HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 02132007 - C.82 -------- :o
TO,: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra
FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE o Costa
DATE: JANUARY 29, 2007 �oSTA CO-X_
County
SUBJECT: REFER TO INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE THE MATTER OF
COMPLIANCE WITH LAND USE CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL
C . 2-
SPECIFIC REQUEST($)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
RECOMMENDATION:
REFER to the Internal Operations Committee the matter of compliance with land use conditions of
approval.
BACKGROUND:
The Internal Operations Committee would like to work with the Community Development Department and
County Counsel's Office to review current methods of monitoring compliance with land use conditions of
approval and to investigate options for improving compliance. We understand that the level of monitoring
is directly related to the health and safety risk of non-compliance, and that compliance with low-level risk
conditions is not actively monitored. The Community Development Department investigates and makes
determinations on all complaints associated with non-compliance regardless of risk.
The Committee would like to examine potential new requirements for applicant-paid monitoring in cases of
repeated non-compliance and,possibly,modifications to the County Ordinance code to provide for
administrative penalties for non-compliance.
CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE:
COMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR l _ ECOMMENDA 0 OF BOARD COMMITTEE'
✓✓APPROVE OTHER
SIGNATURE(S):'
SUSAN A. BONILLA, Chair YLE B. IfKFhAA
ACTION OF BOARD ON APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED OT
VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE
AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN
UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE
AYES: NOES: SHOWN.
ABSENT: ABSTAIN:
ATTESTED: FEBRUARY 13,2007
CONTACT: JULIE ENEA(925)335-1077 JOHN CULLEN,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS ND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR
CC: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE STAFF
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
COUNTY COUNSEL
BY DEPUTY
RFP for Telephone Emergency (Ringdown) System January 29,2007
Internal Operations Committee Page 2
b. The ability of the system to be activated independently by a refinery facility and the County shall
be included in the aforementioned test.
c. Reference checks shall be made on each of the finalist to assess past performance with other clients
on comparable systems. Results of the reference checks shall be reported to the Board of
Supervisors prior to the award of a contract for services.
4. DIRECT the Office of the Sheriff to provide a status report to the Internal Operations Committee on
March 5 on the RFP process and to provide a complete and detailed description of the TENS activation
protocol, including decision factors such as severity,prevailing wind, etc., and any pamphlets and other
public education materials on the CWS notification process.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The cost of the TENS contract is funded completely through Certified Unified Program Agency(CUPA)
fees.
BACKGROUND:
On January 16 during a presentation on the recent fire at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, the Sheriffs
department reported that it had issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Telephone Emergency
Notification System(TENS),as the contract with Dialogic Communications,the current TENS vendor, is
due to expire on March 31,2007. Whereas the Internal Operations Committee(IOC) oversaw the 2003
RFP process that led to the selection of Dialogic,the Board asked the IOC to review the new RFP
requirements and evaluation criteria, and to schedule a Board-level discussion before the recruitment
progresses any further.
Since 2001,the IOC has also monitored the effort of the Health Services and Sheriff's departments to
implement the multi-language capabilities of the TENS. The Sheriff's department last reported to the IOC
on this topic on March 20, 2006 and shortly thereafter,the Board of Supervisors authorized the Sheriff's
department to proceed with the installation of up to 300 public safety messaging devices under a pilot
program targeted at the Laotian community. As discussions progressed between the Sheriff s department
and Dialogic, it became evident that Dialogic would not be able to activate the public safety messaging
devices as planned,which contributed to the Sheriff's decision to issue an RFP for TENS services.
On January 29,the IOC met with staff of the Sheriff's Department to discuss the attached report, which
outlines the TENS as a component of the Community Warning System, describes events that preceded the
decision to issue an RFP, outlines the differences in service requirements between the current contract and
the RFP (copy attached hereto for reference), and summarizes the proposed evaluation process.
Staff advised the committee that the primary objectives of the RFP were to:
■ Integrate the TENS subsystem with the Community Warning System in order to expedite the
notification process and minimize the chance for activation errors. Currently, the TENS is a stand-
alone system that requires an independent activation process.
RFP for Telephone Emergency (Ringdown) System January 29,2007
Internal Operations Committee Page 3
■ Address outstanding functional needs such as multilingual emergency messaging and real-time
status reporting on the call-out process so that the process can be monitored while it is in progress.
