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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 10232012 - SD.8RECOMMENDATION(S): APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the County Administrator, or designee, to execute a contract with Granicus, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $307,616 for a three (3) year term beginning October 16, 2012 and ending October 16, 2015, to host the Citizen Document Access Solution (the “Solution) to provide the public with greater access to detailed information concerning public meetings and related documents of County boards, commissions, and advisory bodies. FISCAL IMPACT: The total cost of the contract for the three year period October 16, 2012 to October 16, 2015 would not exceed $307,616, as follows: expected costs during 2012-13 total $96,814 based on a contract inception date of October 16, 2012, which includes $27,680 for installation, $7,812 for 8.5 months of technical support, and monthly charges of $6,908 for 8.5 months; expected costs would be $93,312 in both FY 2013-14 and 2014-15; and $24,178 in FY 2014-15 (for the period July 1 through October 15, 2015). (100 percent General Fund). APPROVE OTHER RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE Action of Board On: 10/23/2012 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER Clerks Notes: VOTE OF SUPERVISORS AYE:John Gioia, District I Supervisor Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor Mary N. Piepho, District III Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor Contact: Betsy Burkhart, 925-313-1180 I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown. ATTESTED: October 23, 2012 David Twa, County Administrator and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors By: June McHuen, Deputy cc: SD. 8 To:Board of Supervisors From:David Twa, County Administrator Date:October 23, 2012 Contra Costa County Subject:Proposed Contract with Granicus, Inc. BACKGROUND: Meeting the goals of the Better Government Ordinance, complying with new website posting provisions of the Brown Act and using improved technology to deliver information to our citizens resulted in a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Citizen Document Access solution in March 2012. The RFP generated two proposals which were reviewed by an internal team, and a selection was made to award the contract to Granicus, Inc. With the expected enhancements of the Better Government Ordinance serving as a driver of this project, we will be able to improve our ability to connect the public with actions by the Board of Supervisors. Agendas, minutes and videos for our Board of Supervisors meetings are currently available through a website with the ability to choose a meeting by date. This contract will enable us to add the same capability for all of our appointed boards, committees and commissions. We are currently compliant with new provisions of the Brown Act that mandate posting of agendas online, but they reside on the individual websites created for each appointed body. Granicus will create a web portal to host all of the agendas, minutes and potentially recordings for the nearly 70 separate entities. We can add additional ones as needed at no extra cost. There is unlimited storage for video and documents. In addition, we will continue to give the public a web interface that links agenda items, and their supporting documents, to meeting videos. This feature will be enhanced so that viewers can jump to specific portions of the meeting agenda, and access the accompanying reports on one side of their computer screen, while watching the video on the opposite side. A key concern has been the limited ability for the public and even county staff to easily find documents online. This will be significantly enhanced with a greater search capability, allowing the public and staff to search by keywords for all agendas, minutes, supplemental materials and archives. Citizens will be able to easily track specific issues or projects from start to finish, making county activities electronically transparent. Granicus will also display agenda information on iPads, as well providing the ability to take notes on the iPad through a specialized software application. The “iLegislate” program automatically syncs agenda data to iPads, and allows users to review details offline. The public will be able to download podcasts of board meetings in formats that allow them to be viewed offline as well. Reporting tools will provide us with detailed analysis of statistics to better understand viewership trends. Granicus works hand in hand with the County's current agenda management system, AgendaQuick, in many government agencies, and will do so for Contra Costa. The scope of this project includes retention of our current agenda management system. The workflow for managing meetings, however, will be greatly improved. For the Clerk of the Board, software will allow us to capture and publish Board meeting minutes, record roll-call, agenda items, speakers, motions, votes and notes through a computer interface. This will simplify the time-consuming process now used to create meeting minutes. For members of the public, it will be easier to determine what items are being discussed. The public display will have options to show agenda items, speaker names, motions, vote results and speaker timers on monitors or projectors in the Board chambers. These options can also be embedded in webcast and CCTV feeds. Systems to provide these services used to be heavily dependent upon hardware; today, we can access the software to provide the same services and more, making this more cost efficient than it would have been a decade ago. For this contract, our hardware purchases are minimal. We will be acquiring an encoder that provides a full-scale streaming capability for webcasting our public meetings, and allowing the meetings to be viewed “on demand.” This includes viewing on mobile devices, such as iPads and smart phones. As important as our public viewership is, we also will leverage these tools to provide access to live and archived webcasts for county employees. These can relate to meetings, trainings or other events. Granicus offers a platform that can accommodate an unlimited number of viewers online using a technology that will easily scale to meet our growing internal needs. The encoding appliance used also supports the extraction and display of embedded closed captions. Granicus meets our rigorous security requirements, and offers unlimited record storage and retention. Granicus is a small business located in the bay area with a strong reputation for providing government video services since 1999. In recent years, Granicus has developed a broader mission of using technology and a cloud-based platform to deliver a wider variety of web services, including better behind the scenes management of public meetings and greater citizen participation. The focus has shifted to providing access to government information when and where the public wants it, and on a variety of devices, including tablets and smart phones. Granicus supports nearly two dozen California counties. Local customers include Alameda, Napa, Solano, San Francisco and Yolo counties, as well as cities in Contra Costa, such as Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill and Richmond. The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) has provided direction by identifying legacy and aging systems in the County that could be replaced with this suite of services. The Department assisted in developing the Request for Proposals to ensure that the vendor selected would have scalable options that could set the groundwork for continued modernization of our technology. We expect the selection of this vendor to result in more user friendly and effective methods of conveying our programs, services and activities to the public. CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION: If the contract is not approved, the County's effort to enable user-friendly electronic access to the agendas and minutes of all County boards, commissions ,and advisory bodies, would be impeded. CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT: Not applicable.