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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Waiving Purchasing Policies and Approving a Sole Source Contract to Action Information System for Upgrading the City Clerk's Office Files Management System RESOLUTION NO. 20-577 RESOLUTION WAIVING PURCHASING POLICIES AND APPROVING A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT TO ACTION INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR UPGRADING THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE FILES MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR THE CITY OF AMES,IOWA WHEREAS, the City Clerk's Office utilizes the Files Management System (FMS) for electronic storage and retrieval of official and historical City documents; and, WHEREAS, the System was custom-designed by a local programmer in consultation with the City Clerk to include many functions that allowed for increased efficiencies in records management, but were not available in any commercial software; and, WHEREAS, operational since 1999, its initial cost was $3,000, and significant upgrades to the System have been made throughout the past 22 years to allow access within a few seconds to all official records on file in the City Clerk's Office by all authorized users; and, WHEREAS, in 2008, the local programmer called upon his business partner Bruce Thompson d/b/a Action Information Systems to adapt the System to cloud technology and to ensure compatibility with previous versions; and, WHEREAS, due to changes to City computer security and operating systems as well as advancements in technology, an upgrade is now needed to the City Clerk's FMS; and, WHEREAS, as part of the upgrade, an information bank, which is a new class of digital storage designed by Action Information Systems will be deployed; and, WHEREAS, since Action Information Systems custom-designed the past upgrades and the new digital storage bank and is intimately familiar with the workings of the System, it will be the most cost- and time-efficient to have it make the needed changes; and, WHEREAS,because the system was custom designed to meet the needs of the City Clerk's offices, it offers functions not found in any other universal records retrieval software; and, WHEREAS, a very detailed evaluation with required tasks to be performed by the programmer, the task time lines, and an estimated budget has been completed; and, WHEREAS, there are over 750,000 files to be extracted and converted and this extraction is guaranteed and included in the cost of the upgrade; and, WHEREAS,the upgrade also allows for additional revisions if the City's operating system changes in the future; and, WHEREAS, without FMS, the City Clerk's Office could not offer the timely and accurate service that its internal and external customers depend on; and, WHEREAS, there are currently 56 employees from other City departments authorized as users of FMS,but because FMS was custom built for the City, no license fees are charged to user departments; and, WHEREAS,the upgrade includes a customized information"bank,"which provides ultimate protection of the data, and the cost of the upgrade is far less than adding personnel to assist in document retrieval or maintenance; and, WHEREAS,there will be reduced demand placed on the City's IT Division(no server space or staff time to install the software); and, WHEREAS, the cost of the upgrade is $71,625, and the City Clerk's Office has salary savings from staff vacancies(1.5 FTEs)in the City Clerk's Office over the past eight months to fully fund the cost of the upgrade. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Ames, Iowa, that the waiver of the City's Purchasing Policies and a sole source contract with Action Information Systems of Golden, Colorado, for upgrading the City Clerk's Office Files Management System in the amount of$71,625, are hereby approved. ADOPTED THIS 10`h day of November, 2020. Diane R. Voss, City Clerk John A. Haila, Mayor Introduced by: Betcher Seconded by: Corrieri Voting aye: Beatty-Hansen, Betcher, Corrieri, Gartin, Junck, Martin Voting nay: None Absent: None Resolution declared adopted and signed by the Mayor this 1 Oth day of November, 2020.