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 v
Amendment to County Contract 15-404 with Data Information Management Systems, Inc. Assigning Contract to Runbeck Election Services, Inc.
End
RECOMMENDATION(S)
Recommendation
Approve Amendment No. 1 to County Contract No. 15-404 (Agreement) with Data Information Management Systems, Inc. for software licensing fees and system support for election management software, assigning the Agreement to Runbeck Elections Services, Inc.; exercising the five-year renewal option for a new total period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2025; and increasing the Agreement amount by $950,000 from $819,847 to an amount not to exceed $1,769,847.
(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 amendment will require additional Discretionary General Funding (Net County Costs) for future recommended budgets during the extension period, including potential annual fee increases. The Agreement, Section 2.5 and Attachment 1, provides that Runbeck Election Services, Inc. (Runbeck) may increase the fee annually based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for Los Angeles and surrounding areas as calculated by the United States Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics. The contractual increase of $950,000 includes the estimated CPI-U annual increase of 2.1% for the five-year renewal option. Adequate appropriation for the Agreement is included in the Registrar of Voters’ (ROV) 2019-20 budget. For future recommended budgets, the funding for this contract will be included in ROV’s request for additional Discretionary General Funding.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The recommended amendment will allow ROV to continue maintaining its voter registration and election records with the Data Information Management Systems election management software (DIMS.net) through June 30, 2025, which aligns with the County and Chief Executive Officer’s goals and objectives to Operate in a Fiscally-Responsible and Business-Like Manner.
On August 12, 2019, ROV received a letter from Runbeck, informing ROV of Runbeck’s recent acquisition of the assets of DIMS.net business operations in the State of California. The letter further requested to modify the Agreement to allow the assignment of the Agreement from Data Information Management Systems to Runbeck.
ROV also recommends exercising the renewal option of the Agreement, Section 1.4, as the DIMS.net software has performed adequately since 1985; the software has allowed ROV to interface many customized applications, including My Elections Gateway that provides voters access to their own registration data; and Runbeck has committed to improving the software and support services. ROV has also been satisfied with Runbeck’s mobile ballot printers and support services under a separate contract since 2012. The extension of the term requires the mutual written agreement of the parties.
The proposed extension of the term of the Agreement is in the best interests of the County. A new procurement at this time would likely result in significant timing and logistical issues to install a different election management software product before the Agreement expires on June 30, 2020. Furthermore, there is currently only one other election management software product certified by the California Secretary of State that could replace the existing system.
Converting to the only other certified software would require a significant investment of funds, resources and time, which could impede ROV’s work on other election services. ROV has been and continues to be focused throughout 2019 on completing several other procurements to comply with the State mandate to replace the County’s voting system while also preparing and conducting four elections on the following dates: May 7, 2019, August 27, 2019, November 5, 2019, and March 3, 2020.
PROCUREMENT
On June 23, 2015 (Item No. 76), the Board of Supervisors (Board) approved a non-competitive agreement with Data Information Management Systems, Inc. for the software licensing fees and system support for the election management software in an amount not to exceed $819,847 for the period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2020, with the option to extend for one additional five-year period. At that time, ROV was already using the DIMS.net software. As part of its approval of the Agreement, the Board found the continued use of the DIMS.net software was in the best interest of the County as it was, at that time, the standard for a voter registration and election records system. As noted above, there is only one other certified product available to ROV in California, and the DIMS.net software has performed adequately for ROV’s purposes.
REVIEW BY OTHERS
This item has been reviewed by County Counsel (Penny Alexander-Kelley, Chief Assistant County Council, 387-4270) on September 24, 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 16, 2019.