Travis County Commissioners Court
October 28, 2008
Item 28
>> since we have you there, 28. Consider and take appropriate action regarding re-negotiation of contract no. 07t00173vc, securus technologies, inc., for inmate telephone services
>> if you will recall, good morning, walter, walter from its is here with us. If you will recall the Commissioners approved a contract back in '07 for inmate phone and public phone services. Of course inmate phones being the biggest revenue generator. It's interesting with the add vents of cell phones not a lot of people use our public pay phones anymore, so the revenue from those has gone way down. Back a couple of months ago securus began talking with walter about the number of inmates and phone calls in the jail has fallen pretty steadily. I believe when we first negotiated we were about 2900 inmates. We are now down to 2400 inmates. Actually the number of calls has dramatically dropped. So what they are requesting is that we renegotiate with them that guaranteed revenue amount. And we need your permission to do that. So that's what we are here for to ask if we can start negotiating with them. They have provided us -- they were supposed to pay us at the beginning of October the 1.6 million. They have paid up $975,000 plus they have given us the 28,500 for the 20 hour a week personnel that helps with the phone reconciliation. So we're here today to ask if we can begin renegotiating with them on that guaranteed commission.
>> part of the reason of the renegotiation would be the collection of data, for example, the number of phone calls -- I mean if you have fewer inmates but making twice the number of phone calls then I assume revenue ought to be reflected in that. Plus the amount of revenue, what was the projected and what the actual revenue has been I guess and is today. Information like that is -- is what you will --
>> walter and I have looked at some of that information and we do see the decreases. That's why we have come forward. If we had not seen that, we would have said no, we're not going to renegotiate. But we have looked at some of those numbers and so we do feel like that, you know, it would be fair to renegotiate with them. The other thing that walter has communicated to me is that the p.u.c. Who regulates what we can charge for those phone calls is thinking about decreasing that amount and one of the theories is that because the rate is so high I think it's 4.65, that they are not making as many calls because it's too expensive. So there's some factors going on that are outside of our control and their control. I mean it says good things about Travis County and our efforts to decrease the jail population. But it has affected this contract. So -- so we will be --
>> our goal would be to be fair to the vendor and Travis County at the same time.
>> yes, sir.
>> how long do you think renegotiations will take?
>> couple of months, maybe? Two months?
>> I would hope less than a month. But -- but any time that you go into negotiations fun things can happen. But I would -- there's no reason why we can't get this thing done in less than a month.
>> what if we just get a status report in less than a month.
>> we could do that.
>> the results of renegotiation or a status report.
>> uh-huh.
>> move that the requested renegotiation be authorized.
>> second.
>> that the goal would be to be fair to Travis County and fair to the vendor at the same time.
>> I have a couple of questions, though, it appears from the backup that there's been a 9% drop in call volume and they are requesting a 20% reduction in their guaranteed revenue. I know you all are hard negotiators, but just wanted to highlight that. And that's their initial ask so -- and then also in regard to a possible reduction in rate by the p.u.c., that's something we should certainly take into consideration and as a family member of someone in jail, they charge the yinyang out of inmates and inmates families for those calls, more so than the inmates themselves. So --
>> well, one of the thinking is -- about reducing the rates, just from, you know, walter's perspective, using a -- using a gallon of gas, not too long ago gasoline was, you know, approaching $4 a gallon. Now that's about 2-point -- 2.50. We tend to not feel so bad buying the extra tank of gas. I believe the same thing is true, right now it's 4.65 a call, you probably only want one call a week, maybe you will accept two calls a week, even though you might be paying more but two calls at 3.90 because it sounds better than 4.65. The problem is if the call volume stays the same that is a reduction in revenue.
>> is the operational costs, darren is back there, I mean, the more calls that it cast is there -- is there a cost associated with the jail system, that there are more calls, darren. Does somebody have to walk -- how is that done? If somebody wanted to make a lot of calls versus just a call, is there any operational costs for the more calls that are made in the jail?
>> do we have a calendar there, ms. Clerk?
>> yes.
>> about a month from now is what date? November --
>> thanksgiving.
>> do we want to shoot for the Tuesday before thanksgiving?
>> the Tuesday before is the 25th.
>> sounds good to me. We'll see you October 25th, if not before.
>> November.
>> November.
>> November, thank you
>> [laughter] there's a motion and a second. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you.
>> thank you all.
>> thank you, sharon. Are you ready for 27? Shouldn't be long.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:38 PM