The Safety and Licensing Committee met 08/23/2023. It was not a long meeting, but the item that took up the bulk of their time was the Fire Department’s request to approve the purchase of radio equipment. Last August, the Appleton Fire Department along with 18 other fire departments in the area had been awarded a $1.8 million regional Assistance to Firefighter Grant. These funds were intended to help replace the Fire/EMS departments’ portable radios with more current technology since the portable radios current utilized in the region would no longer be manufactured.
The fire departments had reviewed replacement options, received pricing quotes, and unanimously selected Motorola (Baycom) as the preferred portable radio and vendor. The Appleton Fire Department was now seeking approval to move forward with its purchase of the equipment.
The item had been incorrectly listed as a information item on the agenda, but the committee was legally allowed to change it to an action item. The Fire Department was hoping that it could go before the Common Council for approval on 09/06/2023 so that they would be able to purchase all of the equipment before the end of the year. So, the committee did change it from an information item to an action item, and then voted unanimously to approve the request, so that it could get before the Common Council on September 6.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download.
Fire Chief Jeremy Hansen briefly reviewed the process that had resulted in the recommendation to go with Motorola (Baycom). The regional grant for $1.8 million was awarded to 18 local fire departments, including Appleton. Appleton was the host agency that filed all the paperwork and gathered all the data from the other 17 departments that was required for the grant.
After the grant was awarded, the 18 departments formed a subcommittee consisting of 6 fire departments, Appleton, Grand Chute, Dale, Kaukauna, Kimberly, and Freedom. These included career, combination, and volunteer fire departments. That subcommittee developed a request for quotes.
Two vendors submitted quotes and came and demonstrated their products. The subcommittee members then each independently scored the two vendors on a variety of metrics. Those scores were all tabulated, and Baycom was ranked higher by all 6 of the subcommittee members.
Appleton specifically wanted to put in an order as soon as they had approval from Council because the lead-time on radios could be anywhere from 6-12 months. Per Fire Chief Hansen, “[T]he goal is to get them in, programmed and in service hopefully by the end of the year.”
Additionally, Appleton had budgeted $315,000 in 2023 to purchase the radios that were not covered by the grant, so that all of the Fire Department’s radios would be the same. They would like to receive the items prior to the end of the year to stay in line with the purchasing procurement policy. [I don’t understand how it would be possible to get the radios by the end of 2023 if there is a 6-12 month lead-time.]
The committee voted 5-0 to recommend the item for approval.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1112093&GUID=1A8302D0-865E-44E6-ABCF-4BEEA7C584FB
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