■ Restructure the business relationship with the contractor to provide more flexibility for the'County
and to provide a more effective incentive system to encourage high performance.
Staff clarified that the TENS RFP does not include a requirement for cellular phone emergency messaging,
other than providing that the TENS service must be interoperable with cellular alerting. In a separate
process The Office of the Sheriff is evaluating a new technology for location-based alerting to wireless
devices that does not require tracking of individuals or compromise of personal privacy.
The Committee is concerned that during an emergency, it is possible and has occurred that the public
received visual cues of danger such as smoke,plumes of flames, or odors,but did not receive a TENS call
even though they live in the buffer zone around the affected facility. Several factors determine if a TENS
call will be made to a resident, one of which is the prevailing wind. For example,the current protocol
might not require calls to residents east of an incident if the prevailing wind is westerly. The Committee
requested the Office of the Sheriff to provide the current protocols for CWS and TENS activation to the
Committee at the next regular meeting on March 5 to facilitate a better understanding of the factors that
determine who gets called by TENS under what circumstances. The Committee determined that more
public education was needed about the activation protocols and would like an opportunity to review and
possibly modify the protocols.
OFFICE OF THE SHERIFF PAFIENZI? Warren E. Rupf
Contra Costa County F co'. Sheriff
Emergency Services Division
50 Glacier Drive w
Martinez,California 94553 v may.
George Lawrence
(925)646-4461 a;A. o�� Undersheriff
Sr
Date: 24 January 2007
To: Internal'Operations Committee
Board of Supervisors
Via: Julie Enea
Deputy County Administrator
From: Kevin Ryan, Captain
Emergency Service Division
Subject: Updating the Telephone Notification Component of the CWS
The Community Warning System (CWS) is an integrated all-hazard public alerting service
operated by the Office of the Sheriff in partnership with the Health Services Department,
industry and community organizations. Maintenance and operation of the CWS are funded
from industry hazardous materials fees. In addition to its use during incidents at our refineries
and chemical plants, the CWS provides a countywide warning capability as required under the
Department of Homeland Security's Target Capabilities List and Homeland Security
Presidential Directive 8.
Research into the effectiveness of public warnings has shown that the coordinated use of
multiple alerting media is essential, both for technical reliability and to maximize the impact of
warning messages. For this reason the CWS does not rely on any one technology alone;
instead, it coordinates and integrates a variety of warning delivery systems including sirens,
broadcast radio and television, cable television, alerting weather radios, internet-based
messaging and telephone notification.
Contra Costa County's CWS has been recognized nationwide and internationally as a leader in
integrated public warning; delegations from as far away as China and Brazil have visited the
county to see it. However, the current CWS architecture is more than a decade old, and like
all such technology-based systems, needs occasional renovation.
Early in 2006 the Office of the Sheriff engaged Art Botterell, a recognized expert in warning
systems and practices, to guide the CWS through a complete reengineering of its control
system to bring it in line with current best practices, without disrupting its existing capabilities.
Based on Mr. Botterell's recommendations the Office of the Sheriff began a careful, step-by-
step program of updating the CWS control system based on the international Common Alerting
Updating the Telephone Notification Component of the CWS
Protocol technical standard. One goal of that program was to use this new technique to better
mesh the existing telephone notification function with the rest of the CWS.
In the course of 2006 the county experienced two critical incidents at petrochemical facilities
during which the telephone subsystem, provided by county contractor Dialogic
Communications Corporation (DCC), failed to perform properly:
• On March 23`d,during an incident at the Shell refinery in Martinez, a vendor error during
an unannounced upgrade to the DCC control software left CWS staff unable to activate
the call-out system using the usual web-based interface. Staff were able to improvise
an activation by way of an on-site alternate system, but only after a significant delay.
• On May 1St, during another incident at Conoco-Phillips refinery in Rodeo, DCC's
telephone number database failed, resulting in another half-hour delay in beginning call-
out.
After numerous meetings and conversations with CWS staff following the May 1St incident,
DCC undertook an extensive corrective action program. Regrettably, it appears that an error
by DCC staff in the course of implementing that plan contributed to yet another, different
malfunction on January 15th of this year.
