Department: Universal Services
Department Head: Sindhu Menon, Executive Director & County CIO
Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Investment Memo
Investment Memo Type: Final Investment Memo
Project Name: Radio Replacement and Purchase Program
Project ID (if applicable): NI025
Vendor Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWDBE Current Achievement (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWDBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Managing Entity: Universal Services
Incremental Authorization Requested: $10,342,683
Total Estimated Project Cost: $16,844,414 (FY24 and FY25 2-year total estimate)
Request Summary:
title
Request for approval of a Final Investment Memo for the Radio Replacement and Purchase Program Project for an additional incremental authorization of $10,342,683 for FY2025.
end
Project Description: Radio Replacement Program
This is a continuous lifecycle management project to replace old and outdated radio equipment used by Harris County agencies. Radios in use range in age from new to over twelve years old, with various models in place. The Harris County Radio Replacement and purchase Program includes a hardware refresh for the aging fleet of radio subscriber units in order to update the radios on our system. Radios have an ideal useful life span of seven years. Aging equipment is difficult to support, and replacement parts are scarce. This program ensures the units are replaced to avoid loss of service.
Project Scope:
The project will program, replace, and deploy mobile, portable, and fixed radio communication equipment to reduce programming, support, and training complexity within Harris County while increasing user effectiveness. Programming and configuration for Departments is automated using radio management technology and sustained using micro-PC kiosks which will be deployed to enable users to keep their radios up to date. Radio Management subscriber seats must be renewed annually.
In past years, this program has been limited to replacing existing radios for certain departments. Starting from FY25, however, this program will provide a unified radio purchasing process for all Harris County Departments. Currently, many departments engage vendors individually, submit separate technology procurement requests, and work through the logistics of delivery, asset tagging, and deployment of these assets. Through this unified approach, departments will be able to better forecast and equip their personnel with mission-critical radios to support their operations.
This initiative will create a unified purchasing process for all Harris County departments for hand-held, in-car, and consolette radios for all new personnel positions. Universal Services will work with department decision-makers to forecast yearly radio needs. Radios will be purchased, asset tagged, programmed, and deployed to Harris County departments. Universal Services will utilize existing infrastructure and processes established in the radio replacement program to program and deploy these assets, thus allowing for better utilization of county personnel and funding. Universal Services will work with Harris County departments on a bi-yearly timeline to assess needs.
The $10.3M requested is divided into $6.5M to replace outdated equipment and $3.8M to purchase new equipment.
$6.5M will cover the replacement of 287 in-vehicle, mounted mobile radios, 760 hand-held portable radios, and related accessories used by Harris County departments. Replaced radios are at the end of life, and this continues the program to bring the age of all Harris County radio equipment to an age under seven years old. Universal Services expects the scope of work, as well as the annual ask for this project, to grow consistent with general inflation in future years.
$3.8M will cover 174 in-car mobile radios, 416 hand-held, and all needed accessories for those radios used by Harris County Law Enforcement Agencies. Universal Services expects the annual ask for this project to grow consistent with general inflation in future years.
There might be changes in the County’s needs that result in minor operational changes (e.g., exact radio model, number of units purchased) for the project throughout the Fiscal Year, but the overall scope will remain the same, and any additional authorization would go through Commissioners Court approval.
Justification:
The County is working through a backlog of outdated radio equipment that is increasingly becoming unreliable and more expensive to maintain. This project is critical because radios are a primary communications lifeline for first responders. This mix of differently aged radios with non-standardized features and models increases the cost of programming and maintenance support and also makes training more complex. Some radios are not only at end-of-life but are also end-of-service, meaning they are not repairable as parts no longer available. The newer radios purchased through this project will be easier to maintain as they will be within their intended asset life. Some of the benefits of the new radios include:
- Users will be able to take advantage of up-to-date technology on the network.
- Communications will be more reliable.
- Radios will be able to perform within the design parameters.
A unified purchasing approach for all new radio assets ensures that departments are able provide life-saving mission critical to their personnel. Universal Services using a single funding source for this project allows for better purchasing power with the selected vendors, quicker radio deployment, and better inventory lifecycle management.
