A few years before the July floods in Kerr County, local officials contracted with Motorola for a new emergency communications system.
Motorola promised a technologically sophisticated network, though it covered less of the county and was about half a million dollars more expensive than a proposal put forward by the Local Colorado River Authority.
But as the floodwaters rose over the Fourth of July weekend, and as the death count began to rise, first responders couldn’t use the system.
Danny Hakim, who covered this story for The New York Times, said his team started looking into it because of reports from first responders on the ground.
“First responders were having problems with this new radio network in the days after the flooding, and that was hampering their search and rescue efforts,” he said. “What we found was that a few years earlier in 2022, Kerr County had contracted to spend about $7 million on a new emergency radio network, along with new radios from Motorola. And that system, by design, from what we found out, excluded a significant amount of the county from reliable emergency portable radio coverage, including in the vicinity of Camp Mystic.”
From the maps The New York Times analyzed, the LCRA proposal would have offered better coverage around that part of the Guadalupe River.
“Just to be clear, there were two proposals on the table. Part of the dispute that we uncovered here is that LCRA actually ended up dropping out before the formal bidding process even took place,” Hakim said. “They believed the process was being skewed to favor Motorola. So they never even made a final formal bid.”
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Hakim said the complaint about favorable treatment toward Motorola was based on guidance the Kerr County commissioners received from an outside committee.
“That interoperability committee was co-chaired by a Motorola employee. And part of what the river authority was claiming was that that relationship was not disclosed,” he said. “So they felt that the whole process was being skewed in favor of Motorola and to freeze them out. … So there was only one bidder in the end.”
Motorola did not respond to requests for comment for this story, Hakim said.
“Motorola is the giant in this area. When you’re talking about emergency radio communications in the United States, they dominate the market. A lot of their competitors will complain that they feel they’re often frozen out of bidding processes,” he said. “That’s that’s been an ongoing source of controversy.”
Motorola has said in the past that the Texas Hill Country is a particularly difficult area to service with emergency radio because of the terrain.
“I think the issue here is there was another proposal on the table that appeared to cover a significant amount more of the county,” Hakim said. “So that’s the question we’re left with.”