In addition,,after lengthy consultations, DCC admitted that it was unable to implement
requested technical modifications to its mass-notification servers that would be required to
complete an ongoing pilot project regarding automatic alert translation devices for non-English
speakers. With the county's three-year contract with DCC drawing to an end, and with
substantial updates underway in the rest of the CWS technology, a nationwide search began
for an updated telephone notification capability.
After consulting on system requirements with the Health Services Department, the Department
of Information Technology, the Hazardous Materials Commission and Contra Costa County
CAER, the Office of the Sheriff requested the General Services Department to issue a Request
for Proposals to replace the current telephone notification system. That RFP (#0611-004) was
released on November 17th and, after one vendor-requested extension of the response period,
closed on January 11th
This RFP calls for a telephone notification service that is different in several regards from that
provided under the current contract. Differences include:
• The request is not for a separate, stand-alone system with a vendor-specific manual
activation procedure, but instead for a standards-based "plug-and-play" service that will
be activated directly by the integrated CWS control system. This will eliminate a
separate manual activation procedure, thus speeding and streamlining the activation
process.
• Instead of a three-year agreement paid in advance, the RFP provides for year-to-year
optional renewals based on vendor performance. This, combined with the standards-
HONOR COURAGE COMMiTMENT LEADERSHIP TEAMWORK
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Updating the Telephone Notification Component of the CWS
based interface, will reduce the county's switching costs and increase the County's
leverage should the selected vendor fail to perform satisfactorily.
• In addition, rather than attempting to retrieve funds already paid to the vendor by
imposing fines for system failures, the RFP provides for the county to hold the final 15%
of vendor payment in a performance reserve, which will be paid only if the vendor meets
the written performance standards set forth in a Service Level Agreement with the
County.
• The ability to insert the "FSK" (caller-ID) modem tones required to activate automatic
translation devices for the County's multi-lingual alerting pilot project is specifically
required.
• Continual reporting of call-out progress, instead of the current summary report received
after calling is completed, is required so CWS can monitor vendor performance and
identify call-delivery problems swiftly and,independently.
The County received responses to the RFP from eleven vendors, including DCC.
An initial screening panel representing CWS, Health Services, industry and General Services
will complete its review of those proposals later this week and will select two or more of these
vendors for further review and negotiations. Our goal is to bring the Board of Supervisors a
recommended contract prior to the expiration of our current agreement with DCC on March
31 st.
As part of this review and negotiation process, the selection team will welcome inputs from
stakeholders and guidance from the Board of Supervisors as part of the procurement process.
Attachment: RFP #0611-004
HONOR COURAGE COMMMAENT LEADERSHIP TEAMWORK
3
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Office of the Sheriff
Contra Costa County
Emergency Services Division
Request for Proposal
Telephone Emergency Notification Service (TENS)
Bid #0611-004
PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF THE RFP
The purpose of this project is to maintain and enhance the County's capacity to alert and inform
the public during emergencies. The Telephone Emergency Notification Service (TENS) is a
component of the County's integrated Community Warning System (CWS), an all-hazard, multi-
mode public alerting and information capability operated by the Office of the Sheriff and funded
by industry fees paid to the Health Services Department.
The primary function of the TENS during an emergency will be to deliver a supplied message to
each of a supplied list of telephone numbers, in order and as rapidly as possible, from one or
more secure mass-calling facilities located outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. Each
message will be submitted to the TENS in digital text form, but the required transmission also
may include frequency-shift keyed (FSK) data tones of a type suitable for telephone
transmission, which may be used to trigger Automatic Translation Devices or other alerting
equipment attached to the recipients' telephone lines. An additional function of the TENS will
be to provide reports and near-real-time tracking data on the progress and degree of success of
the telephone delivery.
To control the TENS the Office of the Sheriff will maintain a database of listed and unlisted
wireline telephone numbers for homes and some offices countywide, indexed by their
geographic location. (Pay telephones, Centrex lines, network or Voice-over-IP phones and
wireless devices will not be included in this database and will not be served by TENS.) The
Community Warning System control software will access this database to generate lists of
telephone numbers within a specified geographic, sorted by their relative nearness to the source
of a hazard. That list along with the required audio message will be transferred to the TENS for
delivery to the public, in conjunction with other CWS alerting subsystems as circumstances
warrant.
