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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 02251992 - 1.102 ' s . 1. 102— TO: zTO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra Phil Batchelor, County Administrator FROM: 's Costa ....:.... .. o= February 24, 1992 ��, ;a` County DATE: TTI cdiN SUBJECT: PROPOSED RFP FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACT FOR ASSISTANCE WITH LANGUAGE TRANSLATING FOR. CLIENTS IN NEEDS OF SUCH ASSISTANCE SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: Authorize the County Administrator to develop and issue, in cooperation with the California State Association of Counties, a "Request for Proposals" (RFP) for firms willing to contract with local government agencies to provide language translation services for those clients in need of such assistance in order to obtain needed local government services and return the results of the RFP to the Board of Supervisors, along with his recommendation for further actions which should be taken by the Board of Supervisors. BACKGROUND: Most local government agencies have an increasing need to be able to communicate with their clients in the native language of the client, whether represented by someone who is on the telephone ,to . the police department or Sheriff ' s Office trying to report a violent crime, a mother trying to explain to a nurse or doctor the illness affecting her child, or a family trying to apply for public assistance. AT&T and other firms offer a telephone language translation assistance service which is immediately available 24 hours a day upon connecting a client with a toll-free "800" number. As long as it is possible to identify the client' s native language (often done by permitting the client to point to his or her language on an card) it is possible to provide a translation service which can assist the local government representative to provide the service needed by the client more quickly and accurately than would be possible otherwise. It is obvious that emergency services dispatchers such as law enforcement, fire and medical response agencies could make use of such a service. In addition, health, CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: RYES SIGNATURE: _L'_RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER SIGNATURE S: ACTION OF BOARD ON F2bruary 25. 1992 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS �/ I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE __L._UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES:. AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS N THE DATE SHOWN. d 9 CC: County Administrator ATTESTED �� �7 / C;z County Counsel PHIL BATCHELOR,CLERK OF HE BOARD OF Director of General Services SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Executive Director, CSAC M382 (10/88) BY. ,DEPUTY -2- social service, probation, court, and nearly any other local government service which provides service to the public could make valuable use of such a service. In some cases, it is possible that such a service could actually reduce the current reliance on various other specialized translation services . Currently, individual local government agencies can obtain this service by paying a set-up fee and paying a fee for each minute the language translation service is used. It is felt that by entering into a contract covering all counties and cities, it would be possible to negotiate a rate which is substantially below the current going rate. For example, AT&T's "Language Line" service provides for a 22% discount for agencies which guarantee to use a minimum number of minutes per year. By signing up a number of counties and cities, it is felt that it may be possible to negotiate an even lower rate. In addition, such a contract could demonstrate another example of the cooperation which can take place between the public and private sector and could provide a mechanism for securing additional funding for the California Council on Partnerships, sponsored by CSAC. It is possible for a county to contract on behalf of itself and other counties and cities and thereby insure that any other county or city can benefit from the results of the bidding process without having to separately bid out the contract or service. It is suggested that Contra Costa County initially serve as this contracting vehicle, issuing an RFP on behalf of all other counties and cities, which could then be taken advantage of by any other county or city without the need to separately bid out the contract. It is, therefore, recommended that the Board of Supervisors authorize the County Administrator to work with CSAC in developing and issuing an RFP for such a language translation service. Once all responses have been received and evaluated by staff, a recommendation for the award of a contract would be returned to the Board of Supervisors . The Board can approve such a contract without necessarily having to guarantee any participation in the contract itself . No commitment on the part of Contra Costa County to participate in such a contract will be made without additional approval by the Board of Supervisors . CSAC has agreed to reimburse the County for any actual costs in issuing such an RFP and in evaluating the responses to such an RFP.