REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO
AND RECORD OF ACTION
October 27, 2020
FROM
BOB PAGE, Registrar of Voters, Registrar of Voters
SUBJECT
Title
Amendment to Agreement with K&H Printers, Inc. for an additional service and increasing the payment provision for the official ballot printing and mailing services.
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 5 to Agreement No. 15-80 with K&H Printers, Inc., for official ballot printing and mailing services, for additional mail ballot services, extending the term for one year for a new total term of February 10, 2015 through December 31, 2021; and increasing the contract amount by $1,050,000 from $8,790,609 to an amount not to exceed $9,840,609.
(Presenter: Bob Page, Registrar of Voters, 387-2100)
Body
COUNTY AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GOALS & OBJECTIVES
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 Costs). The one-time cost for mailing a ballot to every voter and Intelligent mail Barcode (IMb) Tracing resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic is funded within the Registrar of Voters’ current allocation of Discretionary General Funding and may be eligible for reimbursement from the State’s budget allocation or through the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act or other COVID 19 related federal or state funding if available. Adequate appropriation and revenue have been included in the Registrar of Voters’ 2020-21 budget and will be included in the 2021-22 recommended budget.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On May 8, 2020, the Governor issued Executive Order (EO) N-64-20 requiring counties to mail a ballot to all registered voters during the November 3, 2020 Presidential General Election. Subsequently, the Governor issued EO N-67-20 and signed Assembly Bill 860, which together direct election officials how they must conduct this election to ensure all voters are able to cast a ballot safely and securely during the ongoing pandemic.
The executive orders and legislation mandate that the County:
• Mail a ballot to all registered voters
• Provide a system to permit all voters to track their mail ballot from issuance to counting
There are more than 1 million registered voters in the county, of which 70% are permanent mail ballot voters. The State mandate requires the Registrar of Voters (ROV) to mail ballots to an additional 300,000 voters. As a result, ROV will incur increased costs associated with both the printing and mailing of the ballots.
To provide voters with the ability to track their mail ballots from issuance to when they are counted, ROV signed up for the Secretary of State’s Where’s My Ballot service. K&H will print a unique IMb barcode on each return envelope to ensure mail ballots can be tracked. The barcode is scanned at various points throughout the U.S. Postal Service and ROV processes, which will trigger a telephone, email or text notification to be sent to the voter.
Approval of the recommendation will allow ROV to provide the mandated services to ensure all voters are able to cast a ballot safely and securely.
PROCUREMENT
On February 10, 2015 (Item No. 47), as the result of a competitive procurement, the Board approved Agreement No. 15-80 with K&H for official ballot printing and mailing services, in an amount not to exceed $2,640,530, for the period of February 10, 2015 through December 31, 2016 with the option to extend two additional one-year periods. The Board has approved four contract amendments:
• December 20, 2016 (Item No. 83), exercising the first renewal option to extend the contract through December 31, 2017 and increasing the total amount not to exceed $3,140,530;
• December 19, 2017 (Item No. 62), exercising the second renewal option to extend the contract through December 31, 2018 and increasing the total amount not to exceed $5,189,133;
• September 25, 2018 (Item No. 43), extending the contract through December 31, 2019, and increasing the total amount not to exceed $5,499,956;
• November 5, 2019 (Item No. 35), extending the contract through December 31, 2020, and increasing the total amount not to exceed $8,790,609.
ROV is working with the Purchasing Agent to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) in January of 2021 for official ballot printing and mailing services.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Jolena Grider, Deputy County Counsel, 387-4310) on October 1, 2020; Purchasing Department (Michelle Churchill, Supervising Buyer, 387-2070) on October 5, 2020; Finance (Elias Duenas, Finance Analyst, 387-4052) on October 8, 2020; and County Finance and Administration (Robert Saldana, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on October 9, 2020.