As screw-ups in the state's 800 megahertz emergency radio system unfold, the roles that lawmakers and communications officials played in its initial planning become blurred.

When the question involves whether $52 million in state tax money was misdirected, squandered or at worst wasted, we tend to see the slippery among our elected elite go full bore into their self-righteous indignation mode.

That brings an eruption of quotable astonishment from Legislative Hall offices: "That's certainly not how I understood the system was going to work" or "I simply can't believe it."

Several lawmakers who face election campaigns suddenly can't recall what was decided because it's all "so complicated."

The first indication all was not well came when firefighters and police reported several dead spots in radio transmission. That's like when your cellular telephone jumps over words or fizzles out altogether. In fact, the $3,300 radios with this 800 megahertz system really are just fancy cellular phones.

A Motorola executive has personally assured Gov. Carper that the five dead spots around the state where the radios don't work will be fixed ASAP. I believe that. The sooner Motorola fixes dead spots, the sooner it goes on with its next multi-million-dollar state contract to upgrade the system so public safety providers can talk to each other inside and outside buildings.

Why the system wasn't planned to have that capability remains highly contentious. Some legislators thought it was. Carper's office said it wasn't. People with whom I've talk wonder why not.

That the state took on this project without an outside consultant surprised even Motorola officials.

The governor's people lamely defend the system's indoor shortcomings by saying most of the in-house design happened before Carper took office in 1992. That's true. But Motorola and Ericsson Inc. responded to bid requests in January 1992, and both were rejected because state technicians in the Office of Information Services, within the Executive Department, didn't know how to compare them. That should have been a hint of problems to come.

In February 1993, after OIS finally hired an outside consultant, another batch of bid requests went out. The original $14.3 million contract with Motorola was signed in May 1993. The state later agreed to add $20 million to pay for the police and fire departments' radios.

Earlier this year, OIS asked Carper and the legislature for $8 million to do repairs and upgrades on the system, but the money was removed from the budget.

Meanwhile, no one in OIS was paying attention to Federal Communications Commission concerns about transmission signal overlap into Maryland. The Maryland FCC regional advisory committee wasn't consulted as law requires before Delaware built its system. Now it has a request for an emergency injunction pending against operation of the Delaware system.

So where does Motorola fit here? The company often is derided by government and private customers for high-handed business practices. But that doesn't mean they don't know their job.

Motorola and Kansas City, Mo., were at odds for six years over a 800 megahertz system that city claimed didn't work. One instance involved four firefighters who unsuccessfully radioed for help and then had to jump through a window to escape a raging house fire. But the debate screeched to a halt last summer when the city admitted it underspecified the $18.5 million system in 1992 to save money.

Mayor Amanuel Cleaver, in announcing an additional $8.2 million expense for upgrades, said of the 800 megahertz system, "There were some serious mistakes and dumb things done. The blame should not leave this building."

But, of course, that's Kansas City, not Dover.

-- Ron Williams is assistant editor of the editorial pages.
Send e-mail to rwilliam@wilmingt.gannett.com