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The objective of the Contra Costa County Sheriff s Office is to seek proposals from all qualified
funis who have the ability to provide an encrypted internet web-service interface along with a
high speed telephone calling system that can support county requirements, in the event of an
emergency.
The TENS itself will be a service provided on a secure, continual and highly reliable basis by a
qualified vendor. The following functional requirements will be met by the TENS provider:
Functionality
1) The TENS shall at all times be capable of sustaining on behalf of the County (i.e., exclusive
of any other customers' usage) at least 500 simultaneous telephone calls and a continuous
calling rate of at least 15,000 calls per hour(to be calculated based on assumption of a sixty-
second audio recording, a 100% call completion rate and no requests for repeats of the
message) for up to three hours.
2) The TENS shall be capable of accepting and distributing County-provided messages of up to
three minutes audio duration.
3) For each telephone number provided for a particular activation, the TENS shall:
a) Place a call to that number;
b) Present a sender-specified caller-ID number and identification string or else default
values;
c) Upon answer, wait for audio from the receiving end and then for the first 1.5-second
pause after such audio,
d) Optionally play a specified audio file containing a frequency shift keying (FSK) data
burst,
e) Play the provided message text using text-to-speech synthesis,
f) Invite the recipient to touch a key to hear a single replay of the message, replay the
message once if requested within 7 seconds, then hang up;
g) If no audio is heard from the receiving end of the call within 10 seconds, or if fax or other
data tones are presented,terminate the call immediately;
h) If no answer or an error(operator interrupt or other), defer the call for a single retry after
other calls are completed. If the retry fails,make no further attempts; and,
i) Record and report the disposition of the call including any error conditions and, if the call
was answered normally, whether a repeat of the message was requested.
4) The TENS shall provide an encrypted Internet web-service interface with sender
authentication by which the County can activate the system from any location with network
access by providing an XML document containing an ordered list of U.S. telephone numbers
and a message text.
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5) The TENS shall provide an encrypted Internet web-service interface with authentication by
which the County can cancel a particular ongoing calling process, such cancellation to take
effect within ten seconds of receipt by halting the generation of new calls. Calls already
underway at the time of cancellation shall be completed normally. All calls placed and
cancellation event itself will be recorded and reported as described below.
6) The TENS shall provide an encrypted Internet web-service interface with authentication by
which the County can query the progress and report details of any particular calling process,
ongoing or completed. The data available shall be current up to ten seconds prior to receipt
of the query.
7) The TENS shall be capable of executing at least five concurrent calling processes, with the
ability to cancel and to query each process individually. Where multiple calling processes
are concurrent, the total calling capacity of the system shall be divided evenly among them.
8) The TENS shall be capable of integrating with location based wireless notification services
for cellular telephones and may provide such services.
Security
9) The TENS application software shall require all passwords used for authentication to:
a) Be unique to a particular fixed computer or to a particular human user of a portable
computer;
b) Be changed at least every six months;
c) Be at least eight characters in length;
d) Contain at least one numeral or punctuation mark; and,
e) Contain at least one capital and one lower-case letter.
10) Network link encryption shall be implemented using 256-bit SSL.
Availability and Quality of Service
11)Individual technical components used by the vendor to provide the TENS, including
hardware, software and network components shall be engineered to maintain individual
availability of at least 99.9% on a 24-hour, 7-day, year-round basis. The vendor's facilities
shall provide sufficient redundancy to ensure that the TENS is available of all times. Such
availability shall be measured relative to a network interface at MAE-West in San Jose,
California or at the top-level Internet Exchange Point closest to the TENS vendor's
designated primary facility.
12)The TENS control web services shall accept and acknowledge all command messages from
the County within five (5) seconds of receipt, and such commands shall begin to be
processed within two (2) seconds of acknowledgement. Reports and other data in response
to. queries shall be returned within fifteen (15) seconds of receipt of the query. These
response times shall be measured relative to a network interface at MAE-West in San Jose,
California or at the top-level Internet Exchange Point closest to the TENS vendor's
designated primary facility.
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13)The vendor software for TENS shall include mechanisms for minimizing the effects of
telephone network or switch overloading effects (such as may be indicated by "operator
intercept" or "fast busy" signals.) Data describing the time and cause of activation and such
mechanisms and documenting their effect on calling rates shall be included in the data
reportable via the web services interface. Activation of such measures shall not imply any
waiver of the required overall calling or call-completion rates or of any service level
agreement undertaken by the vendor.
