For City Council Meeting [September 14, 2021]
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council
APPROVAL: Marcus Fuller, City Manager
FROM: Mark P. Kling, Chief of Police
Title
Request City Council to Approve a 10-Year Master Service Agreement with SOMA Global, Inc., a Delaware Corporation in the Amount of $2,015,331 for Development, Implementation and Maintenance of an Upgraded Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS) and Mobile Data Software for the Rialto Police Department.
(ACTION)
Body
BACKGROUND
The Police Department is pursuing the replacement and upgrade of its public safety software systems to include purchasing a new Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS) and Mobile Data Software. These are enterprise-level software systems that are complex in nature and take an inordinate amount of time and resources to implement. These systems have a large effect on the law enforcement agency’s day-to-day operations. Law enforcement agencies across the nation depend on these systems to provide services to the communities they serve, and rely on these technologies to capture reporting data necessary to remain in compliance with the State requirements.
ANALYSIS/DISCUSSION
It is critical that law enforcement personnel, policies, training, and equipment offer the best possible law enforcement services to the City and its residents, and can track activities with the most accurate and capable records systems available. The department must also have the ability to effectively conduct criminal investigations, track crime trends and identify patterns to prevent crime and efficiently run operations.
Law enforcement records management systems are a valuable source of relevant information essential to investigations and judicial processes. Failure to effectively manage this function can adversely affect the prosecution of criminal violators and cause a general loss of public confidence. The records software currently used by the Police Department was designed in 1998. At the time, the client-server architecture, the programming language, fields of information that were tracked and the reporting functions were state-of-the-art. However, over the years, that capability became less effective in comparison to the modern software technologies available today.
The National Public Safety Group completed a comprehensive Needs Assessment of the Rialto Police Department on this issue. The following information was identified as several areas within the police department, where existing software is not meeting the needs of the department:
• Fields of Information - software that was developed more than twenty years ago and frequently does not have the fields of information needed today, such as demographic profiling information now required by the California law under the Racial Identity Profiling Act (RIPA), legal requirements for Gang verifications, along with U-Visa tracking information - items that did not exist back when the department’s current software was purchased. Many examples of these types of items are currently being tracked in the police department through convention methods such as spreadsheets.
• Dispatch Command Line Functionality - the ability to quickly and easily document information such as license plates to be checked, where dispatchers can capture needed information.
• Report Approval (software) - reports cannot be accessed by the general agency (including investigators) until the report is fully approved by supervisors and Records. This results in delayed data getting to the right people at the right time to handle recent and at times ongoing crimes.
• Manual Entry of Report Numbers - is still required in many cases (with older software) and results in mistyped numbers, non-matching numbers, lost and misplaced reports.
• Redundant Data Entry - in the CLETS System, the Evidence Tracking area, court paperwork and external data repositories. In many instances, staff must enter the same data up to four times to properly document operations. In today’s software, this is easily reduced with available interfaces and automated printed forms.
• Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) - today’s software has the ability to recommend units to handle fast-developing radio calls, by who is assigned to the closest patrol area and can respond the fastest.
• Create Modules - this again has to do with spreadsheets that employees resort to in order to track things like Capital Improvement Projects, K-9 Training, SWAT Team Equipment Maintenance, Homeless Outreach projects, Animal Control, Community Compliance. All modules that can be created in today’s software to eliminate all this redundant and sometimes error-prone information.
• Sophisticated Crime Analysis Reporting/Link analysis/Crime Trends - the police department currently either does not have access to this type of information at all or must export their own data to complicated and expensive external sources such as Crystal Reports.
• Standard Searching - even standard computer searches, such as how many crimes occurred in a certain area during a period of time, which is generally not accessible directly to the users who need it and must be requested from other, more specialized units such as Crime Analysis.
Today’s Law Enforcement Records Management Systems are complex and more sophisticated than what our department currently uses. Staff engaged in a comprehensive search for a more capable and easier software system to use. Currently, the public safety industry is experiencing a tremendous technological upgrade and improving capabilities, security, and experiencing the cost-effectiveness of “cloud-based computing.” National Public Safety Group identified up to seven areas of existing software the department will replace over time by transitioning to SOMA, saving training time, licensing and maintenance costs.
This new-age approach solves a number of issues for today’s law enforcement needs. In the past, law enforcement relied on the notion of purchasing dozens of computer servers necessary in the old ‘client-server’ models and were forced to continuously maintain these servers, trying to secure them against increasingly sophisticated cyber-threats, keeping them upgraded and synched with many other systems, and planning the purchase of entirely new ones every few years. This is no longer necessary. Additionally, today’s software applications have become easier to configure, easier to add legally required fields of information, and easier to add standalone modules and customizations.
