Cleveland Communications Inc., which lost a $7.7 million contract to supply Lorain County sheriff’s deputies and county fire departments with emergency radios, is taking Lorain County commissioners to court for breach of contract, according to a lawsuit filed Jan. 20 in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.
The company is asking for a jury trial and demanding at least $45,000 in damages as well as legal fees.
The commissioners originally had approved the deal with the Parma-based CCI on Dec. 21 by a 2-0 margin.
But at the Jan. 9 meeting, commissioners Dave Moore and Jeff Riddell voted to rescind and Michelle Hung voting no.
The suit alleges the commissioners broke the terms of the original contract in five specific ways:
• Rescinding the contract and funding without cause
• Failing to provide notices required by the contract
• Failing to give CCI the opportunity to cure any alleged breach
• Failing to pay CCI for all equipment purchased, services rendered and expenses incurred in connection with the contract
• Unilaterally rescinding the contract in terms that sufficiently were clear and unequivocal such as to constitute an anticipatory repudiation of the contract.
Due process, which is guaranteed under the 14th amendment, was not granted by the commissioners to CCI based on several factors, the suit alleges.
Those include only giving CCI one day notice it planned to rescind the contract and only allowing a representative from CCI three minutes to speak during the Jan. 9 commissioners’ meeting in which the contract was rescinded.
CCI learned the deal was going to be rescinded Jan. 5 when two resolutions to repeal the contract were listed on the agenda for the Jan. 9 meeting of the commissioners.
Moore said he was not surprised by the suit.
He said he and Riddell currently are looking at securing new radios to sheriff’s deputies and other county employees who need them.
“We’re moving forward, working on the logistics of the county,” Moore said. “I’m not going to let a lawsuit stop me from doing the business of the county.”
The county has not moved away from the idea of doing business with CCI, he said.
“Bottom line is when we are ready to move forward,” Moore said. “Hopefully, they’ll be part of the process and not part of the problem.”
Two votes led to the suit
The two votes conducted weeks apart speak to the essence of the controversy.
Hung and outgoing commissioner Matt Lundy originally voted to approve the deal in December in a meeting that Moore did not attend.
The second vote was made by a reconfigured board that included Moore and Riddell, who defeated Lundy in the November election.
The radios have been a topic of debate amongst the commissioners for several months.
Moore has accused Hung of lobbying on behalf of CCI to land the contract.
Moore and Riddell have questioned whether the contract was fairly awarded and if the county needed to buy radios for the fire departments of cities, townships and villages that would have received them as part of the deal.
The county had set aside more than $4 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to pay to fund part of the deal.
Further clouding the issue is a criminal investigation by state Auditor Keith Faber into an earlier contract the county signed with CCI for work at its 911 Center and Hung’s role in that contract.
The rescinded contract called for the county to buy 1,050 of the radios at $6,500 each.
Safety service personnel from the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office and some local fire departments appeared on several occasions before the commissioners and said their current radios are faulty and do not provide the communications they need to keep themselves and the public safe.
The first responders say their current radios do not allow county fire departments to communicate with each other during mutual aid calls.
They also said the current radios do not always work when inside buildings or in remote portions of the county.
Sheriff’s deputies have made similar complaints about the current radio system.
Safety officials and first responders have said the radios they want are known as L3 Harris, which is what CCI sells.
When the contract went out to bid, CCI, Motorola Solutions and Vasu Communications submitted proposals.
During the process, the timeline was extended for proposals, but ultimately CCI was selected
Motorola submitted a letter of no-bid and Vasu a “partial work bid.”
CCI’s bid, which was reviewed by a five-person committee created by the commissioners, was selected for the contract based on it being “compliant with the Radio Network RFP” and because it had a proven track record in the county and surrounding counties.
Exploration of radios
The county started exploring buying new radios in 2017.
It hired the consulting firm Mission Critical to do a study in 2018.
In 2019, Mission Critical produced a 275-page study that found the county’s current radio system was not public safety grade and recommended upgrading by going to a phase II trunk simulcast system that had interoperability with the state-operated system known as MARCS.
Two years later, the county began exploring how it could pay for such a system and learned it could use funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
In May 2022, the commissioners again turned to Mission Critical to produce a request for proposals for the radios with the company recommending Project 25 Phase 2 radio communication system.
The requests for proposals went out Aug. 4 and a pre-proposal conference took place Aug. 15.
The original deadline for proposal was extended by 14 days to Oct. 14 and the five-person selection committee chose CCI for the contract.
The Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office approved the requests for proposal as well as the original contract, according to the lawsuit.
