Travis County Commssioners Court
March 25, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Item 13
Go back to number 13.
>> yes, sir.
>> that is to consider and take appropriate action on the following e.-government initiatives, a., Service level agreement s.l. 030126 l.b. With bearingpoint. B. Is e.-pay clicks andc a convenience fee for Travis County of 50 cents on each transaction if approved by the Texas online authority.
>> judge and commissioners, you received backup in a booklet that looks like this. We've been working with the Travis County e-government subcommittee, and you have two members of the court on that subcommittee. The honorable Margaret Gomez and honorable gerald daugherty are both on tt committee and we've been working with them. This is a service level agreement with bearingpoint, and they are part of the Texas online effort. And we have here gary mcglico, sorry, and mary ann dwight with bearingpoint, formerly used to be kmmg. What we did, this is also a 26-page contract, and then have you about six pages of an attachment. We've tried to reduce that down to four pages, almost three, on the service level agreement, and one page on the attachment. So if you will turn to that, we've also color coded them. The bright pink are the major points of the service level agreement action and they have reference to the actual agreement in the page that you may look up that particular reference. The service level agreement is part of the e-government effort and it is between bearingpoint and Travis County. Through Texas online, and that is the name of the primary website for the hosted application. We pay the attachment that we will also provide you or are presenting to you for approval, and that provides the Texas online with a payment method for transactions for local government. Texas online offers the opportunity of a variety of e-commerce related support systems. We are doing of course e-pay today. We will do e-file later. You already have the tax office that uses Texas online to provide some of their tax payments. As I stated before, e-pay allows transactions using credit cards, visa, mastercard, discover, and it will also have an automatic clearinghouse network, a.c.h. Network that people can pay the checks or a.c.h. Cards at some point in time. Bearingpoint has committed to provide customer information center seven days a week 7:00 a.m. To 7:00 p.m. And that will be the -- the number will be displayed on the website and individuals can call. They will provide a variety of services, and those are all under number 8 there, application decision, interface design, security, communications, and it goes on and on in terms of the services that they will provide. We are committed to doing strategic outreach, and that is a marketing campaign for which bearingpoint has provided a sample marketing plan that we will adapt for Travis County. We will also use channel 17 and our website to let people know that this particular service is available. There are privacy regulations in several pieces of the document, of the contract, and it says that bearingpoint as well as the county will not use personally identifiable or private information collected by Texas online for any other purpose unless the county agrees to use it. All information on the credit cards will be secure. The bank accounts will also be secured, and there will be multiple levels of security for maintaining the privacy of the data. Again, bearingpoint and e-pay security, it's the noted again, and it requires that all sensitive information be kept secure and that there be redundant levels of security that will be deployed as necessary throughout the system. It also talks about the requirements for Travis County and their security. 'And it -- we have committed to follow recommended security standards for state and local government, website and shall not put any service user or county information at risk. We're talking about fees. With the particular attachment that you have before you, bearingpoint is allowed only through approval of the court to charge fees. There is a convenience fee that is sufficient to cover the credit card processing, and then each of the attachments will set those fees. For this particular e-pay attachment, the fees are 5% of the total transaction or 5 $5, whichever is greater. They also talk in the contract about development costs. One of the major points to make here is that this particular application will not be -- will be implemented at no cost to the county. We have no out-of-pocket costs. All the development costs and the operating costs will be taken from the fees that are paid by the people who use the particular service. Chief technology officer --
>> will you back up a little on that convenience fee?
>> yes, sir.
>> I think there needs to be some clarity in my mind. [inaudible] but if I was to look at this and I see a minimum of convenience fee of five dollars, and of course that's not the total picture I guess if that will be the minimum because there's still 50 cents fee that Travis County will also receive. So we're really talking about $5.50.
>> you are right. You are right.
>> indised of just $5. Realty minimum is that and I was looking at the backup here, and if I look at c on the backup on our agenda, it says 50 cents, but that just goes to Travis County. But it doesn't say anything else about what the total cost would be to the person that uses the service. Even though I hear what you are saying and what you are disclosing right now as far as a $5 convenience fee that goes to the service provider.
>> and maybe I should clarify.
>> really $5.50 if that's just one transaction.
>> yes, sir. Let me clarify that. You are absolutely right. The $5 or 5% -- $5 minor 5%, whichever is greater, is only the amount that would go back to bearingpoint. In your agenda for court approval sls a convenience charge of 50 cents for every transaction. So the minimum to the citizen or to the person that is conducting such a transaction will be $5.50. And the 50 cents will have to be approved by the Texas online authority. So it's the before the court for approval, and then we'll have to take it to the authority for approval.
>> and I guess not going in the other direction, but if the authority allow Travis County to -- and I guess this would be a model case for the other departments that may use credit cards as a means of paying for services that we offer in the county. If that actually happens, would that also maybe open the door for other departments to follow this if that's the case? And I really don't know what the authority is going to do, whether they will grant a law -- Travis County to receive 50 cents on this -- on this type of operation as far as services. That's just -- that's strictly up to them as far as the authority is concerned. And I guess we won't really know until when they go on-even though we're looking at this right now, there has to be some time line as far as a decision that those folks will have the make as far as allowing us to collect a 50 cents fee per transaction.
>> yes, sir.
>> and I don't know what that is.
>> yeah, the time line -- gary, the manager director for bearingpont and also the manager director for Texas online. We have it on the agenda to discuss with the finance committee did authority in April, which they meet the second Friday of every month. The finance committee provides approval, then we'll take it to the full board in the may meeting. So it should be done by may, which meets the time frame of testing and bringing this service up as well. And the only requirement that the authority has, the legislature when it gave the authority, the ability to allow local governments to collect additional fee on their behalf is that it's for recovery of costs by the local government. So the authority just requests local government provide documentation that the fee is going to go towards recovering their cost of supporting this service, and that's their justification required by law in which to allow for the fee.
>> so the ab and c of this is something that will have to go forth to the authority for us to --
>> the 50 cents will. The rest of this has already been approved by the authority some months back. The 50 cents was at the request of the county because there's enabling legislation that allows the authority to provide this fee for local governments. So that's the only piece that has to go back.
>> just the c portion of this.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> the term of the service level agreement is effective upon execution, and expires when the term of the last active attachment to this agreement expires, which means this particular attachment on e-pay is three years. If we adopt another attachment, it will run cron current with that. But if, for example, e-pay is the only one, then the service level agreement will expire at the end of three years. But we expect that we will have more. E-filing is one in particular that will come back to the court. The service level agreement mentions license fee. There is no license fee for this particular attachment, but we have outlined how that is determined if we ever do have an application that requires a license fee. There is a termination clause. Either party may terminate this agreement for breach within -- with a 30-day notice, or we may terminate for convenience with a 90-day notice. There is a revenue portion that would need be negotiated and that would not take place until we were generating about half a million transactions annually. And if indeed bearingpoint provided all the investment that they have on this one, the share or the distribution would be 75-25 with bearingpoint keeping 75% of the revenue and Travis County getting 25%. The net revenue participation by the county is paid when bearingpoint recovers 150% of the investment in providing services under the Texas online service agreement. Gone, privacy and -- again, privacy and security are very important so they are mentioned at various places in the service level agreement. Bearingpoint makes a commitment in several areas to keep all information private, use redundant system, and provide security and integrity of information within their particular framework. We will now go to the major points in the over the counter e-pay attachments. Joe is going to do that.
>> can I ask one question before we move on?
>> yes, sir.
>> at one point the revenue sharing begins after 500,000 transactions.
>> half a million annually.
>> at another point the revenue sharing begins when the vendor has received 150% of the investment.
>> yes.
>> or the cost to get this started. So we are applying both of those or --
>> let me explain what we're trying to do here whvment the county has committed services to Texas online that would generate 500,000 transactions annually, that's when we put in the provisions for the revenue sharing. Taken reason why we do this is in working with other governments, we've had a lot of enthusiastic support on the front end, and then as time goes by, the enthusiasm has dropped off, so we want to provide some incentive for us to work together jointly to get as many services up on Texas I don't know line. When we have 500,000 transactions committed to Texas online, then we have -- then the revenue share takes place. The payment to the county place place when Texas online has recovered 150% of all its investment because we're up fronting the total amount of the investment for the county. The first one says revenue share comes into play when the county commits to 500,000 transactions a year, and then the measure of when payment is made is when we reach the 150%.
>> let's say you spend $400,000, and after 400,000 transactions you have made 600,000. So does revenue sharing --
>> at that point in time, then you would have revenue share.
>> because you've got 150% of your investment basically.
