[californiadisasters] L.A. Co. Starting Over on Emergency Com System

L.A. County starting over on emergency communications system

Hundreds of millions in federal funds are at risk and years of planning are scrapped over concerns that the project's nearly completed contract violates state rules on how it must be structured and awarded.

By Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times

July 29, 2011

Los Angeles County leaders Thursday put the county at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds when they voted to scrap years of planning for a vast emergency communications system and restart the search for companies to build the complex project.

The drastic decision came three years after officials from the county and the many independent cities within its borders launched the massive project, which is expected to cost about $700 million to design and build.

The communication system is intended to allow the scores of police, fire and other emergency-response agencies in the sprawling county to communicate and share data during major incidents such as an earthquake or terrorist attack.

The idea for it was born out of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, during which emergency responders in New York City were hamstrung by an inability to communicate easily. If it is built, the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System would be one of the largest and most complex of its kind in the country.

The plan to construct the system had reached its final stage as negotiators spent the last several months in private contract talks with the technology company Raytheon.

In early June, however, county attorneys raised concerns that the nearly completed contract violated state rules on how contracts for publicly funded projects must be structured and awarded, said Patrick Mallon, the project's executive director. Negotiations with Raytheon were suspended, he said, as the lawyers and project staff examined the issue.

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View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-emergency-communications-20110728,0,5014245.story

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