COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Information Services Department

DATE:

BOARD MEETING DATE:

November 15, 2005

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Chris Flatmoe, CIO/Director of Information Services

SUBJECT:

Amendment to Agreement with Verizon Wireless Messaging Services

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a resolution:

A) Authorizing the execution of an amendment to the County’s October 31, 2003 Agreement with Verizon Wireless Messaging Services to provide countywide paging services extending the term to December 31, 2006; and

B) Authorizing the Chief Information Officer to execute subsequent amendments and minor modifications not to exceed $25,000.

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government.

Goals 20 and 21: Government decisions are based on careful consideration of future impact, rather than temporary relief or immediate gain; and County employees understand, support and integrate the County vision and goals into their delivery of services.

This amendment contributes to these goals by maintaining the availability and accessibility of paging services through out the County.

Performance Measure(s):

Measure

FY 2004-05
Actual

FY 2005-06
Projected

Percent of Information and Technology service available

99.9%

99.8%

BACKGROUND:

Verizon Wireless Messaging Services has been providing reliable paging service to the County through a three year agreement approved via resolution 66310. This agreement is expiring December 31, 2005. Provisions in the agreement allow for one-year extensions by mutual agreement, and this would be the first extension.

DISCUSSION:

The County continues to use over 2,600 pagers within the Sheriff’s Office, Health Services, Human Services Agency, Public Works, Probation, ISD and other departments.

Unlike telephone numbers, pager numbers are not portable. Therefore, if we were to switch from Verizon to another vendor, we would also have to change all pager numbers. A change of pager numbers is unacceptable to the user community, especially public safety and health/medical services. This is because the existing pager numbers are well known in the community – from informants to the police, to officers of the County, and medical staff. While the re-publishing of new business cards and other literature may help spread out the new numbers, this will take time, and because pagers are used especially during emergencies, the user community does not want to risk the possibilities of not being able to contact the right people immediately. In addition, any switch from Verizon to another vendor would have to be preceded by service coverage tests to ensure a minimum of 99.7% service availability. These tests are expensive and time consuming. Therefore, it is in the County’s best interest to continue using Verizon Wireless until we can make an effective business case to switch pager numbers.

Verizon Wireless has agreed to drop its fees for most of its services without changing the terms of the existing agreement. This drop in fees is significant. For example, numeric paging will cost $2.25 instead of $3.50 per pager per month, and alpha-numeric paging will cost $5.35 per pager per month instead of $7.35. The approximate savings per year is $39,000.

County Counsel has reviewed and approved this amendment and resolution.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The term of this Amendment is January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006. The total obligation under this agreement is $782,000. Funds have been included in the FY2005-06 budget.