Starting about 8 months ago, The Bulletin began reporting on the problems of Deschutes County’s new $5 million public safety radio system — distortion, dropped signals and, and …

Some of the problems remain unresolved, even though the system launched more than a year ago. But county government is finalizing two important steps to figure out how things went wrong and perhaps restructure Deschutes County 911 to better meet technology challenges.

Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Baney first suggested the county should do an audit of what went wrong about 8 months ago. Commissioners just approved a request for qualifications for contractors to apply for the job. It’s about time.

The contractor will be tasked to evaluate decision-making, describe how “broken” the system was and make recommendations to avoid mistakes in the future.

Another component of that audit will be critical: Why and how did county decision-makers change the original design of the system to a lower standard of performance? That piece is important because the county’s technical consultant said the county ended up contracting for a public safety radio system below the generally recognized performance standard for a public safety radio system. In short: The county got what it paid for and what it bought was not up to snuff.

The second step the county is taking looks more toward the future. Does 911 have the right staffing and structure to be able to the perform the technical side of its responsibilities? The county contracted with Harris Corp. to build the system and with ADCOMM Engineering to provide the county with technical assistance. But does 911 itself need more technical expertise?

The county’s most important priority is to improve the performance of the system. But it’s smart to finally get around to an in-depth look at what went wrong and how to avoid those mistakes. Taxpayers paid $5 million for a frustrating result.