Alternatives and Engagement:
Older radios have reduced performance and system efficiency, resulting in less communication capacity and cannot be repaired once parts are obsolete. Without funding to continue the next phase of replacing subscriber radios, radios would have to be manually programmed by shop technicians. This would result in significantly more man-hours expended towards the project than have been budgeted. Based on standard labor rates and the time it takes to manually reprogram radios, Universal Services estimates that the manual labor saved is nearly $350K.
Additionally, a non-unified approach to radio purchasing has provided challenges in funding, deployment, and replacement of life-saving mission-critical communications devices. Without funding this project, the county will continue to face these issues.
Anticipated Project Expenditures and Timeline:
|
Scope of Work for Replacement Program |
Estimated Cost |
Estimated Completion |
|
287 replacement mobile vehicle-mounted radios - Total Radio for LE Partners - 193 |
1,727,300 |
11/01/2025 |
|
760 replacement hand-held portable radios - Total radios for LE Partners - 641 |
4,184,500 |
11/01/2025 |
|
Accessories for new radios |
251,753 |
11/01/2025 |
|
Contingency 5% |
308,178 |
11/01/2025 |
|
Total |
6,471,731 |
|
|
Scope of Work for Purchase Program |
Estimated Cost |
Estimated Completion |
|
174 new mobile vehicle-mounted radios. Total radios for LE Partners - 174 |
1,131,171 |
09/30/2025 |
|
416 New hand-held portable radios. Total radios for LE-Partners 416 |
2,422,330 |
09/30/2025 |
|
Accessories for new radios |
133,120 |
09/30/2025 |
|
Contingency 5% |
184,331 |
09/30/2025 |
|
Total |
3,870,952 |
|
At this point, US is asking for authorization of $10,342,683 for FY25, CP allocation will be requested later when the PO is ready to be issued.
Alignment with Goal(s):
_ Justice and Safety
_ Economic Opportunity
_ Housing
_ Public Health
_ Transportation
_ Flooding
_ Environment
X Governance and Customer Service
Previous Court Action:
|
Date |
Agenda Item # |
Action Taken |
|
11/12/2019 |
4.f.6 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $7,245,000 |
|
10/27/2020 |
5.b.1 |
Request for approval of funding for project cost $8,387,920 |
|
11/10/2020 |
4.g.2 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $8,390,000 |
|
9/14/2021 |
21-4637 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $8,200,000 |
|
3/8/2022 |
22-1702 |
Request for SFY22 authorization of $192,000 |
|
8/23/2022 |
22-4956 |
Request for FY23 additional authorization of $4,630,000 |
|
10/11/2022 |
22-6321 |
[No Action] Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $4,630,000 |
|
10/18/2023 |
22-6610 |
Request for approval of commercial paper funding for $4,630,000 |
|
07/18/2023 |
23-3950 |
Request for FY24 Additional authorization of $6,471,731 |
Address: Multiple
Precinct(s): Countywide
|
Fiscal and Personnel Summary |
|
Service Name |
Radio Services |
|
|
FY 24 |
FY 25 |
Next 3 FYs |
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Incremental Expenditures (do NOT write values in thousands or millions) |
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Labor Expenditures |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Non-Labor Expenditures |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Total Incremental Expenditures |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Funding Sources (do NOT write values in thousands or millions) |
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Existing Budget |
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Choose an item. |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
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Total Current Budget |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Additional Budget Requested |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
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$ |
$ |
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Total Additional Budget Requested |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Total Funding Sources |
$ |
$ |
$ |
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Personnel (Fill out section only if requesting new PCNs) |
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Current Position Count for Service |
- |
- |
- |
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Additional Positions Requested |
- |
- |
- |
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Total Personnel |
- |
- |
- |
Anticipated Court Date: 10/8/2024
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date):
Legal funding compliance confirmed by: Paige Abernathy, Assistant County Attorney, 9/4/2024
Department Approval by: Justin Hart - Sr. Manager Public Safety Communications 9/04/2024
OMB CIP Team Approval by: Amiel Chen, CIP Manager, OMB, 9/13/24
Commercial Paper Request (For OMB use only):
Receiving Department: N/A
Project PeopleSoft ID: N/A
CP Series Description: N/A
HB 1869 compliance confirmed by: N/A
OMB Financial Management contact: N/A