Travis County Commssioners Court
August 19, 2003
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Item 16
Number 16 is to approve 12-month extension modification number 2 to contract number 02 t 002 #- 50 j, sbc global services for telecommunications and long distance services.
>> we're here to modify this contract for an additional year. We have had some problems in the year. Our long distance billing did not come timely. However that because of that they did not comply with the contract we are getting three months' credit which we will not have to pay for those months. And walter is here to answer you all's technical questions.
>> maybe I'm missing something, but southwestern bell is a big company, and [inaudible] getting phone numbers and sending you an itemized bill on a monthly basis and telling people what they owe. In this case, kind of like a calling card, we were all given pin numbers that we all duty fully logged in so we could keep up. I'm just at a loss as to why we can't get bills [inaudible] departments. Because we're getting to the end of our fiscal year. This is Karen's little mini rant for the morning. We're getting down to the --
>> [inaudible].
>> I'm just warming up. [laughter] we're trying to get our budget. [inaudible] that is money coming out of our budget and we reimburse in terms of personal calls. I can't imagine -- if it's bad for me, I can't imagine the large departments trying to keep an eye on which phone calls, what are county business, what are not, and it's a nightmare for the auditor's office. How is it we can't get phone bills? I don't get it.
>> walter grove. One of your i.t.s. Division managers. I'm going to try to explain before I turn it over to southwestern bell and he can give you the real reasons. But Commissioner Sonleitner, basically in November we got a detailed bill from southwestern bell. And it was then [inaudible]. However, account code was our pins, and our opinions are supposed to be kind of secret to you and it was displayed all over the bill. And we said this is not acceptable. We cannot pass these out to our departments with their pins being displayed. So from November till about three weeks ago, three weeks ago, we've been working with southwestern bell, meeting with them one to two hours trying to get is this and other issues resolved. But the big one, basically about three weeks ago we got our first set of invoices for about, you know, from January to current.
>> and that's January to current only because they've already provided with us a full credit from October through December.
>> I would like for southwestern bell to explain what has been the issue at southwestern bell why we haven't been able to get this sooner.
>>
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>>
>> a year and a half ago or so, of those 10 people there's only three of us left. We've had a tremendous number of turnovers due to early retirements, some forced layoffs and reorganization within the company. So the implementation has been the thing that has really, really hurt us all of these months. Seems like every time we thought we had a handle on it, turns out we didn't. We do believe we have that firm grip on it now. And as walter said, we have delivered the invoices from the January calls to current and we do believe that they are fully in compliance with the r.f.p. Specifications. And I do apologize for the court and to the county and especially to the auditor's staff and the i.t.s. Staff for all of the heart ache that we have caused them up until now. It was an oversight and I'm sorry.
>> although you may be.
>> you to the long distance service business, you are not new to long distance billing services. It used to be we would get a consolidated bill with you and at&t. Now we have to pay our separate bills to at&t or sprint. We don't have the luxury of having a consolidated bill. So the billing has been something that southwestern bell has been in the business doing for a long type and then they stopped. Anyway, I --
>> well, we have a correct bill now.
>> contractually correct bill, basically three months ago. The accuracy of the bill will be dependent on -- when we look at our bills to see how accurate they are.
>> we don't pay the bill until we determine it's accurate.
>> company.
>> so the money is in our possession until we can certify the accuracy of the bill. Then we extinguish showsly -- expeditiously send a check to southwestern bell. Sbc, what does that stand for.
>> it's just a corporate name.
>> the old southwestern bell. That's why I move approval. Seconded by Commissioner Gomez, Commissioner Daugherty? Obviously sbc got the business because of the rate. We went through that process. Why do we have to do a 12-month extension? I mean, if we can't find that we are really getting satisfied with what we are paying for and even though we are not paying for it, I mean, I agree with the judge, I mean, we are still spending dollars on trying to come up with the accuracy of these things. Is there no way to see, month to month, whether it's three months or whether it's six months, because I certainly would not be interested in if we can't get these thing straight, I'm willing to find out if we are getting it straight, dennis, fine, you guys are big guys. I mean you all ought to be able to get this. I'm confident that you will, especially now that you know that it's gotten our attention, can we do that soon? I mean --
>> [indiscernible]
>> the contract that -- that we entered into contempt plates that we can either extend for 12 months or if we don't want to extend this contract beyond other 90 stays and want to go out for a new solicitation, we can go in for three one-month extensions. But to go into a 90 day extension now and then do a 12-month steps after that, the contract does not -- is not written that way. The -- the proposed -- the r.f.p. That was September out was not written that way. We are really neither a situation where we choose to go ahead for 12 months legally or we choose to go ahead for month to month for three months, in that three-month period go out for another solicitation.
>> also, Commissioner, this was about a six-month procurement process because of a competitive nature in the complexity of it. So we need six months.
>> well, what -- my whole point is --
>> to secure it. [indiscernible] have a way out. [inaudible - no mic] someone is not performing the duties, is questioned about it, locked in -- into we are not locked in. If we choose three one-month extensions right now, we can prepare another r.f.p., Have it on the street and award another contract in three months.
>> I just heard that would take six months.
