REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
December 17, 2024
FROM
PETE MENDOZA, Director, Purchasing Department
SUBJECT
Title
Contract with Inland Presort & Mailing Services for Barcoding, Presort, and Bulk Mail Processing Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
1. Approve contract with Inland Presort & Mail Services for barcoding, presort, and bulk mail processing services, at fixed rates, as shown in Attachment A, for the period of January 7, 2025, through January 6, 2030.
2. Authorize the Purchasing Agent to add, replace, and adjust the rates listed in Attachment A as needed.
(Presenter: Pete Mendoza, Director, 387-2073)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
Improve County Government Operations.
Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Approval of this item will not result in the use of additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). This contract is available for all San Bernardino County (County) departments. However, the primary users of these services at the contracted rates include the Purchasing Department (Mail Services), the Registrar of Voters (ROV), the District Attorney (DA), and the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector (ATC). Each department that chooses to utilize the services is responsible for ensuring sufficient appropriation is included in their respective annual budget. The average annual countywide expense is approximately $400,000 for these services.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Due to the high cost of equipment and continual changes in mailing requirements by the United Sates Postal Service (USPS), approval of this item provides a cost-effective resource for County departments to continue to obtain barcoding, presort, and bulk mail processing mail services rather than acquiring costly specialized equipment to perform the work in-house.
Specifically, Mail Services utilizes Inland Presort & Mailing Services (Inland Presort) to process presort letters and flats by using Intelligent Mail Barcode, as is required by USPS regulations. Inland Presort also verifies addresses on County mail for Mail Services, including forwarding services. For ROV, Inland Presort sorts and barcodes bulk postcards and letters using ROV's bulk permit number. For the DA’s Courtesy Notice Program, Inland Presort collates multiple-page documents that are matched by control numbers. After the courtesy letters and attachments are inserted into envelopes, they are returned to Mail Services for metering and mailing. The ATC and ARC offices require sorting and verification services from Inland Presort to sort a high volume of pages by document number and then verify the number of pages stated on each label to the actual number of pages in each corresponding document. In addition, for ATC, Inland Presort retrieves mail from their office and places labels to mask unwanted addresses. After folding and inserting the documents into County provided envelopes, the mail is returned to Mail Services for processing.
Approval of Recommendation No. 2 will allow the Purchasing Agent to adjust rates and add or delete services as needed, mitigating the risk of a lapse of service for County departments dependent on the contract. In the event that a rate is adjusted or a new service added, the Purchasing Agent will conduct thorough market research to determine whether an adjusted rate is justified, or a new service is being offered at a competitive rate.
PROCUREMENT
On October 7, 2024, Request for Proposals (RFP) No. AGENCY25-PURC-5630 was released by the Purchasing Department (Purchasing) to solicit proposals from interested and qualified agencies to provide barcoding, presort, and bulk mail services for a period of five years. The RFP was posted to the County’s Electronic Procurement Network (ePro).
One proposal was received by the established deadline in response to the RFP. The proposal submitted by Inland Presort of Redlands met the minimum requirements and continued through the evaluation process.
Purchasing reviewed the criteria, which included Qualifications, Experience, Technical Review, Cost, and References, and determined that Inland Presort best met the needs of the County. Purchasing supports this competitive procurement based on the formal solicitation described above.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by Purchasing (Monique Hernandez, Administration and Operations Manager, 387-2067) on November 19, 2024; County Counsel (Adam Ebright, Deputy County Counsel, 387-4229) on November 19, 2024; Risk Management (Gregory Ustaszewski, Staff Analyst II, 386-9008) on November 19, 2024; District Attorney (Claudia Walker, Chief of Administration, 382-7689) on November 19, 2024; Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector (Sonia Oliva, Tax Collection Billing Manager, 252-5430) on November 19, 2024; Finance (Kathleen Gonzalez, Administrative Analyst, 387-5412) on November 20, 2024; and Finance and Administration (Paloma Hernandez-Barker, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on December 2, 2024.