You’d think MS could be contracted to still service the phones?
Being that there is 36,000 of them?
Typical government fiasco.
That's local government for you. Decisions are not based on technical merit, but almost always on politics. I was doing research on a digital packet data network for a local government, and recommendations were overruled by selection of an inferior network. Because the existing support group in a department were fearful of the newer technology and wanted to preserve the need of their existence handling the older stuff. The selected tech hampered the police and emergency services. This stuff happens in lots of cities.