DATE: September 22, 2026
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: John Zanoni, Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator
SUBJECT: Retroactive Agreement with Mark43 Inc. Software Licenses and Service Agreement
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 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 Mark43 Inc. for Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS), California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS) and other ancillary support systems; and
2. Approve and authorize the Chairman to execute a Retroactive Agreement with Mark43 Inc. for the license subscription and service Agreement with Mark43 Suite, effective September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2034, not to exceed eight consecutive years, total not to exceed $16,500,000.
REPORT
There is no additional Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions, which will approve a retroactive agreement with Mark43 Inc. to continue the licenses and support within the Sheriff-Coroner’s Office for the subscription to Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS), California Law Enforcement Telecommunications Systems (CLETS) and other ancillary support systems for an eight-year period. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
There is no viable alternative action. Should your Board not approve the recommended actions, Mark43 Inc. will terminate the licenses and support provided and the Sheriff’s Office will lose access to the CAD and RMS platforms. As a result, personnel would be unable to enter real-time 9-1-1 calls for service into CAD, and field officers would be unable to electronically create, retrieve, or update incident reports or access case documentation, evidence records, and citation histories.
RETROACTIVE AGREEMENT:
This recommended agreement is retroactive due to the length of time required for negotiation and approval of the agreement.
SUSPENSION OF COMPETITION/SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT:
It is requested that the County find under AP No. 34 that an exception to the competitive bidding requirement is satisfied, and a Suspension of Competition is warranted due to unusual or extraordinary circumstances, as Mark43 Inc. is the only vendor capable of providing maintenance and support for the CAD, RMS and other ancillary support systems already installed and implemented within the Sheriff’s Office. The General Services Department - Purchasing Division concurs with the Department’s assessment that this satisfies the exception to the competitive bidding process under AP 34.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. The maximum amount of the recommended agreement through the eight year term is $16,500,000. Sufficient appropriations of $1,747,325 are included in the Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator’s Org 3111 FY 2026-27 Adopted Budget and will be included in future budget requests for the term of the agreement.
The maximum potential amount payable over the eight-year term shall not exceed $16,500,000.
DISCUSSION:
On October 23, 2012, your Board approved an agreement with Motorola Inc. for the continued maintenance and support fees of the modulars as well as the purchase of necessary hardware and software upgrades to the Public Safety Information System (PSIS). The PSIS, which was implemented in modular systems over a five-year period beginning in 2005, integrates Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) with the Corrections Management System (CMS), Records Management System (RMS) and other ancillary support systems. During the Fall of 2013 Motorola Solutions Inc. informed the Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator’s Office that after August 2018, CAD, RMS and other associated programs would no longer be supported.
In the Summer of 2014, the Sheriff’s Office began writing the supporting material necessary to describe functional operations, interfaces, and other requirements needs of the department. In August of 2016 County Purchasing issued Request For Proposal (RFP) #17-003; in which a multi-disciplinary team comprised of staff from several units within the Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator’s Office with oversight from the Purchasing Division of the, then Internal Services Department, evaluated each bid based on system design and functionality. Mark43 Inc. was unanimously selected in June 2017.
On November 14, 2017, your Board approved an agreement with Mark43 Inc. for the replacement of end-of-life computer systems within the Sheriff’s Office and the subscription to a suite of Next Generation Public Safety Systems (NGPSS) for licenses, maintenance and support to the newly integrated CAD, RMS, CLETS and other ancillary support system.
The recommended agreement deviates from the standard five-year agreement of a three-year base with two one-year extensions. An eight-year contract provides long-term price stability, avoids the operational and financial burden associated with conducting another RFP process, and protects the agency from potential market-driven cost increases. Since Mark43 has been successfully implemented and integrated into the Sheriff’s Office operations since 2019, extending the contract term will ensure continuity of critical services while securing favorable pricing. A shorter-term agreement or future renegotiation could result in increased costs due to market conditions, inflation, and the expenses associated with transitioning or competitively procuring a replacement system.
In addition, this agreement is not in the County model contract format. Although Mark43 agreed to integrate most of the County’s standard contract terms into the agreement, some provisions that are unfavorable to the County remain. These include: (1) Mark43 Inc. indemnifies the County for intellectual property infringement and the County will indemnify Mark43 Inc. for miscellaneous items (breach of terms of use, security, etc.) (2) limitation of liability up to 12 months of fees; (3) certain amounts recoverable under the agreement are limited to the amounts paid under the agreement (4) AI inaccuracy acknowledgement (5) no charge access, which allows new developed applications to be used at no charge as they relate to CAD or RMS, but without warranty or extended support. Further, Mark43 would not agree to include the County’s “Self-Dealing” provision. Despite the foregoing, the Sheriff-Coroner-Public Administrator’s Office believes that the benefits of the recommended agreement far outweigh any potential risks and recommends approval of the agreement as a prudent business decision.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #26, November 14, 2017
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Suspension of Competition Acquisition Request
On file with Clerk - Agreement
CAO ANALYST:
Samantha Buck