>> that's because we coupled it with the inmate phone. We did that for administrative purposes. Because it's more efficient, frankly, the -- the sbc rate was relatively good in terms of their, you know, rate for long distance compared to other companies. We do believe that they have a problem, one of the first things that we said is okay why should we pay for those bills that indeed we didn't get, it's been a while now. So they did make the concession to allow us not to pay for the first three months, which was approximately $6,000. So we felt that he would -- we don't believe we have a bad deal in term of money. We have been unable to get our bills, they gave us some compensation or consideration for that. Going back out for a long distance plus your inmate phone services which you will hear more about, is something that the court could indeed consider, but it is a long and arduous process.
>> and I remember going through the process, alicia. I remember the -- the comptition, I remember us trying to address the situation out at the del valle and folks that use the phone systems, that the inmates that use it. But my concern is still to the point whereby we have a problem, if we have a problem, how do we address that to go ahead and issue another contract. Now, I think that it's -- that I think that it's imperative that the vendor come up with a solution to say that they are going to guarantee right now I haven't heard anything to convince me that I could even support it.
>> well, this contract, on behall of southwestern bell, is -- we have long distance, we have -- we have data services, we have voice services. Basically, it's -- it's from my perspective, if southwestern bell can't get their invoices processed correctly, what -- what I'm going to do is in February go out and get a new voice, data and long distance vendor. But since we are at all points in this county, what we have then is we will have two -- two telecommunications bidders. As an example, we could bring in at an t, we could bring in time warner and provide us phone services, data and voice, for downtown. [indiscernible] facility, subcommand, Jonestown, we will have to go with southwestern bell because they are the only ones in town that provide services to those areas. We have an invoice that we can for you just start working with, that is southwestern bell's fault that it took this long.
>> [indiscernible]
>> yes.
>> will we know for sure in 30 days?
>> yes.
>> the contract does reside for a termination for cause through February --
>> yes. Termination for cause in all of our contracts is basically --
>> [multiple voices] contract.
>> if they don't do what they are supposed to, we give them notice.
>> 30 days notice.
>> 10 day for this, 20 days for that, a total of 30 days, they have that much time to cure or show a reason why they shouldn't be terminated because they are in default. But one thing that occurs to me as you're sitting here talking, this extension could be delayed in the approval and put back on the court's agenda 30 days from now and still be in time from before the renewal has to be done so that you would -- could see from -- word from walter that says yes that it is fixed and we definitely know it. That's a way that you could approach it, too.
>> stepped it, 30 days, if ain't fixed come back and let us know and we will proceed under the termination clause. On the one hand if you don't send an accurate bill we just don't pay it. [multiple voices]
>> but it would be clean if her we got an accurate bill so we could proceed. It. At the same time if compliance is a priority for us, then it seems to me in 300 days we ought to get a report back, if there are still problems, find out what they are, how close to solving them we are and if we are not happy then we can also invoke the termination clause.
>> yeah. That would be my recommendation, judge.
>> that would be cleaner. If we have an active bill -- an accurate bill now, it took a long time to get the next one. To me the money is in our hands and presumably we are carrying interest, although the rate is incredibly low.
>> we didn't have to pay $6,000.
>> now get a report back, maybe a comprehensive report. If there are other issue that's we need to deal with, we know about them too.
>> as of right now, I believe our long distance bill to southwestern bell for 10 months is about 2200 bucks. $22,000, excuse me. And we have not paid that. October, November, December -- we are trying to see what we can do to get January through July, soon to be August and that's what our department is -- is working on right now.
>> are we only withholding the dong are long distance piece of the bill or are we paying the trunk lines where we don't have dispute or anything related to data services.
>> we paid our first trunk line and data services a month ago. They finally got that corrected. After how many months.
>> seven months, 300 some --
>>
>> this contract covers three services, long distance, voice and data.
>> the problem is when you get a bill after six months, the work that you have to go through to verify, we may say I'm glad I haven't had to pay this thing for six months. This still doesn't make you feel real comfortable about is the bill right? I mean, so you are nervous about the whole deal. I mean, I think the only thing that we can -- the only prudent thing to do at this stage is to give the 30 days, I mean, see, walter you come back, are you satisfied, you know, at that point because obviously they have good service. They know what they are doing in part of it. Their billing is a little upside down. But -- but I -- you know, I personally am not looking to leave the company. I mean, all of us want -- to think that we would be accurate. I know that you do as well, dennis, so -- but that would be -- that would be my motion.
>> you are the one we should -- are you the one we should express these concerns to or is there somebody else? I'm considered the senior point of contact because I'm the senior account manager assigned to Travis County, I would say that I'm the appropriate person. Obviously I report to people and they report to people, et cetera, et cetera. My manager tess goodwin has been at meetings with alter and the its staff. The concerns have been expressed, we have been working quite hard on this.
>> okay. The motion is to grant the 12-month steps, report pack in 30 months --
>> 30 days.
>> I'm sorry, 30 days with the accuracy of the invoices at issue and any other issue that's we need to know about.
>> I second that motion.
>> that had already been seconded by Commissioner Gomez before she left a minute ago. Any more discussion?
>> we are not approving it. We are going to bring it, core going to come back in 30 days.
>> motion is to grant a 12-month extension with a 30 day report back --
>> [multiple voices]
>> if deficiencies are not being addressed to our satisfaction in my view, our leverage is the termination clause.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> you hear our concerns.
>> absolutely.
>> knew more discussion? All in favor of that motion? Show Commissioners, Gomez, Daugherty, Biscoe voting in favor. Against Commissioner Sonleitner and abstaining show Commissioner Davis. Thank you very much. That was a 3-1-1 vote. Let the powers that be know about that. Thank you.
Last Modified: Tuesday, August 20, 2003 8:52 AM