“Cloud-native,” law enforcement software vendors are more and more becoming the choice for agencies. Currently, there are two such vendors that have an “enterprise-wide” capability - a suite of modules in a single application with a shared database used by all (Dispatch/Records/Evidence/Investigations, etc.) Of those two, SOMA is only vendor that offers the ability to build standalone modules with no additional vendor support or cost necessary, and the single company that most closely addresses the bulk of this agency’s needs right now. Accordingly, SOMA Global is the vendor staff recommends and believes can meet the needs of the Rialto Police Department and enhance services provided to the community.
On October 5, 2020, following their procurement policy, the Richmond International Airport Fire awarded Soma Global Inc. a Master Subscription Agreement. Staff worked with the city’s purchasing division and determined that this award is acceptable as specified in the City of Rialto Municipal Code Section 2.48.210 General - Cooperative Purchasing Agreements (Piggybacking), which states:
“Where advantageous for the City, the Purchasing Manager is authorized to purchase supplies, materials, equipment and contractual services through legal contracts of other governmental jurisdictions or public agencies without further contracting, solicitation, or formal bidding, provided such practice otherwise complies with state law. This practice
is commonly referred to as “piggybacking.” Utilization of cooperative purchasing agreements must include:
a) Minimal change in specifications from original bid.
b) Copy of the request for bids and all bids received for the subject item(s) by the originating agency.
c) Authorization from the originating agency to use the bid.
d) Authorization and agreement from the vendor to supply the supplies, materials, equipment or services in accordance with the terms of the bid.
e) Utilization of CMAS, GSA, or “County established contracts.”
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The proposed action does not meet the definition of a project as defined by Section 15378 California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A “Project” means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, and excludes the following:
1) Continuing administrative or maintenance activities, such as purchases for supplies, personnel-related actions, general policy and procedure making.
2) Organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
GENERAL PLAN CONSISTENCY
The City of Rialto has outlined key goals and objects relating to public safety. The purchase of this service is consistent with meeting these objectives.
Goal 5-8: Provide effective and comprehensive policing services that meet the safety needs of Rialto.
LEGAL REVIEW
The City Attorney has reviewed and supports this staff report.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Operating Budget Impact
This report does not impact the City’s operating budget.
Capital Improvement Budget Impact
Funding for year one (1) of the contract agreement in the amount of $406,327, is budgeted and available in FY2021/2022 Capital Improvement Account No. 300-500-6151-3001 for the public safety software system with SOMA Global.
This is a ten (10) year contract agreement. Fiscal Year 2021/2022 represents Year 1 of this agreement. In Year 1 the City will incur a service fee of $244,691 for implementation of the new systems, and an annual platform services fee of $161,636 for maintenance of the new systems, for a total Year 1 fee of $406,327. Subsequently in each year the City will incur the annual platform services fee of $161,636 escalated at annual increase of 2.5% as shown in the Table below. The total contract amount during the 10-year term of the contract is $2,015,331, and the balance of the contract amount will be funded as stated in the chart below and will be budgeted in Account No. 010-500-6151-2011 for those fiscal years where funding is needed.
|
FISCAL YEAR |
YEAR OF CONTRACT |
CONTRACT AMOUNT DUE |
|
2021/2022 |
1 |
$406,327 |
|
2022/2023 |
2 |
$161,636 |
|
2023/2024 |
3 |
$165,676 |
|
2024/2025 |
4 |
$169,818 |
|
2025/2026 |
5 |
$174,064 |
|
2026/2027 |
6 |
$178,415 |
|
2027/2028 |
7 |
$182,876 |
|
2028/2029 |
8 |
$187,448 |
|
2029/2030 |
9 |
$192,134 |
|
2030/2031 |
10 |
$196,937 |
|
Total |
$2,015,331 |
Per Rialto Municipal Code Section: 2.48.145 a vendor disclosure form is attached.
Licensing
Prior to execution of the Purchase Order, the vendor shall submit a business license application and pay a Business License tax at the Professional Service rate of $479.00, as well as Administration and State fee.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council:
• Approve the sole-source selection of SOMA Global, Inc., a Delaware corporation, in accordance with Section 2.48.210 General - Cooperative Purchasing Agreements (Piggybacking) of the Rialto Municipal Code, on the basis of its contract with the Richmond International Airport Fire;
• Approve the 10-Year Master Service Agreement with SOMA Global, Inc., a Delaware corporation in the amount of $2,015,331 for Development, Implementation and Maintenance of an Upgraded Computer Automated Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS) and Mobile Data Software for the Rialto Police Department; and
• Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents.