REPORT/RECOMMENDATION TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
OF THE COUNTY OF SAN BERNARDINO
AND RECORD OF ACTION
November 5, 2019
FROM
BOB PAGE, Registrar of Voters, Registrar of Voters
SUBJECT
Title
Amendment to Agreement with K&H Printers, Inc. Extending the Contract Term and Payment Provision for the Official Ballot Printing and Mailing Services
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 4 to Agreement No. 15-80 with K&H Printers, Inc., for official ballot printing and mailing services, effective January 1, 2020, extending the term for one year for a new total term of February 10, 2015 through December 31, 2020, and increasing the contract amount by $3,290,653, from $5,499,956 to an amount not to exceed $8,790,609.
(Presenter: Bob Page, Registrar, 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 does not require the use of additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Cost). A portion of the expenses associated with the printing and mailing of official ballots, are billed to jurisdictions that call for an election. In 2020, the County will conduct both the Presidential Primary and General Elections, whereby the Presidential General Election is the largest election within the four-year election cycle. The contractual increase of $3,290,653 includes election expenses for the two scheduled elections and two unscheduled Special Elections. The overall cost to provide this service has increased since 2015 due to jurisdictions moving their elections from the odd-numbered years to the even-numbered years, a growing number of registered voters and more voters choosing to cast their vote by mail ballot. However, K&H Printers, Inc. (K&H) has continued to provide this service without increasing its rates. Adequate appropriation for the printing and mailing service contract was included in the Registrar of Voters’ (ROV) 2019-20 budget and will be included in the 2020-21 recommended budget.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The recommended contract amendment will allow the ROV to continue to provide County official ballots through December 31, 2020, which aligns with the County and Chief Executive Officer’s goals and objectives to Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
Since 2003, K&H has provided ROV with official ballot services, which includes the printing of all official election ballots including but not limited to polling place, counter and test ballots. K&H is also responsible for the printing and mailing of the vote-by-mail ballots, voter instructions and other necessary inserts. The ROV is scheduled to conduct elections on November 5, 2019, March 3, 2020, and November 5, 2020.
The ROV recommends extending the current Agreement with K&H for a sixth year before issuing a new competitive procurement, because the ROV has been focused in 2019 on completing several other procurements to comply with a State mandate to replace the County’s voting system.
On February 27, 2019, the SOS announced that most of California’s voting systems would be decertified effective August 27, 2019, including the voting system the County was using at the time, and that these decertified voting systems cannot be used for any election after February 27, 2020. As a result of this announcement, the ROV has conducted procurements for a State-certified replacement voting system, mobile ballot printers, electronic poll books and mail ballot sorters.
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 three 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
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Penny Alexander-Kelley, Chief Assistant County Council, 387-4270) on September 18, 2019; Purchasing Department (Ricardo Salazar, Supervising Buyer, 386-8305) on September 25, 2019; Finance (Elias Duenas, Finance Analyst, 387-4052) on October 11, 2019; and County Finance and Administration (Robert Saldana, Deputy Executive Officer, 387-5423) on October 11, 2019.