Supervisors Taking Bids On Radio System

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk (file photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Supervisors met in special session on Tuesday to discuss their plans for a new radio system for Mahaska County.

The debate about the new system and its funding has boiled for nearly 2 years and was discussed and studied for almost 2 years before that.

The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors approved having Racom submit a bid to the board for the radio communication system.

At the previous meeting, the Board of Supervisors had initially invited Motorola to participate in the bidding process.

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk said he spoke at length with Mahaska County Attorney Jim Blomgren, who recommended that Racom be allowed to submit a bid. “And also Rey Freeman strongly suggested to do the same so it’s equal to both parties.”

Groenendyk said that both radio vendors agreed they could trust and work with Rey Freeman and Mike Mazzitello, “are honest consultants.”

Groenendyk told the board that Racom would submit “an approval to the county if we pass this agenda and he gets word from Freeman tomorrow that we’ve hired him to review the contracts.”

Groenendyk said that the county would then have two proposals for the radio system “from a consultant both parties say they trust.”

“Then we can at least have an independent individual tell us, I think without bias, what each company has to offer,” said Groenendyk.

The board approved the invitation to Racom to submit based upon the RFP previously submitted by the EMA.

Mahaska County Sheriff and Emergency Management Commission Chair Russ Van Renterghem asked the supervisors if they were taking over the radio communication project from Mahaska County Emergency Management.

“Well, the question arises,” asked Mahaska County Board Chairman of Van Renterhem about how the EMC would finance the new radio system.

Van Renterghem asked Van Weelden to answer his initial question. “Is the board wanting to take this project over? Take it away from EMA and take it over?”

“I would say we are,” replied Van Weelden.

“Would you like me to answer that,” Groenendyk asked of Van Weelden.

Van Renterghem answered Van Weelden’s question by saying that the bonding would have to go through the supervisors.

Groenendyk then repeated the different steps that have transpired during the past 2 years about where the responsibility of the system landed and how it would be funded.

Van Renterghem asked the supervisors why they didn’t want the responsibility of the project nearly 2 years ago, and why they want it now.

“Had you taken the ball and ran with it back then when we suggested that, I understand it’s just merely our opinion, but we wouldn’t be nearly a year and a half later with zero progress being made on this project,” stated Van Renterghem of the board.

Van Renterghem was sharing his frustration as the Sheriff and a first responder. “My guys are very, very frustrated with this.”

“I think from my side, I’m frustrated with it,” added Van Weelden. “To me, when you got this all boiled down, we had one bidder. We did not know there was a letter sent by Motorola that they weren’t going to bid. All I heard is we didn’t get a bid from Motorola.”

“Mark did a little research. I don’t know that you can lay the blame entirely at our feet,” added Van Weelden.

“And I’m not,” responded Van Renterghem.

“I think the taxpayers of this county probably deserve, I wouldn’t care if it was Motorola or if it was anybody else, but getting one bid for a radio system to me, to me that’s a problem,” added Van Weelden. “When they’re spending 3, 4, 8, we don’t know. We don’t even know.”

Van Renterghem reiterated that the project would be much further along had the board taken this position early in 2017.

Groenendyk said that it was unclear at that point, “Willie made the prophecy that it’s probably going to end up in the lawyer’s hands figuring out. That’s the way it was left. Look what’s came true.”

“It goes back to, nobody knows what, what, nobody even knows anything about this 28E,” added Groenendyk. “Why didn’t the EMA Board know what they were signing when they signed it? Why didn’t the supervisors know what they were signing, supervisors never did sign it,” said Groenendyk. “We’re not part of this.”

The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors did not sign the 28E agreement, but their representative who was the E911 Board Chair, Mark Doland, signed the document for the E911 Board.

Signature line on the 28E agreement between E911 and EMA. Doland was the Chair of E911 and also a Mahaska County Supervisor.

“The whole thing’s a mess. Nobody knows what they are supposed to be doing,” added Groenendyk.

The measure passed on a 3-0 vote to invite Racom to submit a bid to the board for a radio communication system.

Bids are scheduled for a November 1 deadline.

The next item on the agenda for the Supervisors was to hire Freeman and Mazzitello communications consultant to review the bids and make a recommendation on a radio system to the board of supervisors.

Groenendyk said that Freeman estimates a $1,500.00 cost to review both radio proposals. “They are going to review both of them, make sure they meet the specs or the criteria, or whatever needs to be set-forth that was in the RFP.”

To present their findings, Groenendyk said Freeman estimates it would be an additional $1000.00. “He was estimating around $2,500.00.”

“I’m going to add to that. I think it would probably be best to, and it doesn’t have to be part of it, but I think in the future we’re going to have to have a work session to ask questions of what everybody has to offer and everything else. I think it’s time we just [inaudible] consultant that’s not been biased, to let everybody ask questions and find out what both sides have to offer,” said Groenendyk.

“Let’s get this resolved,” said Groenendyk to the board.

