DATE: May 21, 2024
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Lisa A. Smittcamp, District Attorney
Edward Hill, Chief Operating Officer/Interim Director of Internal Services/Chief Information Officer
SUBJECT: Retroactive Agreement with Journal Technologies, Inc.
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Under Administrative Policy No. 34 for competitive bids or requests for proposals (AP 34), determine that an exception to the competitive bidding requirement under AP 34 is satisfied and a suspension of competition is warranted due to unusual or extraordinary circumstances, and that the best interests of the County would be served by entering into an agreement with Journal Technologies, Inc., as the vendor has provided proprietary case management services to the District Attorney for over seven years and is the only vendor with specific knowledge of the District Attorney’s needs and custom processes; and
2. Approve and authorize Chairman to execute an Agreement with Journal Technologies, Inc. to provide case management software solution licenses and systems maintenance, retroactive to May 24, 2023, for a term not to exceed five consecutive years, which includes a three-year base contract and two optional one-year extensions, total not to exceed $1,618,509.
REPORT
There is no additional Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions, which will execute the recommended agreement with Journal Technologies, Inc. (JTI) to continue maintaining the eProsecutor Case Management System (CMS) for the District Attorney (DA). The CMS allows the DA to manage criminal cases in an electronic database and interface between eProsecutor and other justice agencies in the County, while the recommended agreement will provide for the required ongoing licensing and maintenance. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Should your Board not approve the recommended actions, the DA would not be able to give its prosecutors the ability to file, track, and review the complete range of County criminal cases for which the DA is responsible. Your Board may direct staff to issue a competitive bid for a new CMS to support the prosecution of criminal cases in Fresno County, however, changing to a new vendor would result in increased costs and delay due to the transition, implementation, and data conversion to a new software.
SUSPENSION OF COMPETITION/SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT:
It is requested that the County find under AP 34 that an exception to the competitive bidding requirement is satisfied, and a suspension of competition is warranted due to unusual or extraordinary circumstances to maintain access to JTI’s eProsecutor CMS, which has been and continues to be used by the DA and multiple law enforcement agencies in the County, including the California Superior Court, for the creation and distribution of criminal case files. eProsecutor is proprietary software to JTI and can only be renewed, maintained, and supported by JTI. eProsecutor has been heavily customized to fit the DA’s needs over the course of the past seven years. While there are other CMS systems available to replace the eProsecutor CMS, such efforts would require a huge increase in costs as it would require the procurement of a new system, including familiarizing a new vendor with the system customizations and requirements for the DA and local law enforcement. This would also include increased man-hours and costs associated with an increase in staff time for the transition, implementation, data conversion, reintegration with other law enforcement agencies, and training for a new software. Transitioning to a new software would additionally require the County to pay for both old and new systems to run concurrently. The Internal Services Department - Purchasing concurs with the Department’s assessment that this satisfies the exception to the competitive bidding process required by AP 34.
RETROACTIVE AGREEMENT:
The recommended agreement is retroactive to May 24, 2023, due to delays in the negotiations between the County and JTI. The retroactive date allows for the agreement terms and conditions to govern the license term of June10, 2023 through June 9, 2024, for licenses and maintenance services which were paid under the previous Agreement No. 16-206. The recommended agreement also aligns the license term with the terms of the recommended agreement, so they will now expire on the same day.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. Sufficient appropriations and estimated revenues are included in the District Attorney Org 2860 for FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget. The actual cost each year will be trued up based on actual users and CPI increase at the annual anniversary date. Current pending invoices total $90,000 and include costs for the OFS Code Sync interface in the amount of $30,000 and Court Interface in the amount of $60,000. System costs will be budgeted in future years and subject to approval by your Board.
DISCUSSION:
The eProsecutor CMS provides prosecutors with the ability to file, track, and review the complete range of County criminal cases for which the DA is responsible. JTI also has built interfaces between eProsecutor and other justice agencies, to handle subpoenas, case filings and dispositions. These interfaces allow for the opportunity to reduce workload by eliminating certain data entry tasks and by establishing a common conduit for electronic case filings from multiple justice agencies. The best example of this is the recently-completed interface with the Superior Court system. This new interface has extended the electronic filing path from the arresting agency through the DA, and then on to the Court, providing the DA with Court hearing data. Lastly, eProsecutor has allowed the DA to move from paper case files to electronic case files in all but a handful of units.
In 2015, Purchasing issued a request for proposal from which JTI was selected, and a seven-year agreement was created. On May 24, 2016, your Board approved Agreement No. 16-206 with JTI to provide the services needed to configure, install, convert data, train, and develop interfaces between eProsecutor and other justice agencies in the County. This Agreement No. 16-206 expired on May 23, 2023.
The recommended agreement has a possible five-year term which includes a three-year initial base term with two possible one-year extensions. The total maximum compensation for the initial three-year term of the recommended agreement is $978,230. If the recommended agreement is extended into years four and five the total maximum compensation will increase to $1,292,092 and $1,618,509, respectively. The total maximum compensation for the possible five-year term includes $1,232,254 for annual licenses, maintenance, and support and $72,000 for non-routine support, and $314,255 for additional services.
Approval of the first recommend action will suspend the competitive bidding process consistent with Administrative Policy No.34 as JTI is the only vendor who can provide licensing and maintenance and support for their proprietary software. Approval of the second recommended action will approve the retroactive agreement with JTI to continue providing the required ongoing maintenance, support, and licensing, effective May 24, 2023, for an initial three-year term with two optional one-year extensions, total not to exceed $1,618,509.
The recommended agreement with JTI deviates from the County’s standard as it incorporates a limitation of liability, limiting each party’s total liability in aggregate to the total amount of fees paid by the County to the Contractor. The County and the Contractor shall not be responsible for indirect, or consequential damages or loss of anticipated profits. The Human Resources Department-Risk Management Division has reviewed the provisions and recommends the agreement not include this limitation of liability language; however, the DA and ISD-IT believe that the risks associated with these changes are an acceptable business risk.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #27, May 24, 2016
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Suspension of Competition
On file with Clerk - Agreement with JTI
CAO ANALYST:
Fine Nai