REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL
DATE: May 10, 2018
FROM: YVONNE SPENCE, City Clerk
Office of the City Clerk
SUBJECT
Title
Approve a 5-year renewal of the contract with Netfile in the amount of $140,000 to provide the continued City Software system that allows for electronic filings of Campaign Statements and Statements of Economic Interest (SEI) forms.
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council approve the renewal of this contract for an additional five (5) years. With five years of data and training invested in this software, and to avoid any interruptions in service, which would also involve a large data transfer and a new learning curve to implement a new system, the City Clerk’s Office believes it is in the City’s best interest to amend the contract and extend the relationship with Netfile.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Fresno staff, incumbents and candidates have been utilizing the NetFile system since 2013 to file campaign statements and Form 700 in compliance with the FPPC. Conditions of the agreement include: the system can be cancelled with no penalties at any time; all data created in the system is the property of the City of Fresno; if the City ever discontinues using the system for any reason, all data will be returned to the City by NetFile within 10 working days; NetFile provides excellent customer service. Even though their support team states that they will respond within three working days, they continue to respond to questions within hours, not days.
For the past five years, NetFile continually provided training to the Clerk staff, the City’s Liaison and filers on an ongoing basis at no charge.
The staff, incumbents and candidates have been using the NetFile system for approximately five years. During this time NetFile has stored huge amounts of data without issue or interruption to our processes. Users are becoming more accustomed to utilizing the system and in 2018 for the first time more than 88% of filers filed their SEI forms by the deadline of April 2, 2018. Part of the increased utilization can be attributed to the ease of the NetFile system and utilizing department liaison’s to help the City Clerk’s Office stay abreast of the filing status.
BACKGROUND
On June 27, 2013, the City Council approved the initial contract that contained four (4) one year renewals; this was approved as a Sole Source, which expires in June 2018. Netfile continues to be a Sole Source Vendor, See Sole Source letter written by Netfile attached.
ENVIRONMENTAL FINDINGS
This is not a project as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act.
LOCAL PREFERENCE
Local preference was not implemented because this is a renewal of an existing contract.
FISCAL IMPACT
The funding source is the City Clerk’s budget under “computer software”. The cost is $28,000 per year for five years for a total of $140,000.
Attachments: Sole Source Letter From Netfile