Explanation
Background: This legislation authorizes the Franklin County Municipal Court Clerk (hereinafter "Municipal Court Clerk") to modify and extend the existing contract with Voicecast Systems, Inc., dba InTouch Connections, for four (4) months. The additional time is needed to evaluate the Short Message Service Reminder Notification’s Pilot Project (hereinafter SMS). The existing contract ends December 31, 2019.
The SMS provides defendants with an automated courtesy text reminder of their scheduled court appearance. In Franklin County Municipal Court, there are an overabundance of individuals who fail to appear for court; resulting in the issuance of order-ins and warrants. Most warrants issued are for low level misdemeanors, creating a clog in the system, and increasing workloads for all justice system partners.
Studies suggest that using the SMS improves court appearance rates of defendants and reduce community and operational court costs associated with failure to appear. In addition, defendants may spend less time in jail.
Bid Information:
In 2018 a formal bidding process was solicited through RFQ009912. A total of two vendors submitted proposals. The proposals were reviewed by a committee and evaluated in accordance with the committee's criteria. Voicecast Systems Inc. achieved the highest score. In agreement with the committee, the Municipal Court Clerk awarded the bid to Voicecast Systems, Inc.
Contract:
Original Contract Number: PO167980; nine month contract.
Contract Compliance Number: 36-4480537
Expiration Date: 1/15/2021
Vendor#: 025677
Modification:
Amount of additional funds to be expended under this contract modification: $14,000.00
Amount of original contract PO167980 ( JAG Grant Fund) $25,002.00
Total amount of modification and Grant Funds: $39,002.00
Reason additional goods and services could not be foreseen:
The need of this modification is to allow additional time is to evaluate the SMS Pilot Project. The exis...
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