REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
February 27, 2024
FROM
LYNN FYHRLUND, Chief Information Officer, Innovation and Technology Department
SUBJECT
Title
Budget Adjustment for Information Technology Staffing Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Authorize the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector to post 2023-24 appropriation and revenue budget adjustments, in the increased amount of $5,000,000, to fund additional information technology staffing services for current and future projects (Four votes required).
(Presenter: Lynn Fyhrlund, Chief Information Officer, 388-5501)
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 Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). ITD operating costs are recovered via service rates approved annually by the Board of Supervisors (Board). The Innovation and Technology Department (ITD) Business Solutions Development 2023-24 budget includes $6,408,320 for Information Technology (IT) staffing services. A budget adjustment of $5,000,000 is requested to increase ITD’s services and supplies appropriation funded with additional Business Solutions Labor Services rate revenue, as follows:
|
Fund Center |
Commitment Item/ GL Account |
Description |
Action |
Amount |
|
1200104042 |
52002445 |
Other Professional and Specialized Services |
Increase |
$5,000,000 |
|
1200104042 |
40709850 |
Application Development Enhancement Services |
Increase |
$5,000,000 |
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The ITD Business Solutions Development Division (Division) provides programming and consulting services to County departments for the development, enhancement, and maintenance of business solutions on a variety of hardware and software platforms. County Policy 11-04 allows for the use of outside service providers when there is a need for special skills. The Division requires the use of contract staff with specialized skillsets to support immediate needs and to meet project deadlines, deliverables, and increased workloads. The need for each contractor is time-sensitive and project-specific, with the technical skillsets and number of service hours required varying with each project. The Division uses contractors in addition to full-time staff to work on requested projects for County departments.
The need for the $5,000,000 budget adjustment is mainly due to the Assessor’s Property Information Management System modernization project, which requires specialized skills. This project will result in an upgrade of the Property Information Management System (PIMS) to a newer, more supportable technology. PIMS is a critical part of the Assessor’s business, housing all vital current and historical information with respect to property assessments, ownership history, maps, property characteristics, exemptions/exclusions, supplementals, roll corrections, and other data. This is a large-scale system with complex business rules and a “Like for Like” requirement to move the dataset from an obsolete technology that is over 20 years old to a new cloud-based technology platform. The 22 contract staff currently assigned to the PIMS modernization project are dedicated to work on re-writing the current PIMS. This project requires a total of approximately 27 contract staff. ITD is in the process of recruiting to fill the remaining five necessary contract staff positions for the project.
ITD is currently utilizing contract staff to complete other projects, including transition of applications from antiquated servers to newer servers. Aside from these projects, ITD anticipates receiving additional requests from other departments for new projects. Depending on those departments’ needs and the urgency of the requested work, ITD augments its staff using contract staff. The volume of contract staff needed for projects was unknown at the time the 2023-24 budget and 2023-24 mid-year report were completed.
ITD recommends approval of the budget adjustment to allow the Division to use contract staff with specialized skillsets to support the immediate needs of ongoing County projects to avoid a disruption in service to County departments. The recommended adjustments will also ensure sufficient budget to utilize additional IT contract staff as needed for new projects.
PROCUREMENT
On January 3, 2022, the Purchasing Department (Purchasing) released Request for Proposals (RFP) No. AGENCY22-PURC-4398 via the County’s Electronic Procurement Network (ePro) to solicit qualified vendors to provide IT staffing services for a five-year term.
ITD will continue to use the Board approved vendors for IT staffing services as required to fulfill customer project needs. The Purchasing Department continues to support this procurement based on the formal, competitive solicitation referenced above.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Bonnie Uphold, Supervising Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on January 22, 2024; Purchasing (Christina Reddix, Buyer III, 387-2060) on January 19, 2024; Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector (Charlene Huang, Auditor-Controller Manager, 382-7022) on January 16, 2024; Finance (Iliana Rodriguez, Administrative Analyst, 387-4205) on February 8, 2024; and County Finance and Administration (Paloma Hernandez-Barker, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on February 9, 2024.