BACKGROUND: This ordinance authorizes the City Auditor to appropriate and transfer funds with Public Safety's Government Grant Fund for the purpose of providing refunds to the attached list of government agencies who participated in Nextel's frequency reconfiguration of the City of Columbus' 800MHz Band.
The City of Columbus holds a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) radio license in the 800 MHz frequency band for public safety communications. Pursuant to Order of the Federal Communications Commission Docket No. 02-55 (800 MHz Report and Order), all public safety systems operating in the 800 MHz band, including the City of Columbus and users of its radio system (approximately 120 outside agencies), had to move from their existing 800 MHz frequency spectrum to a new dedicated spectrum allocated for public safety users only. This move eliminated interference that was being caused by Nextel and other commercial wireless systems sharing the same frequency band. This nation-wide project is referred to as the 800 MHz rebanding process.
The FCC ordered Nextel to fund all the costs of relocation for affected licensees. Pursuant to the FCC order, Nextel estimated that the City's cost to transition to the replacement frequencies to be approximately $841,561.38. Ordinance 0808-2011, passed in 2011, authorized the Director of the Department of Public Safety to enter into agreement with Nextel and appropriate the estimated amount of $841,561.38 (to be paid by Nextel) within Public Safety's Grant Funds. The Nextel frequency reconfiguration is now completed and all agencies that participated (List attached) will have to be paid from the cash that Nextel deposited with the City.
FISCAL IMPACT; This ordinance authorizes the City Auditor to appropriate and transfer the cash balance of $407,842.02 of the Nextel-Frequency Reconfiguration Grant from Services to Other Funds Category and authorizes an expenditure of the same amount so that the agencies listed in the attac...
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