REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RECORD OF ACTION
REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT
AND RECORD OF ACTION
June 11, 2024
FROM
PETE MENDOZA, Director, Purchasing Department
DAN MUNSEY, Fire Chief/Fire Warden, San Bernardino County Fire Protection District
SUBJECT
Title
Statements of Work with Accela, Inc. for Platform Migration Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
1. Acting as the governing body of San Bernardino County:
a. Approve Statement of Work with Accela, Inc. for services to migrate from the EnvisionConnect Platform to the Accela Civic Platform and Environmental Health Civic Application, for the Department of Public Health, in an amount not to exceed $380,000, for the period of June 11, 2024 through February 28, 2025.
b. Authorize the Purchasing Agent to extend the term of the Statement of Work with Accela, Inc., provided that such extension does not increase the cost or exceed a total term of five years, subject to review by County Counsel.
c. Direct the Purchasing Agent to transmit any amendments for extension of the Statement of Work with Accela, Inc., to the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors within 30 days of execution.
2. Acting as the governing body of the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District:
a. Approve Statement of Work with Accela, Inc. for services to migrate from EnvisionConnect Platform to the Accela Civic Platform and Certified Unified Program Agency/Environmental Health Civic Application, in an amount not to exceed $400,000, for the retroactive period of January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024.
b. Authorize the Purchasing Agent to extend the term of the Statement of Work with Accela, Inc., provided that such extension does not increase the cost or exceed a total term of five years, subject to review by County Counsel.
c. Direct the Purchasing Agent to transmit any amendments for extension of the Statement of Work with Accela, Inc., to the Secretary of the Board of Directors within 30 days of execution.
(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 Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). The Statements of Work for the Department of Public Health (DPH) totaling $380,000, and for the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District (SBCFPD) totaling $400,000, will be funded by revenue generated from the issuance of permits through the Accela Civic Platform. DPH and SBCFPD have included sufficient appropriation and revenue in the respective 2023-24 budgets and will include this in future recommended budgets.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Accela Civic Platform by Accela, Inc. (Accela) is the selected permitting and data tracking solution for many County departments and Board-Governed Special Districts, including the DPH Environmental Health Services Division, and SBCFPD, for activities such as food and hazardous waste permitting. Currently, the Accela EnvisionConnect Platform (EnvisionConnect) is used to manage the food permitting process for DPH and hazardous waste permitting for SBCFPD. Approval of this item will allow DPH and SBCFPD to receive platform migration services from Accela to migrate County programs from the older on-premises EnvisionConnect Platform to the next-generation cloud based Accela Civic Platform. Additionally, each agency’s Accela Civic Platform will be configured with solutions from the Accela Civic Applications suite that comes with pre-configured workflows and business logic tailored to each agency’s individual needs. This includes the Environmental Health Civic Application for DPH and the Certified Unified Program Agency/Environmental Health Civic application for SBCFPD. The upgrade is necessary because, effective June 30, 2025, Accela will no longer provide enhancements or security patches to EnvisionConnect.
On April 26, 2022 (Item No. 72), the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and the SBCFPD Board of Directors (collectively, Board) approved Statements of Work (SOW) No. 22-278 and No. 22-280, respectively, with Accela for platform migration services needed to migrate from EnvisionConnect to the Accela Civic Platform. The DPH SOW No. 22-278 was approved in the amount not to exceed $380,000, with a period of April 26, 2022 through January 10, 2023. The SBCFPD SOW No. 22-280 was approved in the amount not to exceed $400,000, with a period of April 26, 2022 through December 11, 2022.
On December 6, 2022 (Item No. 65), the Board approved Amendment No. 1 to SOW Nos. 22-278 and 22-280, respectively, extending the term for SOW No. 22-278 for six months for a total period of April 26, 2022 through June 30, 2023, with no change to the amount, and the term for SOW No. 22-280 for four months for a total period of April 26, 2022 through April 30, 2023, with no change to the amount. Due to staffing limitations and scheduling conflicts, the initiation of each SOW was postponed. Therefore, DPH and SBCFPD requested additional time to complete the services with no increase in cost.
On April 25, 2023 (Item No. 69), the SBCFPD Board of Directors approved Amendment No. 2 to SOW No. 22-280, extending the term for eight additional months, for a total period of April 26, 2022 through December 31, 2023, and authorized the Purchasing Agent to execute amendments to the SOW, if needed, to extend the SOW for an additional three-month period through March 30, 2024, subject to review by County Counsel, provided that such amendments did not substantively modify the terms to the SOW or increased the total not-to-exceed value of $400,000.
The DPH SOW No. 22-278 expired on June 30, 2023, with the needed services to transition the department to the Accela Civic Platform having not been completed by Accela due to continued staffing limitations and scheduling conflicts. Therefore, it was determined a new SOW would be negotiated to complete the services with no increase in cost. Accela has not completed any project milestones under SOW No. 22-278 since the SOW expired on June 30, 2023.
The SBCFPD SOW No. 22-280 expired on December 31, 2023, due to administrative error, as the Purchasing Agent’s authority to extend the SOW through March 30, 2024, was not exercised prior to the expiration of the SOW. Platform migration services from Accela inadvertently continued under the expired SOW, but have not yet been fully completed. Consequently, a new SOW is recommended to complete the migration and pay for the retroactive work completed after the expiration of the SOW on December 31, 2023.
Currently, both DPH and SBCFPD have not had a disruption in services, as both have continued to operate using EnvisionConnect.
The Purchasing Department (Purchasing) recommends approval of the SOWs referenced in Recommendation Nos. 1 and 2 as these will provide DPH and SBCFPD the necessary migration services to access the Accela Civic Platform and allow each department to continue to meet needs related to permitting, tracking, oversight, inspections, electronic documents, and public access. Authority for the Purchasing Agent to extend the SOWs is also recommended to ensure the platform migration services continue should this process take longer than currently estimated by Accela.
PROCUREMENT
Purchasing continues to support this non-competitive procurement based on the proprietary nature of the Accela Civic Platform. As the owner of proprietary software, Accela is the only source for purchase, licensing of its use, and the upgraded platform. DPH and SBCFPD have invested significant time and resources in the current system, and staff are trained in its use. Acquisition of a new platform would result in additional costs to the County, as multiple departments currently utilize the Accela platform. Purchasing supports the non-competitive justification of the recommended SOWs with Accela.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Bonnie Uphold, Supervising Deputy County Counsel, 387-5455) on May 30, 2024; San Bernardino County Fire Protection District (Kristen Ward, Deputy Fire Marshal, 386-8401) on May 30, 2024; Public Health (Shannon Bailey, Strategy and Business Development Officer, 387-9148) on May 8, 2024; Finance (Kathleen Gonzalez, 387-5412, Ivan Ramirez, 387-4020, and Carl Lofton, 387-5404, Administrative Analysts) on May 23, 2024; and County Finance and Administration (Paloma Hernandez-Barker, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on May 24, 2024.