Public Contracts (Santa Clara County Board Of Supervisors)
It is a clone of this request.
| Multi Request | Public Contracts |
| Submitted | July 12, 2018 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Dan Rubins
To Whom It May Concern:
I. Background Information
Contract administration is frequently a source of concerning behavior in the public sector. For example:
- In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a company with only two employees (Whitefish Energy) was hired hired by PREPA, Puerto Rico's public utility company, to restore power to the island at a cost of $300M. The contract had audit-proofing clauses and left little recourse for PREPA due to nonperformance. After 8 months, Puerto Rico did not have power fully restored and now Congressional and FBI investigations are pending.
- During an internal audit of the City of San Diego's contracting practices, the contract with office products supplier Staples was found to exceed the City Council's approved $2M annual threshold by a full $1M. Auditors found found insufficient financial controls and produced a further 60 pages of recommendations.
- The US Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) found sustained exceptions for incurred costs audits 28.6% of the time in its 2017 Report to Congress.
- From 2010 to 2013, a Maryland Transit Authority employee allegedly used poor contracting oversight to siphon $6.3M from the state coffers.
- The City of Vallejo, CA was recently the victim of an alleged contracting kickback scheme run by the city's landscape maintenance manager, only uncovered in an FBI investigation. The kickback scheme occurred only a few years after the city was in Chapter 9 bankruptcy because of ballooning contractual obligations.
- In recent years, officials in the southern California cities of Bell, Irwindale, La Puente, Monterey Park, Pico Rivera, Temple City, and Vernon have been brought up on various public corruption charges.
While the vast majority of public contracting is done with integrity, bad actors and a lack of public knowledge have a disproportionate effect on the fiscal wellbeing and public trust of every level of government.
II. Requested Records
Pursuant to the California Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
1. Any and all executed contracts, memorandums of understanding (MOUs), and other equivalent agreements that are currently active, or were active within the last two years, other than standard employee agreements. Please provide a copy of the executed document as well as any addenda, amendments, attachments, exhibits, materials, and schedules.
2. Any and all contract template documents, for example, employee agreements, vendor agreements, master services agreements, nondisclosure agreements, or interagency cooperation contracts.
3. General policies and procedures for contract administration, including training materials and records used to instruct members of your agency in contract administration.
4. Any available process narratives, audit reports, or findings regarding contract administration covering the last two years.
I am happy to discuss any issues or suggestions to make fulfillment more manageable for your office.
III. Fees
If there are any fees for searching or copying these records, please inform me in advance of fulfilling the request.
I would also like to request a waiver of all fees in that the disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest and will contribute significantly to the public's understanding of how governments manage public money and the obligations to which they are entrusted.
Neither I, nor my company (Legal Robot), has any commercial interest in obtaining the requested information. Rather, we intend to use software to analyze and disseminate the requested information free of charge so that the public may identify patterns of bad behavior that, when eliminated, will benefit governments and the public alike.
We plan to enrich and cross-link the information we receive from multiple jurisdictions, and provide an exploratory interface for the public on the internet, for free. Because we consider this work to be Data Journalism, and we further expect to provide our analysis to other media organizations for additional print and online publication, I ask to be categorized as a representative of the news media. Upon request, I am happy to provide our analysis and any articles we write based on our analysis in advance of publication, though I cannot speak for other media outlets.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Dan Rubins
From:
Hi Dan,
I'm following up on your CPRA requests for our Procurement Department. Because some of your requests are broad in nature, I'd like to speak with you to get more information that will help us narrow down the scope of the requests.
I can be reached at 408-299-5168.
Regards,
[cid:image001.gif@01D3D62B.10AA7260]
Laurel Anderson
Public Communication Officer
Office of Public Affairs
County of Santa Clara
70 West Hedding Street, East Wing, 11th Floor, San Jose, CA 95110
PH: (408) 299-5168
Laurel.Anderson@ceo.sccgov.org<mailto:Marina.hinestrosa@ceo.sccgov.org>
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From: Santa Clara County Board Of Supervisors
Attn: Dan Rubins
This email is in response to the CPRA requests regarding the County of Santa Clara Procurement Department. Our responses are below.
Request Number 1
"Any and all executed contracts, memorandums of understanding (MOUs), and other equivalent agreements that are currently active, or were active within the last two years, other than standard employee agreements. Please provide a copy of the executed document as well as any addenda, amendments, attachments, exhibits, materials, and schedules."
RESPONSE: This request is broad in nature and requires additional information to narrow the scope of the request. The Office of Public Affairs emailed Dan Rubins (email: 'requests@muckrock.com') on Friday, July 27, 2018, requesting to speak with him, in order to obtain information to narrow the scope of the request. We did not receive a response.
Contracts, MOUs and agreements, can be found on the County web site and Board meeting agendas: http://sccgov.iqm2.com/citizens/default.aspx?frame=no
Request Number 2
"Any and all contract template documents, for example, employee agreements, vendor agreements, master services agreements, nondisclosure agreements, or interagency cooperation contracts."
RESPONSE: 13 documents attached.
1. Conflict of Interest and Confidential Information Statement
2. Declaration of Compliance with Wage Theft Prevention
3. Declaration of Local Business Exhibit
4. eStd Terms and Conditions for Agreement for Goods and Related Services
5. eStd Terms and Conditions for One-Time Acquisition of Goods and Related Services
6. eStd Terms and Conditions for One-Time Acquisition of Services
7. Non Standard Service Agreement Amendment CoverSheet
8. Non Standard Service Agreement CoverSheet
9. Non-Collusion Declaration
10. Service Agreement Amendment Form
11. Service Agreement Form
12. Vendor Remote Access Amendment
13. Vendor Remote Access Exhibit
Request Number 3
"General policies and procedures for contract administration, including training materials and records used to instruct members of your agency in contract administration."
RESPONSE: Three documents attached and one web site link below.
1. Procedure Manual for Procurement Card Revised March 2013
2. Small Dollar Purchase Policy Using Field Purchase Orders
3. Surplus Personal Property Disposal Policy
4. Board of Supervisors "Policies on Contracting and Soliciting," Chapter 5: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/bos/Legislation/BOS-Policy-Manual/Documents/BOSPolicyCHAP5.pdf
Request Number 4
"Any available process narratives, audit reports, or findings regarding contract administration covering the last two years."
RESPONSE: We will need additional time to determine what documentation is responsive to this request.
Regards,
[cid:image001.gif@01D3D62B.10AA7260]
Laurel Anderson
Public Communication Officer
Office of Public Affairs - Office of the County Executive
County of Santa Clara
70 West Hedding Street, East Wing, 11th Floor, San Jose, CA 95110
PH: (408) 299-5119
Laurel.Anderson@ceo.sccgov.org<mailto:Marina.hinestrosa@ceo.sccgov.org>
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From: Santa Clara County Board Of Supervisors
Good afternoon,
After further research regarding Request #4, we have determined that the request is too broad in nature.
Please contact us at your earliest convenience to discuss Requests #1 and #4 to narrow the scope of the requests.
Thanks,
Laurel
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