REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
August 20, 2024
FROM
STEPHENIE SHEA, Registrar of Voters
SUBJECT
Title
Amendment to Contract with DMT Solution Global Corporation dba BlueCrest for Support Services for Mail Ballot Machines
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 1 to Contract No. 19-805 with DMT Solution Global Corporation dba BlueCrest, for software, licensing, warranty, training, and election support services of ballot sorters, updating the contract language to include vendor duties relating to data management, increasing the contract amount by $650,000 from $1,918,488 to an amount not to exceed of $2,568,488, and extending the term by five years, for a total term of December 10, 2019 through December 9, 2029.
(Presenter: Stephenie Shea, 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 recommendation will not result in the use of additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). The ongoing cost is variable and dependent on the number of elections and the annual volume of each election. Ongoing costs of $106,000 associated with the first year of the extension term under Amendment No. 1 are included in the Registrar of Voters (ROV) 2024-25 budget. The ongoing costs of $544,000 for the remaining four years of the term will be paid annually and will be included in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On March 10, 2019 (Item No. 35), the Board of Supervisors (Board) approved the use of a formal, competitive Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) procurement process to select and purchase a State-certified replacement voting system. On September 3, 2019, ROV issued ITN No. ROV120-ROV3514 in conjunction with the Purchasing Agent. ROV received three proposals (DMT Solution Global Corporation dba BlueCrest (BlueCrest), Fluence Automation, LLC., and Runbeck Election Services). The evaluation team rated BlueCrest No. 1 for providing the overall best value to the County based on the functionality of its equipment and its capacity and capability to support the County’s more than 680,000 permanent mail ballot voters.
On December 10, 2019 (Item No. 37), the Board approved Contract No. 19-805 with BlueCrest, for the purchase of two mail ballot sorters, in the amount not to exceed $1,918,488, for the five-year period from December 10, 2019, through December 9, 2024. This included software and hardware components, licensing, warranty, training, and election support services.
The mail ballot sorters streamline the process to track, monitor, capture inbound voter signatures, sort and report the returned ballot, while maintaining compliance with state voting statutes and regulations, including the United Postal Service’s regulations.
BlueCrest has provided satisfactory customer service and support through the original term of the contract. ROV recommends the amendment to update the contract language to include required language from the Secretary of State about vendor duties related to data management, increase the contract amount to cover the annual costs of licensing and maintenance and support, and to extend the term of the contract by five years, for a total period term of December 10, 2019 through December 9, 2029.
PROCUREMENT
N/A
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Jolena Grider, Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on May 20, 2024; Purchasing (Ariel Gill, Supervising Buyer, 387-2070) on May 28, 2024; Finance (Elias Duenas, Administrative Analyst, 387-4378) on June 3, 2024; and County Finance and Administration (Valerie Clay, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on June 10, 2024.