Title
Offices of the Public Defender and the Alternate Public Defender recommending the Board:
1) Authorize the use of competitively bid Agreement MA4106 between Filevine, Inc. and the State of Utah for acquisition of a new case management system;
2) Approve and authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute two Purchase Orders with Filevine, Inc. for a case management system for a three-year period in the amount of $117,744.60 for the Public Defender’s Office and $30,009.00 for the Alternate Public Defender’s Office; and
3) Authorize the Purchasing Agent to execute any necessary change orders relating to these Purchase Orders, excluding term extensions and increases to the not-to-exceed amount, contingent upon approval by County Counsel and Risk Management.
FUNDING: General Fund.
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
In 2019, the Public Defender’s Office entered into a contract for a new Case Management System (CMS), Karpel, which was to replace the internal IT-built system, ACES. As the needs of the department have grown, the current CMS has not been able to support the needs of either the Public Defender or Alternate Public Defender (APD).
One of the main reasons for originally selecting Karpel was the ability for integration with other Law & Justice partners, specifically the District Attorney’s Office and the Courts. Unfortunately, this integration never occurred. Other issues include, but are not limited to, inability to produce custom reports, loss of crucial and sensitive data, and limited storage capabilities without unpredicted extra costs. The Public Defender’s Office ongoing efforts to work with Karpel to resolve these significant issues were not successful.
Over the past two years, the Public Defender has received three grants that require detailed quarterly reporting. Due to this and the other mounting issues with Karpel, the Public Defender leadership team had to consider investing in a new CMS. In December 2022, the team began looking for a new CMS which would have unlimited storage, predictability of costs, and reporting capabilities necessary for their business purposes. The Information Technologies Department Head has been involved and assigned a Project Manager to ensure the CMS solutions considered by the department were appropriate.
The team reviewed multiple products and set up meetings or virtual meetings with five vendors. Of these vendors, Filevine, has the IT requirements necessary to meet the Public Defender’s and the Alternate Public Defender’s business needs.
In addition to Filevine operating more efficiently and with a better platform for criminal defense, Filevine includes unlimited storage, with all documents automatically backed up.
County Counsel has approved the use of competitively bid Agreement MA4106 between Filevine, Inc. and the State of Utah. Filevine, Inc. has provided pricing that is less than this competitively bid contract in the amount of $117,744.60 for the Public Defender’s Office and $30,009.00 for the Alternate Public Defender’s Office.
Filevine referred the departments to Nakoa Technologies, LLC, who has direct experience with mapping and migrating Karpel data into Filevine. This service will be invaluable and is a one-time cost for implementation and migration. The one-time implementation and migration fee is $7,500 for the Alternate Public Defender’s Office and $30,000 for the Public Defender’s Office.
ALTERNATIVES
Should the Board decline to approve the two Purchase Orders, the Offices of the Alternate Public Defender and Public Defender will continue to utilize a case management system that does not meet the needs of their departments and both departments will continue to spend extraordinary amounts of times using shadow systems such as Excel spreadsheets, having to manipulate current reports, and not being able to provide services as efficiently as possible. The Public Defender’s Office will also have continued difficulty with grant reporting requirements.
PRIOR BOARD ACTION
N/A
OTHER DEPARTMENT / AGENCY INVOLVEMENT
Procurement & Contracts, County Counsel, Information Technologies
CAO RECOMMENDATION / COMMENTS
Approve as recommended.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
The department has available funds from the PD/DA Subaccount.
CLERK OF THE BOARD FOLLOW UP ACTIONS
N/A
STRATEGIC PLAN COMPONENT
Infrastructure
CONTACT
Teri Monterosso, Chief Public Defender
Elvira Lua, Alternate Public Defender