By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter
09/09/99

State lawmakers will launch a formal probe into why Delaware's new emergency communications system has widespread problems.

Lawmakers are set to announce details today of the inquiry by a bipartisan House of Representatives committee. The seven-member panel will press Gov. Tom Carper's administration to explain what went wrong with the $52 million project.

The committee could have a report finished by the time the General Assembly convenes in January, said Rep. Stephanie A. Ulbrich, R-Newark South, who will chair the group.

"It's not our intention to crucify anybody," Ulbrich said, "but to find out what went wrong and how do we make it right."

Carper's press secretary Anthony Farina called the probe politically motivated. Republicans who control the state House of Representatives are pushing the issue because Carper, a Democrat, may run for the U.S. Senate next year against Republican Sen. Bill Roth, Farina said.

"There is an election coming up and some will use this as a political grandstand for themselves," Farina said.

The new 800-megahertz system was designed to allow firefighters and police officers to communicate from any outdoor location in the state. But there are five areas where their radios often go dead.

The system was never designed to work inside large buildings, a fact that angered many legislators who voted for the network.

Even though he questioned the motive behind the probe, Farina said the administration would answer any questions legislators have.

Republican leaders denied that politics played any role in their decision to organize an inquiry.

Legislators must investigate the state's 800 megahertz radio system because it is so flawed, said House Majority Leader Wayne A. Smith, R-Brandywine Hundred North.

A News Journal article last month chronicled the flaws. Lawmakers want answers to questions raised by that story, Smith said.

The probe is supported by Robert F. Gilligan, D-Sherwood Park, the ranking Democrat in the House.

He said he wants to know how the system was designed.

"I'd like for them to find out how [the administration] came up with this idea," Gilligan said.

The committee would be made up of four Republicans and three Democrats, Ulbrich said.

Most of the members would come from the House Policy Analysis and Government Accountability Committee, Ulbrich said. She planned to expand that five-member body by adding legislators with public safety backgrounds.

Radio maker Motorola Inc. agreed to give the state equipment to try to eliminate the dead zones.

State officials are confident they can make the equipment work in Kent and Sussex counties, but are trying to figure out how to repair the system in New Castle County -- home to three of the five dead zones.

Farina said it is unfair to hang the system's troubles on Carper because the administration inherited the project from former governor Mike Castle.

"The process started well before Gov. Carper took office in 1993," Farina said. "Although it is important that there is a good public safety communications system in place ... this particular project was not a top priority of the administration."

Carper should not try to convince lawmakers the project is not his responsibility, Smith said.

"When you're at the end of the second term, you pretty much own state government," Smith said. "Your first year in office everybody gives you a bye, but your seventh year, I mean come on."