republican, who voted against it. MARCS, which the state supports through a partnership with Motorola, requires no other equipment be on the towers it uses. That meant CCI had to go, and the Commissioners voted Aug. 12 to notify CCI the county was terminating the existing lease. CCI then filed for the TRO and injunction in federal court. "As we are still moving forward for the citizens with a world class $28 million dollar interoperable county wide telecommunications system paid for by federal and state dollars," Moore wrote, "it is still sad CCI is wasting their resources and our tax payers dollars defending such unnecessary motions because of their own pride. We will continue to fight for our first responders and taxpayers from such actors." The majority of Lorain County's fire and police chiefs and its elected sheriff didn't want MARCS. They told the Commissioners they wanted CCI's L3 Harris radios. The chiefs, union officials and their supporters protested Moore and Riddell's decision to rescind the contract in 2023, going so far as to take legal action they later dropped. The Lorain County Deputies Association, the union representing deputies at the Sheriff's Office, also filed a grievance against the county over the matter.The grievance was later settled and dropped by the union with the promise road deputies would be provided cellphones in case their radios failed. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com