14)Technical problems affecting the performance of the TENS shall be repaired within two
hours of initial detection or report during business hours at the vendor's home office, and
within four hours after business hours and on weekends.
Reporting
15)Upon submission of a notification (defined as the process of delivering a single audio
message to a single list of recipient numbers) over the TENS web-service interface, the
TENS shall automatically be assigned a sequential identification number of not more than six
numeric characters length, which shall be reported back to the County as part of the web-
service acknowledgement message. This number shall serve as the primary key for
subsequent queries. The identification number shall be stored by the vendor in association
with plain-text notification name provided by the County in the initiating command message.
16)At any time during or after the performance of a notification the TENS shall respond as
directed by a web-service query with one or more of the following:
a) Status Report: A summary of a notification specified in the query by number, including
number and name of the notification, the date and time started, the number of telephone
numbers included, the date and time completed (or the current date and time and an
indication that the notification is still ongoing), and the results of the notification in terms
of the quantity and percentage of numbers reached, numbers not answering, numbers
with fax or data tones and numbers not reached due to repeated-busy, not-in-service,
operator intercept or other errors.
b) Active Status: A collection of Status Reports . as described above, one for every
notification job currently in process.
c) History Status: A collection of Status Reports as described above, one for every
notification job initiated between starting and ending dates and times specified in the
query.
d) Call Detail: A summary of a specified notification as described in Status Report above,
followed by a sequential listing of the date and time, number called, and result
(completed/busy/no-answer/fax/not-in-service/error-intercept, etc) of each call attempt.
e) Number Detail: A summary of a specified notification as described in Status Report
above, followed by a list sorted by number of all telephone numbers submitted for that
notification with the final disposition of calling for each and the time of that disposition.
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f) Error Detail: A summary of a specified notification as described in Status Report above,
followed by a list, grouped by error type, of all numbers which generated not-in-service,
fax/data, or other errors.
Technical Support
17)The provider of the TENS shall provide the County with a telephone support line for
technical support, troubleshooting and problem reporting that is answered by a human
attendant at all times, 24 hours a day, year-round.
18)During business hours at the vendors' primary location in the United States, both primary
and second-level technical support personnel shall be available immediately via the
telephone support number.
19)After normal business hours the personnel staffing the telephone support line shall be
qualified to record trouble reports and able to have a qualified technical support person with
administrative access to the vendor's infrastructure call back to the requester within twenty
(20) minutes.
20)The provider of the TENS shall maintain a trouble ticket tracking system that enables the
County to monitor the recording, processing and resolution of any technical problems
reported by itself or otherwise discovered by the vendor.
21)The provider of the TENS shall maintain a secure, password-protected online status web
page which shall report promptly and continually any ongoing or expected operational
conditions which might affect the usability of the TENS.
Documentation and Testing
22)The TENS provider shall provide the County with specifications of its web-service
interfaces, including network addresses, login information, XML document schemas, data
dictionaries and any other technical information required by the County to implement those
interfaces, at least sixty (60) days prior to the initiation date of the TENS contract.
23)The TENS provider shall provide the County with a schematic diagram of its infrastructure
supporting TENS upon issuance of the contract, and shall update it whenever, that
infrastructure changes.
24)The TENS provider shall maintain a testing web-service interface account for the County's
exclusive use in network interface development and testing. This account shall behave
identically with the operational "production" interface in all regards except that mass call
delivery shall be simulated with only one telephone number actually called per test
activiation.
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Maintenance and Change Management
25)The TENS provider shall maintain all components of its infrastructure in such a manner as to
avoid reducing availability to the County below the levels specified herein and in any
applicable service levels agreements and contracts.
26)The TENS provider shall maintain continual active monitoring of TENS service availability
and performance and shall perform corrective actions for any detected malfunctions as .
provided in items 17 and 18, above.
27)The TENS provider shall make immediate notification to the County's designated Technical
Contact of any detected systems malfunction, and 24-hours prior notice of any planned
maintenance that might affect system availability or performance.
