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 City of Hermosa Beach --- 01-26-99
RADIO EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT FOR THE POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS
RECOMMENDATION:Staff recommends that the City of Hermosa Beach maintain it's existing radio maintenance contract with Advanced Electronics of Gardena, California
BACKGROUND:
For the past ten years, the Police and Fire Departments have maintained a maintenance agreement for all of the City's communications equipment with Advanced Electronics of Gardena, California. Advanced Electronics was originally involved in the installation of our police and fire dispatch center along with our base stations, repeaters and radio towers. Since that time Advanced Electronics has maintained our communications infrastructure. An annual maintenance contract has been established each year in July.
In October of this year and at the direction of Council, the Police and Fire Department conducted a request for proposal to seek out other qualified vendors that could provide maintenance support for the City's communications systems. On October 22, 1998 bids were received from two vendors. The vendors were Advanced Electronics of Gardena and RadioWave of Long Beach.
The Radio Equipment was divided into three groups, Police, Fire, and Community Services for the purposes of bidding. The monthly-proposed maintenance fees that were submitted are as follows:
(Difference: $3292/yr)
ANALYSIS:
In addition to the bids that were received, tours were made of both vendor's facilities. On November 3, 1998 Chief Bonano, Chief Straser and Captain Lavin visited the RadioWave facility in Long Beach. We met with the Vice President of service operations Neil Robinson and Account Executive Stephen Henderson. RadioWave is an authorized Motorola dealer. We met with RadioWave's service technicians that work the Los Angeles area. The shop is small and serves as a satellite facility to their main shop in Burbank. The main service shop and headquarters is in San Diego. RadioWave has a total of 6 service technicians that work in the Los Angeles area. The technicians appeared to be well qualified and we inspected their service trucks that appeared to be well equipped. RadioWave provided us with a list of the four technicians that might work with our communications equipment along with information about their years of experience and training. Once again the technician staff appeared to be well qualified and RadioWave provided several certificates of training issued by Motorola.
RadioWave also provided a list of some of their service references. There were 4 police departments listed, Irwindale, City of La Verne, Cal Poly Pomona PD and San Marino PD. Contact was made with three of the police departments. Two of the departments have standing maintenance contracts while the other department (La Verne) utilizes RadioWave on a time and material basis only. Nothing but positive comments were received about RadioWave's response times and quality of work. Contact was also made with another customer, the US Customs office at Terminal Island. Again, nothing but praise was received about RadioWave's performance.
It appeared that the facility in Long Beach was small and not well equipped to handle repairs of equipment brought in. RadioWave explained that they equipped their trucks with enough diagnostic equipment to attempt to handle all equipment repairs in the field. If the repair could not be made in the field then the equipment would be brought back to the Long Beach facility or sent to the Burbank facility which has a larger repair shop. Many of their service technicians do not live in or near the South Bay area. We were concerned with the small staff of technicians and their ability to respond timely to service calls especially in an emergency.
RadioWave explained that in an emergency situation the existing service technicians would either be pulled from any current assignment they were involved in or they would draw down from technicians in San Diego if necessary to meet service needs in Los Angeles.
On November 18, 1998 Chief Straser and Captain Lavin toured the Advanced Electronics facility in Gardena. While both of us have been to Advanced Electronics on numerous occasions, we were taken on a complete tour by the President Bob Conrey and the Contracts Administration Manager, Vickie Dubois. Advanced Electronics is a large facility with service shops for handling all types of radio equipment including base stations and repeaters. Advanced Electronics is an authorized Motorola dealer and repair shop. There is a parts department on site along with an installation department and a CCTV department. As mentioned earlier, the City of Hermosa Beach has been utilizing Advanced Electronics for the past 10 years. It should be noted that at the beginning of the 1997/98 fiscal year, we entertained a bid for service from RadioWave. However, Advanced Electronics came in at the lower bid for service at that time. The Advanced Electronics facility is certainly a much larger and more complete facility than the RadioWave facility we toured in Long Beach. Advanced Electronics is also much closer to Hermosa Beach than the RadioWave facility located in Long Beach.
Advanced Electronics provided us with a list of some of their service contract customers. There were a total of 18 police and/or fire departments listed. Of note were the length of service at some of these agencies such as City of Downey - 10 years, City of Long Beach - 8 years, City of Lynwood - 32 years, City of Monterey Park - 16 years, City of Redondo Beach - 17 years, City of Signal Hill - 18 years to name just a few. Advance also has contracts with Federal agencies such as the DEA, U.S. Airforce, U.S. Customs, U.S. Postal Service, and the Naval Weapons stations at Seal Beach and Corona. Advanced provided information on their technical staffing. There are a total of 8 shop technicians, 13 field technicians, and 5 installers. Of this group, there are 4 senior technicians, a CCTV specialist, and a specialist in fixed equipment, mobiles and data systems.
It is obvious that Advanced Electronics is a well-established maintenance provider in the South Bay and Los Angeles area. Advanced first went into business as a Motorola service center in May of 1961 and has maintained their license with Motorola since that time. A majority of our radio equipment is of the Motorola brand, which is why we sought out a Motorola service center in the first place.
A review of the maintenance contracts with Advanced Electronics has been done back to the 1995/96 fiscal year. Each piece of equipment has a monthly per unit cost for maintenance. For example, a portable radio might have a monthly maintenance cost of $6.00 per month. Since 1995/96 the monthly per unit cost for equipment has actually been reduced by Advanced. Therefore we are paying less per unit of equipment than in years past yet at the same time, Advanced has enhanced the maintenance package by providing additional benefits such as replacement batteries each year for the portable radios and a yearly RF environmental site survey.
Our experience and relationship with Advanced Electronics has been very good over the years. The most positive thing that can be said about Advanced Electronics is that when we call them, they come. Some of our equipment is under a 24-hour maintenance support plan. There have been occasions when after hours and even on holidays, when we have had problems with our communications equipment. Advanced not only responded to our service calls, their technicians did not leave until the problem was fixed. That is probably the most important feature of service provided by Advanced Electronics.
CONCLUSION:
Both Advanced Electronics and RadioWave have quality operations and quality people. While RadioWave did come in at a lower price, we have concerns about their smaller technician staff and their ability to adequately and consistently respond to our needs. Advanced has a proven track record of 10 years with the City of Hermosa Beach. They know our equipment and we have always relied upon their expertise in managing our communications systems. Advanced Electronics is physically closer to our City than RadioWave. On those occasions when we send equipment in for repair, we know that technicians at Advanced in Gardena are handling it. Their turnaround time has been good. RadioWave does not have the facilities in Long Beach to handle some repairs and would have to send out our equipment to their shop in Burbank. Turnaround time is an unknown factor.
The police and fire communications center plays a very important role in our public safety infrastructure. The center operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is important that we have confidence in the maintenance providers that maintain these systems. Price cannot be the single determinant factor in this type of decision. Many other factors must be taken into consideration as well. The difference in price was not that great ($3292 per year) and with the proven record of Advance Electronics for the past 10 years it is our recommendation that the City maintain its existing radio maintenance contract with Advanced Electronics.
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