HONOLULU – Honolulu officials have scrapped a $1.5 million GPS satellite system, which was designed to dispatch parks vehicles to trouble spots, because the fleet lacks radios to contact the vehicles, according to the Honolulu Advertiser. Officials are looking for other uses for the equipment. Currently the system is installed in 106 parks vehicles. Once the gear was installed in 2002, it was never used. City Council Budget Committee Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said the project was a waste of taxpayers' money and that she never found out who pushed for the purchase. Bill Balfour, the former parks director, had said he had no use for the tracking equipment when it was first installed, according to Kobayashi. Information Technology Director Gordon Bruce said parks managers had no desire to track employees, which would have required putting a parks worker at the monitoring station rather than working in the parks. Similar tracking equipment was installed on city ambulances and fire trucks, and is being used because those vehicles have radios. Derrick Young, of the Emergency Medical Services Department, said the equipment is used daily by the ambulance dispatch. Honolulu Fire Capt. Kenison Tejada said the department found a way to use the GPS technology as part of the department's new onboard computer system.
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