28)The County shall be notified of any changes to the TENS interface, infrastructure or behavior
at least sixty (60) days prior to their being implemented. Any proposed change to the TENS
interface or behavior shall be submitted for approval by the County prior to being
undertaken. Changes to the interface or behavior of the TENS shall not be made without
County approval. Changes to the interface or behavior of the TENS shall not be made
effective without successful testing.
Agreements and Incentives
29)The TENS contract shall run for five consecutive one-year terms with annual renewal at the
County's option.
30)The TENS provider shall provide the County with a written Service Level Agreement as part
of its contract documenting the measures and levels of telephone notification performance
and reliability it is prepared to guarantee.
31)The pricing for the TENS contract shall include annual performance-reserve payments
contingent on the successful provision of service that continually meets or exceeds the levels
specified in the Service Level Agreement. Such performance-reserve payment amounts shall
represent at least 15%of the total contract cost.
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General Instructions To Bidders
CCCSO is seeking formal proposals and statements of qualifications from each firm that would like to
be considered for this project. The proposal should include a statement regarding the firm's approach
to this project along with the firm's experience. The proposal shall also include a timetable of
anticipated completion dates.
Proposal Format
Each company shall submit proposals that are complete, thorough, and accurate. All information
requested shall be submitted, or a statement giving the rationale for not providing the requested
information shall be provided.
Exceptions
Exceptions to any part of this request, including terms and conditions, technical specifications or
support,must be clearly stated on your response to the county.
Executive Summary
The purpose of the Executive Summary is to provide a concise description of the company's ability to
meet the requirements of the RFP. Please also include the following:
1. Provide company's history and experience. State the number of years in business.
2. Indicate the form of ownership and the number of year's company has been in
business under current name. State previous company name, if applicable.
3. Provide the names of each of the chief officers, if a corporation. Provide the
year and state of incorporation. If a partnership,provide the names of the partners.
Contingent upon Award(items 4,5 & 6)
4. List all personnel who would be involved with system implementation. Include
the name, position, responsibilities, and qualifications of key personnel who
would be assigned this project.
5. Provide the position description and qualifications of the staff person responsible
for this account.
6. Provide the name, address, and company history for each subcontractor to this
proposal. State the number of year's subcontractor has been in business providing
the services for which you are subcontracting. Describe the relationship between
the prime and all proposed subcontractors to this proposal, including the division
of roles and responsibilities that they will be providing to CCCSO under this
contract. Contractor shall provide the name, address, and phone number of the
key contact person for the prime and subcontractors.
References
Provide a complete list of clients the company is presently under contract to provide system
development. Provide as a minimum, five (5)references similar in size to that of Contra Costa County.
Include the address, phone number, facsimile number, contact person and completion date.
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Financial Stability
Vendors shall be stable and financially solvent. Include as exhibits to the proposal, companies most
recent audited financial statements. Provide copies of Standard & Poor as well as Dunn & Bradstreet
financial ratings.
Implied Requirements
Equipment, products, and services that are not specifically requested in this RFP, but which are
necessary to provide the functional capabilities proposed by a Contractor, shall be included in the
proposal.
General Information
It is responsibility of each company to examine the entire RFP, seek clarification in writing, and review.
its proposal for accuracy before submission. Once the deadline is passed, all proposals are final.
CCCSO shall not be liable for any errors in company proposals.
Proposal Term
All proposals are legally binding offers that can be accepted by CCCSO for 60 days from the bid
opening date.
Proposal Presentation Costs
CCCSO will not be liable in any way for any costs incurred by companies in the preparation of their
proposals in response to this RFP nor for the presentation of their proposals and/or participation in any
discussion or negotiations.
Rejection of Proposals/Negotiations
At its sole discretion, CCCSO reserves the right to accept or reject, in part or in whole, any or all
proposals submitted. CCCSO reserves the right to negotiate with the selected company as to the terms,
conditions, services, rates, commissions, or other pertinent contractual matters. CCCSO may also
choose to reject all proposals and re-issue this RFP, if it is determined to be in CCCSO's best interest.
Cost of the project is not the sole consideration for selection.
RFP Amendments
CCCSO reserves the right to request clarification or corrections to proposals; however, CCCSO is not
obligated to request clarification from any vendor relative to a proposal submission. CCCSO reserves
the right to change the Procurement Schedule, issue amendments at any time, and cancel or re-issue the
RFP.
