Peter Schorsch
The resolution of a recent legislative food fight in this year’s budget ended with an incumbent law enforcement radios vendor winning $7 million in state dollars to purchase new equipment that they manufacture, but Harris Corporation‘s effort to position themselves as a permanent partner may not have been as successful as it appears at first glance.
The Brevard County-based telecommunications firm was able to secure state dollars to replace existing police radio systems — a vendor-driven move to essentially “upsell” the state equipment not requested by law enforcement agencies in the first place — but upon further examination, Harris may not have “won” the day in their quest to entrench themselves as Florida’s long-term radio partner and avoid a looming competitive bidding process after all.
Sen. Jack Latvala last week expressed concern that the request, if granted, was tantamount to a “back door extension” of the contract.
The move does indeed raise questions about transparency, but it may not have bought Harris as much of an advantage as they planned.
The $7 million line item, assuming it is not axed by Gov. Rick Scott‘s veto pen, only amounts to 8 percent of the original $84 million request. And it comes with significant strings attached.
According to the proviso language, funds for the radio purchase will be placed in reserves and disbursed at the discretion of the of the Department of Management Services and its Joint Task Force on State Law Enforcement Radios. The task force issued a report in January that recommended a competitive procurement process to upgrade the state’s radio infrastructure, something Harris sought to circumvent by embedding more funding for themselves in the state budget.
The budget item also includes $800,000 for DMS to prepare for a competitive procurement process set to go ahead when the current contract expires in 2021 regardless of the replenished stock of radios. Harris reportedly fought that move to no avail.
Harris also reportedly offered to upgrade existing radio towers at no cost, but the Legislature did not take it up on it. That signals an desire to go ahead with the current plan to shop around for new technology from other vendors, such as Motorola Solutions and Airbus, both of whom are expected to make bids when the request for competitive proposals begins.
In any case, this fascinating intra-industry battle is clearly far from over. The spirit of competitiveness won out in this year’s budget, and looks likely to continue to define the process despite the best efforts of those on the inside track.
