Agenda

Return

C. 51

To:	Board of Supervisors
From:	Monica Nino, County Administrator
Date:	March 2, 2021

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

CONTRACT WITH KARPEL SOLUTIONS FOR PUBLIC DEFENDER CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 03/02/2021

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:	Julie DiMaggio Enea 925.335.1077
cc:	CAO (Enea) CAO (LJIS) Public Defender

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: March 2, 2021
Monica Nino, County Administrator

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the County Administrator, or designee, to execute a contract with Karpel Computer Systems, Inc. (dba Karpel Solutions) in an amount not to exceed $717,171 to provide perpetual software licensing and configuration, including five years of maintenance and on-site "go-live" support, of a case management system for Public Defender criminal defense services for the period March 3, 2021 through July 19, 2026.

FISCAL IMPACT:

FISCAL IMPACT: (CONT'D)

The contract cost will be funded through appropriations from the CAO's Law & Justice Systems project budget. The contract cost comprises software licensing and configuration and a subscription to electronic discovery in the amount of $385,221 and five years of vendor-supplied hosting and maintenance, commencing upon go-live, in the amount of $331,950 or $66,390 per year.

In addition to the contract cost, the project will also incur internal County costs for wide area network services provided by the Department of Information Technology, which will be charged to the Public Defender operating budget.

BACKGROUND:

The current Law and Justice Information System (LJIS) for the Contra Costa County Law & Justice Partners (Probation, District Attorney, and Public Defender) and the Superior Court is an integrated system developed in the 1980s. This system is a legacy ‘green screen’ mainframe system that allows for the sharing of data among the Justice Partners and the Superior Court. The Sheriff’s Department and other local agencies also query this system for information. The LJIS has served the County incredibly well for 35 years but has long been considered obsolete. The employees with the institutional knowledge and technical know-how to maintain the archaic mainframe system have retired and the requisite technical skill sets are difficult to attract into public service and take many years to develop. Consequently, it is imperative to migrate all justice mainframe systems to modern platforms. The ideal strategy is to migrate these systems in a manageable sequence; however, in light of the Court's planned migration to the Tyler case management system in 2022, the County must take all necessary action to expedite the modernization of all its justice systems.

In 2016, the District Attorney's office implemented the adult module of PROSECUTORbyKarpel (PbK) and is successfully utilizing that system. The original payment limit for that system was $1,223,205, comprising software licensing and configuration in the amount of $680,425 and four years of hosting and maintenance totaling $542,780. That contract has since been increased to $2,332,122 to add more user licenses and four more years of maintenance through 2023. PbK was selected from four competing proposals following a formal Request for Proposals process. PbK is a complete web-based prosecution case management application that features: adult and juvenile case tracking, investigation tracking, victim services, civil asset forfeiture, workflow management, integrated scanning, redaction/Bates numbering, document management, grand jury electronic discovery, electronic arrest and court transfer, evidence tracking, restitution, bad/hot checks tracking, eSubpoena service for law enforcement, and view access for external justice agencies. The system automated workflow and has improved efficiency by eliminating the need to reenter data, assisting in task assignment, automating documents, validating work, managing work, and generating alerts. The system has provided users the ability to see, assign, reassign, monitor, and complete various work tasks assigned to users and work groups. The case information screen allows end users the ability to view all case related information in one screen. Attorneys, paralegals, victim advocates, witness coordinators and supervisors, depending on security permissions, may access case information including charges, co-defendants, court dates, documents, financials, victim services, civil, and investigative services.

Karpel Solutions has developed a companion system called DEFENDERbyKarpel (DbK), which offers similar functionality to the Public Defender's Office as is provided to the District Attorney. DbK is a “hybrid” solution, meaning that offers the advantages of a commercial product—regular releases, rapid response support team and a nationwide peer user base — with the flexibility of a custom-developed application. Implementation of DbK will have several advantages: Karpel has a proven track record with the Contra Costa County and many other California counties via PbK; the data conversion process from PbK can be replicated for DbK, saving critical time and money; the data interface between the two systems already exists and, therefore, the system can be configured and put into service sooner than any other system. For the foregoing reasons and in light of the Court's imminent migration away from the County mainframe justice system, the County Administrator has waived the County's Outreach Program requirements in favor of Karpel Solutions' DbK system and recommends approval of the proposed contract.

CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:

Disapproval of the recommendation will continue the status quo mainframe case management system, which is costly to maintain and of high risk of failure due to system obsolescence and lack of technical know-how to support the system; and will, at some point in the near future, not be compatible with the Superior Court's new court management system.