Supervisor Steve Wanders seconded the motion to hire Freeman and Mazzitello Communications Consultants to review bids and make a recommendation.

The measure passed on a 3-0 vote by the board.

An email dated January 12, 2018 from Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk and Rey Freeman and Matt Mazzitello talking about the system being proposed and lining up their initial trip to discuss radio communication systems.

During public comment, this reporter asked Groenendyk about his previous dealings with Rey Freeman and Mazzitello dating back to 2017, in which Groenendyk appeared to be sharing information with the consultants that was then being generated by the Emergency Management Commission. A Freedom of Information Act request by Oskaloosa News discovered e-mails that appeared to show Groenendyk sharing confidential information with Rey Freeman and Mazzitello.

“That’s an interesting point. You’ve got a lot of my emails you Freedom of Information Act’d. Including you knew a long time ago that Mr. Jamey Robinson wasn’t speaking freely for Racom.”

I again asked Mr. Groenendyk to please answer the question. “I will if you allow me,” Groenendyk responded.

Mr. Groenendyk then started to describe his perspective of the situation by talking about EMA Director Jamey Robinson, and the time he [Groenendyk] spent in Dallas County talking with individuals there in regards to their communications system.

I then interrupted Mr. Groenendyk to answer the question if he was leaking information.

“Would you like me to get to my answer,” replied Groenendyk.

“Would you just answer that question please,” I asked of Groenendyk.

“No,” replied Groenendyk. “I’m not going to answer your question until everybody understands what’s going on. Not just a brief answer you can publish it the way you want to. Because everybody is going to know what Mark Groenendyk has done to come up to the conclusion I have.”

Groenendyk then continued to talk about Dallas County and the day he spent there. Later that evening he got a text asking him if he was coming to the EMA meeting. “Well great. I spent the whole day digging with misinformation from the EMA director and never even get invited to an EMA meeting which we’re going to talk about bonding.”

This reporter then repeated the question to Groenendyk.

“You want to know why I’ve been just looking at Motorola, and I talked about this with Mr. Miller as well. You’re right, I have done a lot of study on Motorola, and you know why? Cause there’s been a lot of talk from our EMA Director that Motorola sucks. And they can’t do things,” said Groenendyk.

I once again asked Mr. Groenendyk to answer the question.

Groenendyk said that this reporter didn’t want to hear that a supervisor was “doing his due diligence to try to find out the truth of what is going on.”

Groenendyk said that he’s working to make sure everyone is telling the truth. “I’m sorry that I’m not a lazy supervisor. I’m not really sorry I’m a supervisor, I’m glad I’m doing a good job at this. I’ve done my work.”

I once again pushed as to why he was avoiding the question.

“Actually, I’m telling you an answer you don’t want to hear,” replied Groenendyk. “That’s the issue.”

“No, you’re not answering a question,” this reporter responded.

“I’m sorry you’re shaking, but you know what, you’ve got your answer,” replied Groenendyk.

Van Renterghem once again addressed Groenendyk, once again asking him to make personnel complaints to the EMA board about Robinson’s job performance.

That request was something Groenendyk agreed to, and a job performance review was planned for the next EMC meeting.

“These are things that need to be discussed by his governing board,” said Van Renterghem to Groenendyk.

“You know, I think I’ve tried it a time or two, and I don’t think anyone listened. I’ll tell you the main reason why I have very little confidence. I think you told me twice now, February and March of last year that you were going to buck anything Jamey did because he did too much for you,” said Groenendyk to Van Renterghem. “And so I’ve got very little confidence anything I say is going to go any further than that.”

“Have you tried?” Van Renterghem said to Groenendyk. “Have you put it on the agenda. Have you put this issue on the agenda with EMA?”

“You know I’ve put on the agenda, we’ve talked about political subdivisions with the EMA,” Groenendyk said.

“Have you put this issue on the agenda Mark,” Van Renterghem asked.

“No, I’ve not conferred with Racom until yesterday. I wanted to know if Mike Miller was telling me the truth or if Jamey Robinson was. It was the first time I spoke with Mike Miller.”

“It’s no different than talking with Motorola,” Groenendyk continued. “I haven’t been talking to them; I’ve been talking to their sources. I talked to the owner and CEO. I want it public, so both sides know I’ve talked to the owner of Motorola yesterday.”

This reporter once again asked Mr. Groenendyk if he would answer the question posed to him.

“See that’s your opinion. I told you an answer, and you didn’t want to hear it,” replied Groenendyk.

“Ken, I’m going to say right now so everybody knows in public. It was November of 16, I won the general primary or the general election. It’s amazing, two officers came up to me after that and said, beware of Ken Allsup, because if you do anything against Jamey Robinson, you’re going to get slaughtered. That was their words to me. Is that true or not Ken?” Groenendyk asked of this reporter.

“Well I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I would doubt it,” I replied to Groenendyk.

“Ok, we’ll know in the future won’t we,” replied Groenendyk to this reporter.

Steve Wanders made the motion to adjourn the meeting.