>> right. Right.
>> I was about to ask, when you state county commission 500,000, the commitment is evidenced by what?
>> that commitment is evidenced by services with signed service level agreements that commit services to Texas online that would generate that many transactions. Our intent is not to wait until that many transactions have occurred annually. Our intent is to sign up services that would generate that many transactions so we can then all be working toward the adoption rates and getting the trbses into Texas online.
>> but absolutely once you achieve the 150% of investment threshold, revenue sharing starts.
>> that's correct.
>> okay.
>> as you probably know, how would we determine -- [multiple voices]
>> we have the -- have you to have the commitment of half a million transactions a year and then the 150% kicks in. And the likelihood of the 100% kicking in before the half a million transactions is probably low because it takes a certain amount of volume to start generating the revenue to generate that amount of investment.
>> I guess my final question is that to ensure the checks and balances on this if appropriate to all parties -- is appropriate to all parties, how will we, the county, Travis County, know that we hit those benchmarks that have just been discussed. The 500,000 annually and --
>> yes, sir, we will be providing financial --
>> who from the county know -- on the city's side who will be in charge of that to make sure that what you have is statistically in your hands is one thing and what we have n. Statistically in our hands and make sure they match.
>> we'll be providing information to the contract. We provide monthly financial information to the state as well and to our local local governments that we participate with. You have the opportunity to audit that financial information as you desire, to come in and check our records to make sure that our financial accounting is correct. And then we'll be recollect sielg on a routine basis to what you have.
>> just a safeguard measure.
>> no question.
>> which I think is very appropriate.
>> the service level agreement states there will be a daily report on transactions.
>> right. Okay. [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>> but you want to see 500,000 transacts, period, before revenue sharing starts? Will you commit to 550,000 transactions antigen rate 490,000?
>> no, sir. The way the contract reads, as I recall, is that the -- the county would sign service level agreements, which in both of our estimates provides the opportunity to generate 500,000 transactions annually. The 500,000 -- if we fall short of that, we fall short of that, but we are looking for the county to commit. What we are trying to do is get the county to commit a reasonable amount of services to give us the opportunity to earn our money back. We are trying to do that. The commitment -- if we get the commitment there, then it's both of our jobs to go out and do the marking and things of that nature to get the citizens to use the service. So we are looking for the commitment.
>> judge, if I may, in the contract which is part of your packet here.
>> what page is that on?
>> page 14.
>> I was looking at the -- the page 3.
>> it's under page 14.
>> the actual contract.
>> the actual contract, revenue sharing by bearingpoint, judge, it's actually the second paragraph. If you will look at the first sentence there, that second paragraph.
>> all right. Which just says committing the services.
>> now, I do not understand that we have to do both in order for you to recover the 150% of the costs. We sent information yesterday or this morning, it was a conversation that we had, gerald, and I think that we have correct, if indeed you had the $5 fee for anything $100 or less, which was a total transaction, you would need 54,751 transactions to get to the 150% of their recoverable. So we did the math and that's where we are at. So it's not like we have to do the -- the half a million and then 150%, we would do the 150% off the top.
>> okay. That's the point that the judge brought up earlier, that [inaudible] with the amd between -- those have to occur.
>> well, what -- what has to occur, under the contract, barbara can certainly help my memory here, is that when the county commits to services, that we both estimate would generate $500,000. If it falls short once we get them there, it falls short. But he -- you may have made the commitment and we agree that these services would generate $500,000 worth of transactions annually. Then the revenue share would come in place. Until the county commits, the revenue share would not come in place. Barbara I think that's what --
>> I was going to say that is not the way I understood it.
>> I think you changed one we say here, generally -- you just explain estimate goand rate, that's fine with me. Projected to generate. This says are generated.
>> it says committed to generate.
>> and we are going to commit those services in other service level agreements so that --
>> gary --
>> but it's the "are generating that's" that's the problem. It's committing services that are generating. It should be are projected to generate based on your explanation now.
>> the intent was you had to commit the services, not "are generating" that's what we intended because -- these types of services you doppler know what's -- you don't know what's going to happen once you get out into the marketplace, we just want the opportunity. As -- once the county commits the services that are projected to generate that we both agreed to in the service level agreement, then you have met that number. That's what we are looking for.
>> we can make that a two word change.
>> we united to capture the understand -- we need to capture the understanding --
>> it needs to be changed. We need to be changed.
