Tiburon antenna dispute won't hold up operation, board says
The county's long overdue, $21.5 million public safety radio system will begin operating without a southern Marin antenna.
The Marin Emergency Radio Authority's board voted yesterday to begin operating the system even though the authority remains enmeshed in a legal battle with Tiburon residents over the siting of a southern Marin antenna. The board consists of representatives of 26 Marin public agencies, most of which are police and fire departments.
The board also authorized spending $327,545 more than had been budgeted for the fiscal year, which ends in June.
The new system - which will consist of microwave dishes, radio antennas and radio equipment linked at more than a dozen sites throughout Marin and Sonoma counties - is designed to replace a patchwork of aging communications systems. Proponents of the new system say it is needed to consolidate and close gaps in the county's existing public safety radio system.
But completion of the system, which was scheduled to be in operation by December 2001, has been delayed by problems securing antenna sites. Residents living near some of the sites have objected - expressing concern about the health effects of radio frequency radiation.
The authority is appealing a legal decision that prevented it from going forward with plans to construct a 72-foot antenna at 9912 Mt. Tiburon Road. In January, Marin Superior Court Judge Michael Dufficy rejected the authority's assertion that it could build the antenna despite the opposition of the town of Tiburon. No court date has been set for the appeal to be heard.
The authority is also evaluating alternative antenna sites in southern Marin.
Without the southern Marin antenna, the radio system would be 90 percent effective for most of the authority's members - with the exception of Tiburon, Belvedere and parts of Mill Valley, said Martin Nichols, the authority's executive director.
The fact that much of the county can be served by the radio system without a southern Marin antenna does not belie past statements by radio authority officials that the antenna site is indispensable to the system's operation, Nichols said.
"What we've always said, and it's a true statement," Nichols said, "is that the system as it's designed can't operate without a south county tower. You just can't cover the south county."
For the system to operate as it is designed - providing an operational radio signal to all authority members 97 percent of the time - a southern Marin antenna must still be secured, Nichols said. The radios currently in use are effective 75 percent to 80 percent of the time, he said.
Tiburon Mayor Jeff Slavitz said his town, which is a member of the authority, has decided not to oppose partial activation of the system.
"Our biggest concern was that perhaps by doing so MERA might lose sight of getting that last tower in southern Marin so the whole system can be activated," Slavitz said.
But after meeting with other southern Marin authority members, Slavitz said Tiburon officials feel confident that "more voices will join ours to make sure the process continues."
Authority members will continue to equally share the cost of securing a southern Marin antenna. Nichols said he isn't sure exactly which authority members would immediately plug into the radio system.
"I know that San Rafael is very interested and has pretty much said they will," Nichols said. The city of Novato and the Novato Fire Protection District have also expressed interest.
San Rafael's radio system, which has often malfunctioned since its purchase in 1989, was out of operation for nearly 48 hours in January, after being damaged when a transformer blew.
The city of Novato is eager to begin using the new radio system, said Novato City Manager Rod Wood.
"We have a low-band system, and it is getting extremely hard to find replacement parts," Wood said. "The sooner we get on the new system the greater the certainty that we won't lose our communications."
Activating a part of the system will also help to protect the authority's radio frequency licenses. The Federal Communications Commission expects the much sought after frequencies to be used soon after it issues licenses, Nichols said. The FCC had already granted the authority one extension on the deadline.
It will cost about $35,000 to realign microwave dishes to enable the radio system to operate without a southern Marin site, Nichols said. The authority will also have to renegotiate its warranty agreement with Motorola, the builder of the system, to reflect this partial activation, he said.
Nichols estimates the authority will have spent $400,000 on legal fees by the end of year, $380,000 more than budgeted, and $353,500 on contract services, $98,500 more than was allocated. Most of those costs are related to the effort to secure the southern Marin antenna site, Nichols said.
Nichols has projected that the authority will spend $66,100 less than expected on insurance, office expenses, rent, maintenance and telephones during the fiscal year. The authority's deficit spending for the fiscal year would have been greater was it not for the budget's $84,855 contingency fund.
By Richard Halstead, IJ reporter
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com
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Thursday, September 9, 2010