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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/07/2024 Item 071Mohave County Request for Board Action Date Submitted: 9/24/2024 Submitted By: Sarah Hall Requested Board Action Type* Consent BOS Meeting Date Requested: 10/7/2024 Submitting Department: * BOS 3 — Supervisor Johnson Summarize The Issue and Desired Action Clearly: * Discussion and possible action to approve an additional $3,700 of American Rescue Plan Act funds from District 3's allocation to purchase software that would enable County departments to electronically review, distribute and digitally sign Board Action Forms and back up documents. An electronic process will reduce printing costs, save staff time and limit the late back up that is plaguing our agendas. Recommended Motion: * Discussion and possible action to approve an additional $3,700 of American Rescue Plan Act funds from District 3's allocation to purchase software that would enable County departments to electronically review, distribute and digitally sign Board Action Forms and back up documents. Attach Backup Material 10-7-24 Clerk Electronic BAF Backup.pdf 4.07MB A Single PDF Only (maximum file size 800MB) Are there pages that require signatures? Yes No Does this create a New Grant or update an existing Grant? * Yes No After implementing the electronic Board Action Form process, modifications were needed to make the county attorney's workflow more manageable and address some backend changes preventing documents from completing the approval process due to previous requests by staff. These modifications cost an additional $3,700.00. The overall software has saved county staff hours in processing and approval time and is invaluable as staff pushes to use technology to enhance service efficiently. MOHAVE COUNTY REQUEST FOR BOARD ACTION FORM FROM: Buster Johnson CONTACT/EXT: Sarah Hall/Ext. 3006 DATE: 01 /24/2023 BOS MEETING DATE: 02/06/2023 FORMAL ACTION: ❑ CONSENT RESOLUTION ❑ OTHER ❑ INFORMATION ONLY ❑ SUMMARIZE THE ISSUE & DESIRED ACTION CLEARLY/ATTACH BACKUP MATERIAL: Discussion and possible action to authorize a Board of Supervisor's District 3 project to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in the amount not to exceed $4,000 to purchase software that would enable County departments to electronically review, distribute and digitally sign Board Action Forms and back up documents. An electronic process will reduce printing costs, save staff time and limit the late back up that is plaguing our agendas. RECOMMENDED MOTION: Discussion and possible action to authorize a Board of Supervisor's District 3 project to use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in the amount not to exceed $4,000 to purchase software that would enable County departments to electronically review, distribute and digitally sign Board Action Forms and back up documents. Reviewed and Approved By: County Attorney �� Human Resources 0 Finance 10 County Manager 52 Approved as Requested r� Continued to Board Action Taken: No Action Taken = Disapproved 0 = Approved with the following changes: Acknowledged receipt and referred to: Filing Information and Retrieval Filed Bid Filed Agreement BOS Resolution Filed Yearly Corresponden Filed Petition Filed Dedication Filed Land Sold Filed Land Acquired Filed Franchise ID Resolution Filed Improvement District Filed Other Date Routed: ,,OO�� Additional Inform titf CS Recno XC: f�Yiavu, col Mohave County Attorney's Office Main Office: P.O. Box 7000 315 N. 4' Street Kingman, AZ 86402-7000 Telephone (928) 753-0719 Fax (928) 753-2669 Branch Offices: Bullhead City (928) 758-0727 Lake Havasu City (928) 854-3501 MATTHEW J. SMITH County Attorney JAMES M. SCHOPPMANN Chief Deputy Ryan Esplin: (928) 753-0770, x4631 Email: Esplir@mohave.gov ZP�E co" 4 D 0 � � M d 0 �s r o­ 1666 . Victim/Witness P. O. Box 7000 325 Pine Street Kingman, AZ 86402-7000 Telephone (928) 718-4967 Fax (928)718-4966 Civil Division: Telephone (928) 753-0770 Fax (928) 753-4290 CIVIL DIVISION MEMORANDUM TO: Clerk of the Board of Supervisors FROM: Ryan Esplin, Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney DATE: October 18, 2022 SUBJECT: Use of ARPA funds for the purchase of software to enable electronic distribution, review and digital signatures for Board Action Forms and back-up documents. Question Presented: You have asked whether American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) monies may be used for the purchase of software that would enable County departments to electronically review, distribute, and digitally sign Board Action Forms and back up documents (such as Resolutions and legal documents that require signatures), rather than printing, preparing and distributing the BAF and back-up in person. Background of Request: In Arizona, each County is governed by a Board of Supervisors consisting of 3 to 7 members. Arizona law requires the board to hold regular meetings in the county on a working day or days of each month. See A.R.S. 11-214. As a public meeting, the open meeting laws require the Board to provide notice of its meetings, which notice "shall include an agenda of the matters to be discussed or decided at the meeting." A.R.S. 38-431.02(G). The Agenda lists the specific matters to be discussed, considered or decided at the meeting. For Mohave County, the Board conducts its regular meeting