2010-10-08 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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MS. O’HARA: We want to understand the process? Do we need to know what services are contracted, outside contracts? The types of services? MS. WONG: You want specific kinds of contracts? MS. O’HARA: There’s all kinds of contracts. There’s construction contracts and service contracts, and how much of the work that the county has done through outside contractors. It’s some knowledge that we need to understand in terms of the Cost of Government. A lot of services are done by outside contractors.So in terms of the volume, dollar amount, those kinds of things. What the process is for a multi-year contract. What the process is for professional services. These are all different processes under Procurement so it’s good if the commission has a general understanding of how that all works. MR. MATSUDA: Kathy, based on this, what would you say on the, you requested of the individual who got this procurement process. Like okay, we just need you to appear at the commission meeting and to discuss these items. You have to tell the person what it’s going to be about. MS. GARSON: Right. If you were asking for an attorney from my office to be here, I would say, present an overview of the procurement law and the various different things. Make it 15 minutes just so that everybody has an understanding of what we do. We can also describe what our office does in reviewing contracts.I do think that Ms. O’Hara’s suggestions the kind of services that are contracted out it’s going to be something that’s important to you that would have to be something that Purchasing Division can come up with. MS. O’HARA: Another question is how are addendums to contracts handled? Are they handled by the department or are they handled by Finance, the Purchasing Division? Who initiates those actions? These are some MS. GARSON: Amendments to contracts? MS. O’HARA: A contract is let and it will state that it can be extended. And so those contract extensions are generally called addendums. And what happens some times is they fall into the void. Nobody is really dealing with it in terms of those extensions. Is it the departments responsibility to initiate? Is it Procurement’s responsibility? I know from my perspective as representing a company that does contracts with the county, those things don’t always fall out in a reasonable manner. Again it’s a policy issue as Bill brought up about how these things are handled. I think if we go and get this information first, what the process is, and then consult with some of the departments on their experience and their issues with contracts, we’ll begin to see what isn’t working well. MS. GARSON: I would say then, generally that’s contract administration for various different types of contracts that we would like information on. 25