REPORT TO SHASTA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

BOARD MEETING DATE:  June  12, 2018
CATEGORY:  Consent - General Government-1.

SUBJECT:

Megabyte Property Tax System Annual Agreement

Supervisorial District No. :  All

DEPARTMENT CONTACT:  David Baker, Deputy Assessor-Recorder, Admin (530) 225-3603

STAFF REPORT APPROVED BY:  Leslie Morgan, Asr-Rec; Brain Muir, Aud; Lori Scott, Tax-Coll; Tom Schrieber, CIO

RECOMMENDATION

Approve and authorize the Chairman to sign a no maximum compensation agreement with Megabyte Property Tax Systems, Inc., for the period July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019  which includes:  (1) Monthly payments in the amount of $15,578.93 to provide software and support; (2) one annual advance payment in the amount of $9,127.32 to provide Online Business Property Statement Filing module, support and maintenance; (3) one advance payment in the amount of $6,352.81 for web services and maintenance; and (4) hourly rates  pursuant to  the agreement for as-needed emergency or on-site services.

SUMMARY

N/A

DISCUSSION

The operation of the County’s property tax system requires on-going vendor maintenance and support. Shasta County’s property tax system provides a variety of functions primarily to three County departments. The Assessor-Recorder sets values on all secured and unsecured properties in the County; the Auditor applies the tax rates to the roll and apportions the funds; and the Treasurer-Tax Collector produces the tax bills and collects payments. Although this oversimplifies each department’s functions, the property tax system is vital to each department in performing their jobs as they relate to administering property taxes accurately and efficiently.

The system also provides public access to property tax information, as well as online business property filing. The County’s property tax system requires vendor maintenance each year.  This software maintenance and support renewal agreement provides the County with application system support for the Megabyte Property Tax System.  Maintenance provided by the agreement includes telephone support, fixes to reported problems, system upgrades, and other general system support.  The web service maintenance cost provide public internet access to the tax data. Payments will be made to Megabyte Systems, Inc. for the period covering July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019 as follows: (1) monthly payments of $15,578.93 for the basic system maintenance and support; and (2)  five advance payments as follows: one payment of $3,127.32 for maintenance and support of the Online Business Property Filing system; third of three payments of $6,000.00 for the upgrade (which County received in 2016 for the January 1st, 2016 lien date) of the Online Business Property filing system; one payment in the amount of $282.60 for the Prior Year Tax bill Online; one payment in the amount of $816.80 for the Historical Expansion Bill Print; and one payment of $5,253.41 for Web Services. Arranging for maintenance and support for large software systems through a software vendor is a generally accepted practice in the software industry.  Staff is recommending the approval of the agreement and addendum because vendor support and web services are vitally important to the continued operation and success of this computer system.

ALTERNATIVES

There are no viable alternatives at this time. Although Information Technology could conceivably take over maintaining and updating the Megabyte Property Tax system, this alternative would require additional staff and time, and would cost a great deal more than the proposed vendor maintenance.

OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT

County Counsel has approved the agreement as to form.  Risk Management has reviewed and approved the agreement.  The Chief Information Officer has reviewed and approved the agreement. This recommendation has been reviewed by the County Administrative Office.

FINANCING

This agreement is funded by the General Fund. Costs associated with this agreement are included in the Assessor, Auditor and Tax Collector’s proposed budgets for FY 2018/2019. There is no additional General Fund impact with approval of the recommendation.