Sheriff’s Interest in Contract Told : Government: A top county official says Brad Gates repeatedly urged that a friend and ally’s company be given ‘a fair shot’ at a major communications equipment deal. Gates denies he interceded.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates has urged county officials to consider awarding an $80-million law enforcement communications contract to a company that employed the sheriff’s political ally and friend Gary Hausdorfer on the project, according to a top county official.

R.A. Scott, director of the county’s General Services Agency, said Gates talked to him at least three times about giving the Harris Corp.--the low bidder--a “fair shot” at one of the biggest contracts in recent county history.

Based on his conversations with Gates, Scott said he believed the sheriff’s preference was that Harris get the contract. Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to review a GSA recommendation to award the contract to Harris.

Earlier this week, Gates denied saying anything to Scott on behalf of Harris, adding that he has had little involvement in the details of the contract.

“That is absolutely incorrect,” Gates said. “I’m not a part of the process. . . . I don’t make overtures on things like that.”

The sheriff described Hausdorfer as a “good friend,” but said he was not aware of Hausdorfer’s relationship with Harris. “Everybody in the world is my friend,” Gates said.

Hausdorfer, a San Juan Capistrano councilman and chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said he was hired more than a year ago to serve as a financial adviser on the project. Recently involved in a charity roast honoring Gates, Hausdorfer said he has never talked about his work for Harris with the sheriff.

“I have a financial background and I was asked about overall financial advice,” Hausdorfer said. “I don’t do any lobbying. That’s not my deal.”

Harris has been competing with radio systems giant Motorola Communications and Electronics Inc. to outfit the Sheriff’s Department and every other law enforcement agency in the county with a state-of-the-art radio system.

Because of the enormity of the contract, Scott said he took the “precaution” of instructing lobbyists on the project that they were not to approach members of a technical committee assembled to evaluate the companies’ qualifications.

The lobbyist restriction, however, did not extend to county department heads such as Scott.

Scott said that Gates had mentioned his concern for Harris on at least three occasions while the GSA and the committee studied the qualifications of competing companies.

“He (Gates) expressed strong concerns that Harris should get a fair shot at procurement,” Scott said. Since the mid-1980s, GSA’s communications division has been planning for a replacement radio system.

Scott, who added that the sheriff’s words had no impact in deciding company qualifications, said he had no comment on why the sheriff would have been concerned for Harris’ standing.

But Gates said he was not even familiar with the company.

Apart from his concern about how his deputies would be affected by the change in radio systems, Gates said he had little contact with Scott or others on the contract.

The sheriff said he did speak with Scott on behalf of other law enforcement officials about delays in getting a radio system ready for implementation.

“The chiefs (of police in local cities) were very concerned about that,” Gates said.

Scott, however, stood by his assertion that Gates repeatedly expressed concern for Harris in the process.

“I can only be responsible for what I say,” Scott said, adding that he could not recall the dates when he spoke with the sheriff.

Hausdorfer, whose city is patrolled by sheriff’s deputies and who would be covered under such a contract, said he would be abstaining from any City Council vote on the issue because of his work for the Harris Corp. The contract is to be jointly funded by the cities and the county and will require endorsement from those municipal governments involved.

On Oct. 6, the County Board of Supervisors approved a new code of ethics which, in part, further restricts lobbying activities by current and former county officials and employees.

According to terms of the code, however, an elected official would only be barred from making a recommendation to the county on behalf of a particular firm if the official had been hired by the company or had a financial stake in the firm. Gates said he had no connection to Harris.

The communications contract, so lucrative with enormous implications for law enforcement agencies countywide, attracted the interest of some of the county’s most powerful lobbyists and consultants hired by the competing companies.

Including Hausdorfer, other consultants employed by Harris included Scott Hart of Ellis/Hart Associates in Newport Beach. Motorola is represented by prominent political consultants Randy G. Smith and Don Willet.

Hausdorfer said his role with Harris was restricted to providing financial advice to the company on matters related to the project and did not include promoting Harris’ position to county or city officials.

La Habra City Manager Lee Risner, one of the six members of the evaluation committee, said he was generally aware of the lobbyists’ activities but received no outside pressure to select one company over another.

Risner, who described Gates as a friend, said the sheriff did not approach him on the matter.

“I don’t know that he had a preference,” Risner said. “He would not try that with me. He wouldn’t insult me by doing it.”

County officials said the recommendation for Harris was largely based on cost considerations. Scott said that Harris has indicated that it could fulfill terms of the contract for about $3 million less than that proposed by Motorola.

Among the features of the new radio system, believed to be one of the largest of its kind, is its ability to allow separate law enforcement agencies to communicate with each other and coordinate response to emergencies that cross municipal boundaries.

Officials said the existing system is “old, outdated, overloaded” and does not allow for intra-agency communication.

“This system is unlike anything in the world,” Risner said.

However, Scott, the committee and a private consulting firm hired to evaluate the companies’ qualifications, have also expressed concerns about Harris’ ability to meet several standards of service.

The San Francisco-based consulting firm hired to analyze the two companies found that the Harris system was “lacking in many areas. . . . The (Harris proposal) has many areas of concern where the engineering, design and material is lacking.”

In addition, the analysis prepared by C.S.I. Telecommunications Engineers stated that the Harris proposal, “if awarded, will end up costing the taxpayers in the county of Orange a great amount of money to make it a working system.”

“We do not think that the citizens would like the county to commit them to an incomplete design where the cost will continually rise. . . ,” the report says.

Harris officials declined comment.

Scott and committee members have made their recommendation for Harris contingent on the company’s ability to satisfy seven areas of technical concern on radio system operations by December.

“If these issues cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the county and cities within the existing pricing, and in a timely manner, it is the committee’s recommendation that the negotiations proceed with Motorola,” committee members wrote in a report now before the supervisors.

Hausdorfer said his role in the process was “minor.”

In his role as a city councilman, Hausdorfer said, he sometimes has business relationships with firms that do business with the city but is careful to avoid any conflicts.

“I try to be pretty open on things,” he said.

Because of Gates’ involvement in the statewide campaign for passage of the Proposition 172 sales tax initiative for public safety funding, Hausdorfer said he has had little recent communication with the sheriff.

“I think there has been an awful lot of technical evaluation on this (issue),” Hausdorfer said. “We’re not talking about a (real estate) development deal.”