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By DAVID J. RALIS and P. DOUGLAS FILAROSKI; Times Leader
Staff Writers
Thursday, November 13, 1997 Page: 4A
WILKES-BARRE- The Luzerne County commissioners want to award a single
contract for their employees’ cellular phone service rather than split the
cost between two companies as they do now.
The reason- to save money.
But two companies have offered plans that include as many as 125 cellular
phones, far more than the county uses now.
Three bids were opened during the commissioners’ public meeting Wednesday.
The board rejected one bid because it lacked a bid bond, then tabled voting on
the other two for at least a month so they could be studied.
Board Chairman Tom Makowski said the county’s Property and Supply
Department is still drawing up a list of which employees have taxpayer-funded
cellular phones.
William Burke, the supply department’s deputy director, recently supplied a
list of 70 cellular phones in use by county workers as of October. That’s down
from nearly 90 phones earlier this year.
Both Makowski and Burke’s boss, Property and Supply Director Russel Arnone,
said the intent of bidding the service as a single contract was to cut the
number of phones, not increase it. Makowski said he didn’t know why two of the
bids included plans for 125 phones.
The board also plans to seek bids for the county’s pager contract in a
further effort to cut costs.
Arnone said he did not know why bid specifications included the monthly
price for 125 phones in addition to a per-phone charge. The details were
worked out by county telecommunications coordinator Ronald Stashak, who could
not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Burke has said companies were asked to give a 125-phone price for
“flexibility,” in case the county needs to add more phones in the future.
“We’re not locked into 125 phones,” Arnone said, noting he personally added
a clause to the specifications that lets the county operate as many phones as
it needs.
He later pointed to one of several offers by 360 Communications as a chance
to cut costs. “Their 65-phone plan is not a bad price, if we can get it (the
number of phones) down to that.”
That company’s “business group plan” costs $1,199 a month for providing
service to 65 phones and a monthly pool of 5,700 free minutes of air time that
county employees would share. Each additional minute above that would cost 25
cents.
Each county cellular phone currently comes with its own limit on free air
time. Any leftover time cannot be pooled.
“We can save money, if someone doesn’t use up all of their time and we can
give it to someone who has,” Arnone said.
A “major account plan” offered by 360 Communications, on the other hand,
would cost the county $12.50 per line monthly, or $875 for 70 phones. Each
phone would come with 20 free minutes during peak hours and 100 free off-peak
minutes.
After that, the county would be billed 25 cents for each peak min ute and
17 cents for each off-peak minute.
Arnone said most of the county’s phones are used during peak hours.
Of the $50,380 the county spent on cellular phones last year, 360
Communications was paid $26,351, according to figures from the controller’s
office. The remaining $24,029 was paid to Cellular One.
However, Arnone and Controller Ray Sobota disqualified Cellular One’s bid
because it lacked a bond or cashier’s check worth 10 percent of the bid, which
is required by state law.
The bond or check provides the county assurance that a low bidder can
provide the service at the price he claims, said Deputy Controller Tom Dugan.
If the low bidder tries to back out of the contract, it forfeits the money.
Dugan later refused to disclose Cellular One’s bid to a reporter, saying he
was not sure if it is an open record covered by the state’s Right to Know Law.
The third bid was made by CennComm Telecommunications of Northampton
Street, Wilkes-Barre. It would charge $14.95 per phone monthly. That would
cost $1,047 a month for 70 phones, or $1,869 for 125 phones.
Each phone would come with 30 minutes of free air time. After that, each
additional minute within the 717 area code would cost 25 cents, or 49 cents
per minute if the call is placed from the 215 or 610 area codes.
In other business Wednesday, Makowski said a letter from the state
Department of Health has cleared Valley Crest, the county’s nursing home, of
deficiencies found in an inspection last year because it “achieved significant
corrections.”