REPORT TO SHASTA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

BOARD MEETING DATE:  December  12, 2017
CATEGORY:  Consent - General Government-1.

SUBJECT:

Conflict Indigent Defense Services Agreement with Aaron Williams

Supervisorial District No. :  All

DEPARTMENT CONTACT:  Elaine Grossman, Senior Administrative Analyst (530) 225-5561

STAFF REPORT APPROVED BY:  Lawrence G. Lees, County Executive Officer

RECOMMENDATION

Approve and authorize the Chairman to sign an agreement with Aaron Williams with no maximum compensation to provide conflict indigent defense services for the period January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2022.

SUMMARY

Approval of this agreement will allow County to contract with Aaron Williams to administrate a group of subcontract attorneys to provide conflict indigent defense services.  The agreement provides primarily fixed costs for these services as opposed to paying private attorneys directly as appointed by the Shasta County Superior Court.  Utilizing a group of subcontract attorneys, as in the current agreement, allows for efficiencies in case processing and provides a consistent system for the clients.

DISCUSSION

Since 2005, the County has contracted with Jeffrey L. Jens.  The current agreement’s initial term ends December 31, 2017 and the agreement has two automatic one-year renewals.  However, on September 25, 2017, Mr. Jens called County Administrative staff and advised that he would not be able to provide services after December 31, 2017.

The County’s Purchasing Unit, in collaboration with the County Administrative Office and County Counsel, processed Request for Proposals - RFP 18-09 for conflict indigent defense services by soliciting for a contractor to administrate this program utilizing a team of subcontract attorneys assigned to conflict indigent cases when such cases cannot be assigned to the County’s Public Defender’s Office due to a client/attorney conflict. The RFP was released October 11; notice was published in a local newspaper for three days; notification was made to attorneys via the Shasta-Trinity Counties Bar Association; notification was provided to the Public Defender, District Attorney, Chief Probation Officer, Shasta County Superior Court Executive Officer, and Sheriff to share as applicable. 

Four individuals attended the Mandatory Responder’s Conference on October 27, three Letters of Intent were received by the November 3 deadline, and three Proposals were received by the Response Submission Deadline of November 13.  The rating team included individuals from the Shasta County Superior Court, Public Defender’s Office, Probation, and the County Administrative Office.  The Proposals were rated in accordance with Purchasing Unit staff and it was determined that County would begin negotiations with Aaron Williams.  The ten calendar days protest period ended December 7, 2017 at 2:00 p.m.  No protests were received.

ALTERNATIVES

The Board could choose not to approve the agreement.  

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT

The County Administrative Office worked in collaboration with the Support Services Purchasing Unit, Shasta County Superior Court, Probation, and the Public Defender’s Office to conduct the competitive procurement process.  The agreement has been approved as to form by County Counsel.  The agreement has been reviewed and approved by Risk Management. 

FINANCING

The agreement with Jeffrey L. Jens had two additional years with compensation set at 2.5% annual increases.  The five-year fixed compensation for the agreement with Aaron Williams is $88,938 less as he identified efficiencies to implement which reduce the overall cost.  The annual increases are 2.5% in the new agreement.  Similar to the agreement with Jeffrey L. Jens, the new agreement has no maximum compensation. In addition to monthly payments to the Contractor, ancillary services such as investigators, expert witnesses, and expert testimony are paid under this agreement and they vary significantly. 

Similar to the Jens agreement, the Williams agreement is paid for by the General Fund through the 20300 Conflict Public Defense cost center administrated by the County Administrative Office (CAO).  All claims are carefully reviewed and approved by CAO staff prior to submitting the claims to the Auditor for payment.  There is minimal revenue in this cost center generated from fees collected by the local Court from clients later evaluated as having financial capacity to help pay for these services.  Since the overall cost of all the ancillary services processed and any fee revenue for Fiscal Year 2017-18 are variable, it is not certain at this time whether or not there will be any impact to the General Fund by approving this agreement.  No additional General Funds are being requested at this time; therefore, there is no additional General Fund impact.