>> we can do that.
>> okay.
>> we -- okay, joe.
>> are we clear on that? Joe?
>> okay. Alicia talked about the service level agreement is a blanket service level agreements, that's the parameters for a lot of other applications that were put up under this service level agreement. The first one is the e-pay, the e-pay just said -- -- gives us the credibility to use credit cards at the counter, with -- to provide services to the citizens as they call in or come in when they use their credit card. The [inaudible] offices, county clerk's office have agreed to work with us to be the -- to be the first office to use it. I think the constables some of the others are going to come on line as fast as we go through the process getting it all set up, getting the training done. I think this is going to be a fast moving through the other departments, as you were talking about earlier, commissioner Davis. Alicia has gone through the cost recovery process and discussed that fairly -- fairly extensively, I believe. The -- the way this system would work, the -- the clerk would then, in the county clerk's office or the constable, the constable's office, whenever the service will be provided has a expire i.d. That will sign on to the system, that will conduct the transaction as if it were like a cash transaction across the window. But they have a -- they have a secure connection into Texas online, to do that credit card transaction, then that -- those reports that are provided back to us from Texas online reconcile all of that. So -- so that's basically how -- how the application would work. We will get reports that will give us a recaps every day, deposits that are made, appointed to count the net amounts so we don't have to deal with the settlement process with the credit card, something that [inaudible] will do for us.
>> it appears if we make this commitment to make it convenient for our taxpayers, we need to not ever forget that, that's the reason that we are in this. Then -- then it sounds like -- sounds like we can commit to doing an awful lot of things to make it convenient for our taxpayers. Right now, we are talking about the revenue that the county will receive by this convenience. At some point, I guess we also need to make it convenient for people who do business with us by can we pay faster? To people who do business with us? And so I mean I can think of all kinds of possibilities here. If we has this initial commitment to serve our taxpayers more efficiently and I can -- everybody who does business with Travis County.
>> that's right. I think that's -- that's the proposal today. We are currently -- since I briefed I last with Texas online, we are currently processing about 900,000 credit card electronic checking transactions a month now for 60 something state agencies and local governments across the state. We have been doing vehicle registration is another service that we have been doing for Travis County for over a year now, as well as property tax. This -- this project was set up by the legislature so that state agencies and local governments could go to one place and get -- and use a shared service of a very secure site in which to provide whatever government services that wanted -- they wanted over the internet and intranet to their citizens, just as you suggest.
>> for our taxpayers, this is discretionary for them.
>> that's correct.
>> they want convenience, there's an additional cost. They just -- keep coming out as they have been doing historically --
>> I think that we have seen some -- some surprising numbers of -- of people that do want to use it, but our first endeavor was with the tax office, lots of credit card use over there.
>> now, we have not generated a real bad parking situation to generate credit card transactions, right? [laughter] parking --
>> I don't think they are connected.
>> that naturally happened.
>> the one thing that I want to clarify on this, when we did the agreement in relation to the tax office, we did the whole agreement, we are doing the whole agreement again. But the 25 approximately pages that have the title service level agreement, they are coming to you now. The next time when we do e sfieling you will not have to go through that again, you will not see it again, all that you will see is the 10 pages at the back that talk about the e pay, only it will be described in e file. Of course e filing is far more complex, so it may be another 25 pages for the e file, but you won't have to look at these 25 again. Once you have approved this, you know, don't go back to service level agreements, you just do attachments.
>> ready today?
>> no.
>> I think the -- the subcommittee that you go, subcommittee has really done a great job with this. This is -- this is specifically the kind of thing that I think the citizens look for government to do. Unfortunately we have somebody that comes along -- fortunately we have had somebody that comes along that's willing to front the money. Not that they are fairly sure they are going to get a decent return on this. But this is a perfect marriage. And so I -- I know the committee, joe and judy I mean everybody has worked really hard on this thing. I have enjoyed being part of that thing. Have learned a lot [laughter] with -- with this deal. So I -- I commend you all for the work that you have done, look forward to working with you all.
>> with you as well.
>> thank you.
>> we think we can make that one change today?
>> yes, sir. If you approve it now, I will have it to you before you do signatures.
>> all right. With the approval of a -- move approval of a, b, c of item 13.
>> second.
>> with those modified
>> with that change, we will execute that document later in the day if that's made.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion? No. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM