Motorola Solutions, for decades Utah’s provider of public safety communications equipment, has given up the fight over its loss of a $50 million contract that was put up for bid last year.
Harris Co. won the bidding last December by coming in about $30 million cheaper than Motorola. But the award was challenged by Motorola, who took its accusations of bid-rigging and other violations of procurement code through administrative appeals and then to court.
A key ruling Thursday by the Utah Supreme Court snuffed out the company’s last chance to reopen the contract, and Motorola has now declared its intent to withdraw its protest and appeals.
“While Motorola still strongly believes that significant portions of the RFP [request for proposals] process were materially flawed, our decision to forgo further appeals is done in an effort to allow all parties to move forward and continue our long-standing productive relationship with the state of Utah,” David Hill, company strategic project area sales manager, wrote in a letter read aloud to the Utah Communications Authority (UCA) board Friday.
“Motorola stands ready to support UCA in the transition to your new system and we look forward to participating in future solicitations for public safety communications equipment and services.”
Hill indicated that the company will drop its lawsuit in 3rd District Court. That dispute had led to a court-ordered stay on finalizing the contract. That stay ended Thursday when the state Supreme Court decided it had no jurisdiction in the case.
One issue in arguments over the stay had been whether UCA Executive Director Dave Edmunds had unilateral authority to sign and finalize the contract without board approval. In a special meeting Friday afternoon, the board ratified Edmunds’ authority to do just that.
Edmunds has called the purchase and installation of the new communications network the most important event of the organization’s history.
Monday, he told The Tribune that he was anxious to get started on what is estimated to be a five-year project to complete the transition, including installation of new equipment on remote mountaintops to help eliminate radio dark spots in far flung reaches of the state.
“We’re going to get this thing going now,” Edmunds said. “There’s a lot of site work that is now going to have to commence and [decisions made] on exactly how we, along with Harris, are going to attack this.”
The goal he said is a “seamless transition” to a state-of-the art network supplied by the new vendor.
While Motorola has been “a strong partner of UCA’s for many years,” he said, Harris will install a “first-class system that is going to serve Utah’s public safety professionals for years to come.”
Although some local agencies had expressed reservations about switching over to a new contractor, Edmunds has no qualms. And, pointing to the $30 million savings over the Motorola bid, he said “the biggest winner in this whole deal are all the taxpayers of Utah.”