Court fight may loom over $18 million radio system
By DAVID PEDREIRA of The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - An $18 million radio system used by the sheriff's office continues to
have problems.
Fed up with a police radio system that has never lived up to its billing,
Hillsborough commissioners refused Thursday to pay an extra $521,000 to make sure it will
work in 2000.
Their decision could lead to a legal battle between the county and Ericsson Private
Radio Systems, which installed the $18 million, 800 megahertz system for the Hillsborough
County Sheriff's Office in 1994.
``We put an extreme amount of money into this system, and it still doesn't work five
years later,'' said Commissioner Jim Norman. ``I don't think we should pay a dime for Y2K
compliance. It should be delivered to our doorstep.''
An Ericsson official said the company planned to negotiate with the county, but did
expect some compensation because new technologies not relating to the year 2000 problem
were being installed.
The Ericsson radio system is in every sheriff's patrol cruiser. For years, deputies
have complained that it has ``dead zones,'' or areas of the county where it doesn't work.
Sheriff's officials said the dead zones shift from place to place and time to time,
apparently depending on the volume of radio signals antennas are receiving.
A deputy could be driving down State Road 39 with the radio system working perfectly,
only to have it blank out in the same area 10 minutes later, said Col. Daron D. Diecidue,
an administrator in the sheriff's office.
Norman, who has complained about the police radio for years, said he was outraged to
learn it didn't have the software necessary to work into the next millennium.
Governments across the nation are scrambling to make sure all their computer systems
will be able to function on Jan. 1, thanks to a glitch in the way computers read the last
two digits of a year.
Hillsborough performed a countywide systems check this month. Almost every department
is expected to be fully compliant with year 2000 systems by the end of September, county
officials said.
But Ericsson told the sheriff's office in a letter Tuesday that its deadline for
compliance would be Dec. 31, leaving very little wiggle room if something goes wrong.
Ericsson plans to test the radio system in August. Diecidue said the sheriff's office
would consider legal action if the radio still fails to operate as intended.
``If Ericsson fails to meet this standard, then the sheriff's office is more than
willing to let the [Hillsborough] legal department take the lead,'' Diecidue said.
Denise Woernle, public relations manager for the communications company, said parts of
the system have worked according to standards, and other parts are being repaired.
Commissioners voted unanimously not to pay for year 2000 upgrades of the radio, and
asked for monthly progress reports.
David Pedreira covers government and can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or dpedreira@tampatrib.com