Title
Sheriff's Office recommending the Board:
1) Approve and authorize the Board Chair to sign Amendment II to Contract 4379 with Praeses, increasing the not to exceed amount to $180,000 and the term to January 14, 2024, the effective date of the contract will now be January 15, 2020 through January 14, 2024 for providing consulting services related to inmate communications at the Placerville and South Lake Tahoe Jails; and
2) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to sign any amendments to the contract that do not affect the total dollar amount or term of the contract contingent upon review and approval by County Counsel.
FUNDING: $0 Net County Cost, revenue contract.
Body
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
The Sheriff’s Office is legally obligated to provide inmates the ability to make calls and receive visitors. NCIC is the Sheriff’s Office inmate communications service provider. At no charge to the County, NCIC installed the equipment to set up a phone system in the Placerville and South Lake Tahoe Jails. They also provided over a 185 tablets for video visitation, legal research and for monitored gaming and text messaging. NCIC makes their profits from fees they charge inmates for phone calls and tablet usage. The Sheriff’s Office also receives a portion of the fees charged to inmates. An estimated 10,000 calls are conducted in El Dorado County Jails each month. Additionally an average of 400 video visitation hours have occurred each month during the Covid-19 epidemic where in person visitation has been suspended. Inmates also utilize tablets on average over 600 hours per month for education, legal research and for approved gaming such as solitaire and sudoku and for text messaging. The Sheriff’s Office contracts with Praeses to audit fees NCIC charges inmates and to ensure EDSO gets the proper amount of commissions among other services they provide. Please refer to Exhibit A contract #4379 Amendment II for a full listing of the scope of services provided.
This Board item is to approve the second amendment to contract #4379 with Praeses, for consulting services where inmate communication charges are audited, assistance with requests for proposals and vendor management is provided. We pay Praeses a portion of the commissions we receive from the NCIC contract for the consulting services related to our inmate communication services systems and commissary system. It takes many hours to go through the various call types, to audit each call charge and to ensure we are getting the correct commission from each call, video visitation and for tablet usage. Praeses conducts an audit of the charges assessed to inmates and ensures the Sheriff's Office is receiving the proper commissions. The service that Praeses provides is valuable to the inmates and to the Sheriff's Office.
On January 15, 2020, a new Praeses Contract, #4379, was signed which established a new revenue sharing relationship between Praeses and the Sheriff’s Office. Contract #4379 was amended a first time on June 23, 2020 to revise the Compensation and replace Exhibit A. Amendment I expanded the Scope of Services to include consulting and market intelligence on the Sheriff's Office Commissary system (Keefe Inc. is the Sheriff's Office Commissary System provider)which serves as the database where deposits on inmates accounts are tracked and where canteen items sold to inmates (examples would be candy bars, top ramen and toiletries) are accounted. Contract #4379 now needs a second amendment to revise Compensation and Term. This contract and first amendment were not brought to the Board in the past due to the agreement being within the Purchasing Agent’s signature authority threshold. This Amendment II exceeds the Purchasing Agent’s signatory authority and will require Board approval. The effective date of the contract needs to go back to January 15, 2020 which was the effective date of Amendment I , which established an expanded scope that included consulting , management and reconciliation services for tablets, in addition to inmate phone communications.
ALTERNATIVES
N/A
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
N/A
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
County Counsel, HR, and Risk Management have reviewed and approved this Amendment II.
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Revenue sharing, no Net County Cost.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
Please return one copy to the Sheriff's Office for distribution
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Public Safety
CONTACT
Undersheriff Bryan Golmitz