Solicitation
Direct solicitation to any Contra Costa County staff, elected official of County Board member, or
contact with any other person other than the designated RFP resource person identified in the Pre-
Proposal Conference about this RFP or RFP award shall be immediate grounds for elimination of
consideration.
Non-Assignment
The Agreement resulting from this RFP shall not be assignable to a third party without the prior written
consent of CCCSO. Any attempted assignment without such prior written consent shall be grounds for
termination of the Agreement.
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Disclaimers
Pursuant to the Public Records Act, CCCSO cannot guarantee or assume any responsibility for the
confidentiality of proposals, or any proprietary or "trade secret" information that is submitted by an
interested vendor in response to this RFP. Once a contract with a selected vendor is executed, said
contract and any attachments thereto becomes a public record of the State of California.
Government Code Sections 6250 ET. Seq., the "Public Records Act," define a public record as any
writing containing information relating to the conduct of public business. The Public Records Act
provides that public records shall be disclosed upon written request, and that any citizen has a right to
inspect any public record, unless the document is exempted from the disclosure requirements.
The County of Contra Costa cannot represent or guarantee that any information submitted in response
to this RFP will be confidential. If the County of Contra Costa receives a request for any document
submitted in response to this RFP, it would not assert any privileges that may exist on behalf of the
person or business submitting the proposal. It is the responsibility of the person or business entity
submitting the proposal to assert any applicable privileges or reasons why the document should not be
produced.
CCCSO reserves the right to withdraw this RFP at any time for any reason and to issue such
clarifications, modifications, and/or amendments, as it deems necessary. Receipt of proposal materials
by CCCSO, or submission of a proposal to CCCSO, offers no rights upon the vendor nor does it
obligate CCCSO in any manner.
CCCSO reserves the right to waive minor irregularities in proposals, provided that such action is in the
best interest of CCCSO. However, any such waiver shall not modify any remaining RFP requirements
or excuse the company from full compliance with the RFP specifications and other contract
requirements if the company is awarded the contract.
Contingent Upon Award
Insurance
The awarded Contractor shall take, obtain, and maintain, during the life of the Agreement, such Bodily
Injury Liability and Property Damage Liability Insurance while performing work covered by the RFP
from any and all claims for damages for bodily injury, including accidental death, as well as any and all
operations under the Agreement, whether such operations be by the Contractor, or by any
Subcontractor, or by anyone directly or indirectly employed by either. Such insurance shall be
combined single limit bodily injury and property damage for each occurrence and shall not be less than
$1,000,000.
A certificate of insurance, in a form satisfactory to CCCSO, evidencing said coverage shall be provided
CCCSO prior to the commencement of the performance of a Contract. Contractor shall indicate
compliance with this requirement.
Worker's Compensation Insurance
The awarded Contractor shall have in effect, during the entire Agreement, Worker's Compensation and
Employer Liability Insurance providing full statutory coverage. Contractor shall certify awareness of
the provisions of Sections 3700 of the California Labor Code that requires every employer to be insured
against liability for Worker's Compensation or to undertake self-insurance in accordance with the
provision of the Code, and certifies compliance with such provisions before commencing the
performance of work in the RFP as set forth in California Labor Code Section 1861. Contractor shall
state compliance with this requirement.
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Hold Harmless
Contractor shall indemnify and save harmless County, its officers, agents, employees, and servants
from all claims, suits, or actions of every name, kind and description, brought for, on account of. (A)
injuries to or death of any person, including Contractor, or (B) damage to any property of any kind
whatsoever and to whomever belonging; (C) any other loss or cost, including but not limited to, the
concurrent active or passive negligence of County, its officers, agents, employees, or servants resulting
from the performance of any work required of Contractor or payments made pursuant to this
Agreement, provided that this shall not apply to injuries or damage for which the County has been
found in a court of competent jurisdiction to be solely liable by reason of its own negligence or willful
misconduct.
The duty of Contractor to indemnify and save harmless, as set forth herein, shall include the duty to
defend as set forth in Section 2778 of the California Civil Code.
EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS AND AWARD
Award shall be made to the vendor whose response to the RFP is deemed to be the most advantageous
to CCCSO taking into consideration the requirements set forth in the RFP. A valid and enforceable
contract exists when an agreement is fully executed between the parties.
