Radio shipping costs county a boatload

Park County typically pays out well over $1 million a month meeting payroll and other expenses. Commissioners sign off on hundreds of bills every couple weeks, usually with little to no discussion.

However, one unusual bill drew their attention last week -- a $580.25 invoice to ship five radios.

“They must have been heavy,” quipped Commissioner Jill Shockley Siggins.

After a closer look at the voucher, commissioners found it was actually the insurance costs that drove up the freight costs at Cody's UPS Store.

County CIO Mike Conners submitted the bill, which he readily called, “crazy”* in a conversation with the Tribune.

“I figured that might raise a red flag somewhere,” he said.

The $5,000 radios - only about five years old - had been removed from some older, soon-to-be decommissioned patrol cars from the sheriff's department, Conners said. The communication devices were being shipped out to Veto Enterprises in Sycamore, Ill., where they'll be installed in shiny new squad cars.

“The radios are still in good shape,” Conners said.

Making sure they stayed that way was the big financial burden -- UPS insurance on the pricey items cost just under $60 per radio.

“I didn’t dare not insure them for five grand a piece,” said Conners.

Because if they did get destroyed, and Conners had to submit a $25,000 bill for their replacement?

“Then I’d get some questions, I suppose,” he said.

Last Tuesday, commissioners were satisfied with a second look at the receipt.

“Sometimes you wonder, you know?” said Commission Chairman Bill Brewer, who initially inquired about the expense. “We just get a bill and approve it.”

*Consider this: it's about 1,250 miles to Sycamore from Cody, which Google Maps conservatively estimates as a 21-hour drive. So if you paid someone $12 an hour to deliver just the radios in a vehicle getting 15 miles per gallon (at $2.50 a gallon), it would cost only $460. Granted, that doesn't cover any insurance. (An addition: As anon points out in the comments, that figure is also assuming that the driver lives in Sycamore or something, and has no need to return to Cody. The number would double to $920 for going both ways, which makes UPS cheaper. Of course, the the UPS price doesn't include return delivery, either. At a doubled-bill it would tally $1,160.50. I guess the point is that this comparison is clunky.)