Several local emergency management directors are questioning the state’s rush to award a no-bid contract for an emergency alert system when another option priced at about a third of the $1.4 million cost had been previously considered.
The directors’ concerns are among the latest fallout over the state’s selection of California-based Everbridge, with 16 emergency management directors from the Naugatuck Valley region unanimously voting not to support the system selected by the state, “as it does not meet the needs of the local community.”
Paul Estefan, director of Danbury’s emergency management, said that the state’s purchase of Everbridge has created a “firestorm and disenfranchised the emergency management directors” throughout the state.
“We were totally blindsided by OSET [Office of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications],” Estefan said.
Government e-mails obtained through a Freedom of Information request show that about 70 Connecticut towns — or 42 percent — have invested more than $850,000 in their own municipal emergency alert systems. The Hartford Business Journal had previously reported that 41 Hartford-area towns had purchased their own systems that were not compatible with the state’s.
Many towns are using their systems for a wider purpose than permitted under the state’s contract with Everbridge, which is limited to life-threatening emergencies. However, towns may purchase additional options from Everbridge for other notifications, such as alerting residents about a missing person or a road closing.
The e-mails also reveal that CodeRed, a company with emergency notification systems operating in about 30 Connecticut towns and covering about 1.5 million residents, offered the state a $552,000 price tag to provide an alert system only for towns without one.
The lower-cost proposal had been discussed earlier by state and local officials and had the support of most local emergency management directors.
A handful of state officials decided against the proposal, and instead selected a sole vendor, Everbridge.
“It was a concept, not a commitment,” said Rob Ross, director of the state Department of Public Safety’s division of fire, emergency and building safety. “We always looked at [the emergency notification system] as a statewide tool. Everbridge gives local officials, as well as the state, the ability to communicate out to the citizens of the state.”
Everbridge was chosen from a group of three vendors listed on the U.S. General Services Administration list. Federal law permits government agencies to purchase services and items from the list because the vendors already have been vetted by the federal government.
The GSA list provides state agencies an exception to Connecticut law that requires a sealed bid process for procurement of products or services costing more than $50,000 and a contract review by the state Office of the Attorney General.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal points out that state lawmakers authorized the GSA process, which eliminates his contracting oversight.
“The federal contractor provision is an exception, which could be characterized as a loop hole, “Blumenthal said.
The controversy about the state’s purchase of a sole vendor began shortly after officials announced it had hurriedly selected Everbridge from the U.S. Government Services Administration (GSA) list in late June in time for hurricane season.
“It was fundamental to get to the Sept. 1 date,” Ross explained. “We had projections this would be a very difficult hurricane season for the Northeast. … If we had to go through normal procurement hoops, we would probably have this system up and running by next spring.”
According to e-mails between officials from the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security and the Department of Public Safety Office of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications, the rush to have a statewide system operating by September stemmed from a directive by the governor.
Although the Everbridge system has been operational since late August, municipal training on the system has been delayed. The state canceled training for town emergency management directors last month because municipal emergency management directors found the early training sessions needed to better address their needs. The one-day training sessions have been expanded to two days, and will be conducted over the next six months, according to state officials.
State agency e-mails disclose that Code Red had been considered last year by state officials as a replacement for the Reverse 911 system because of its successful track record in about 30 Connecticut towns. However, because it was still in the process of getting placed on the GSA list, Code Red was not one of the two vendors asked to make a presentation during the state’s selection process. That process began on April 29 and concluded with the selection of Everbridge on June 22.
Ross maintains that the state selected the “best package for the best price. It made fiscal sense, practical sense. … We think as people get more familiar with the [Everbridge] system, they will find it to be very useful tool that has a lot of potential too.”
State officials say that they selected Everbridge because it offered the best pricing for unlimited calls compared with two other competitors listed on the federal General Administration Services Web site.
A surcharge on ratepayers’ telephone bills paid for the Everbridge system.