Process Overview
Proposals will first be examined to eliminate those that are clearly non-responsive to the stated
requirements. Vendors shall exercise care in reviewing the proposal format portion of the RFP.
The detailed evaluation may result in one or more finalists. At this point,presentations by vendors may
be requested. Finalists shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for
discussion and revision of proposals and such revisions may be permitted after submissions and prior to
award for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers. In conducting discussion, there shall be no
intentional disclosure of information derived from proposals submitted by competing vendors, however
vendors shall take note of Section 4., Disclaimers.
A Proposal Evaluation Team representing the CCCSO and General Services Department Purchasing
Division will evaluate proposals. Documents may be examined by other agencies and by consultants of
Contra Costa County. Any response that takes exception to any mandatory items in this Proposal
Process may be rejected and not considered. Proposals will be evaluated using the criteria detailed
below:
1. Technical Competence: This will include an evaluation of how closely the proposal meets
stated specifications,reporting requirements, service, support, and security features.
2. Qualifications, Experience, and Financial Stability: This will include evaluation of the
history and experience of the contractor. It will also include evaluation of the financial report of the
contractor, and the financial ability of the contractor to complete projects of this size and scope.
3. Conformance to RFP Requirements: Evaluation of the response to the RFP using the
Proposal format in terms of completeness and quality, conformance to the draft agreement, and
conformance to contractor responsibilities. Contractor must meet all requirements of this RFP or
provide alternate means of accomplishing the requirement.
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4. References: Recommendations of other institutions and Sheriffs Office's where the contractor
has installed and maintained an upgraded software system.
5. Appeal Process:
Recommendations made by the Proposal Evaluation Team may be appealed, with just cause, to the
Contra Costa County Sheriffs Office, who shall not be involved in the evaluation of proposals. It
shall be the determination of the Captain of Emergency Services Division as to whether just cause
exists for an appeal to be heard. The decision of the Captain as to both just cause and appeal shall
be final and binding.
6. Contract Development and Award of Contract:
CCCSO reserves the right to negotiate with one or more vendors regarding their proposals and to
request best and final offers. The content of RFP, RFP Addenda, the successful vendor's response,
and any correspondence relating to the requirements of the RFP will become an integral part of the
Contract for services,but may be modified by the provisions of the Contract.
A proposal in response to an RFP is an offer to contract with CCCSO based upon the terms,
conditions, scope of work, and specifications contained in this RFP. By submission of proposals
pursuant to this RFP, vendors acknowledge that they are amenable to the inclusion in a contract of
any information provided either in response to this RFP or during the selection process and that
they are able to perform the work as required in the specifications.
Furthermore, all companies, by submitting proposals, agree that they have read and understand all
the terms and conditions of the different documents making up the Contract Documents and will
abide by the terms and conditions thereof.
No contract is binding upon CCCSO until it is approved by the Contra Costa County Board of
Supervisors and fully executed by both parties. Said Board of Supervisors has the sole prerogative
to accept or reject contract recommendations initiated by CCCSO. Conduct of pre-execution
contract negotiations by CCCSO with a vendor is not an implicit or explicit guarantee that a
contract will be executed.
If the selected vendor fails to sign and return the Contract within fifteen(15) days of receipt thereof,
CCCSO may annul the award and award the contract to the next highest ranked vendor. CCCSO
retains the right to make any subsequent award.
CCCSO has the right to use, as CCCSO determines to be appropriate and necessary, any
information, documents, and anything else developed pursuant to the RFP, the proposal and the
contract.
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CCCSO shall have the right to use all system ideas, or adaptations of those ideas contained in any
proposal received in response to this RFP. Selection or rejection of the proposal shall not affect this
right.
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Evaluation Criteria
1) Meets functional requirements as described herein
2) Meets availability and quality of service requirements
3) Meets reporting requirements
4) Meets technical support requirements
5) Meets documentation and testing requirements
6) Meets maintenance and change management requirements
7) Meets all agreement requirements described herein
8) Scope and specifics of the Service Level Agreement
9) Clarity, scope and impact of exceptions to the RFP
10) Company compatibility and experience in the field, including references
11) Submission of a complete and clear proposal
12) Adequacy of performance incentives
13) Delivery schedule
14) Total cost
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