on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month. Prior to these meetings, the Clerk of the Board prepares and posts the meeting Agenda. To identify which items should be included on the Board's Agenda, the County departments and County officials submit items they would like to be included on the Agenda in the form of a "Board Action Form", or BAF. The BAF consists of includes a brief summary of the issue and the desired action, and a recommended motion that will be included on the Board's Agenda. Attached as "back-up" to October 18, 2022 Page 2 of 5 the BAF are documents the Board may review to better understand the issue, such as memos or pictures, as well as legal documents the department wants the Board to approve or sign, such as Resolutions or contracts. No later than 10 days before the scheduled meeting, the County departments and County officials submit these BAFs and their backup to the County Attorneys Office for legal review, the Finance Department for budgetary review, the Human Resources Department if it involves an HR matter, and the County Manager to ensure it is in the County's best interest (collectively the "reviewing departments"). After the reviewing departments have reviewed and approved the BAFs, they are forwarded to the Clerk of the Board. Upon receipt the Clerk uploads each of the BAFs and the back- up documents to Laserfiche, and she takes the recommended motions from each BAF to compile the Board's Agenda. This process of creating the Agenda through the use of Board Action Forms has existed for many years. It also involves a lot of paperwork and delivery of documents in person. The departments print the BAFs and back-up, and deliver them to the reviewing departments, and in turn the reviewing departments distribute them, in person, among each other, until ultimately they are filed with the Clerk's office. The Clerk's office manually scans the documents and uploads them to LaserFiche. After the Board meeting, the Chairman of the Board and the County Manager sign the legal documents that the Board approved. During the pandemic, the busines of operating the County and conducting regular Board meetings continued uninterrupted. While many businesses and operations shut -down (whether by choice or Governor declaration), the County was deemed an essential service, and it continued to operate county services and to hold regular Board meetings. In fact, responding to the seriousness of the pandemic, the Board conducted more frequent Board meetings (three times a week for an extended length of time) in order to apprise, update and inform the public about the pandemic, and to mitigate the effects of the public health emergency. Additionally, County employees kept the doors open to the public so that the public could transact business, even though the spread of the virus was rampant. Because there were board meetings it also required County staff and the Clerk's office to conduct the Agenda process described above. To mitigate and reduce the transmission of COVID-19 during the pandemic, health officials at all levels of government encouraged "social distancing" by minimizing and avoiding close interaction with others, particularly in -doors and in enclosed spaces. Mohave County implemented measures to encourage social distancing, such as creating space between the seats in the County's auditorium (where the Board meetings took place), conducting zoom meetings, limiting the number of people within an enclosed area, and allowing some remote work opportunities. Adopting an electronic system of distributing, reviewing, and signing BAFs and back-up documents would reduce the amount of in -person contact between employees, and allow employees greater ability to work remotely, away from the office, while still completing the process of reviewing and approving BAFs. By limiting in -person contact, it would help reduce the spread of airborne illnesses such as COVID-19 and its variants. The County could accomplish the important task of preparing the Board Agenda while providing more safety to its employees. October 18, 2022 Page 3 of 5 Short Answer: Yes, ARPA funds can be used for the purchase of electronic software used for the purpose of distributing, reviewing and signing BAFs and back-up documents. Explanation: ARPA (the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, H.R. 1319) provided funding for Counties to be used as follows: 1. to respond to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and non -profits, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality; 2. to respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers of the county that are performing such essential work, or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers who perform essential work; 3. for the provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of the county due to the COVID-19 public health emergency relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the county prior to the emergency; or 4. to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. ARPA monies must be used for at least one of these categories. Failure to spend the monies on items outside of these categories may result in Mohave County having to pay back ARPA funds. Of these four spending categories, the purchase of electronic software for the purpose of distributing, reviewing, and signing BAFs falls within the first category, responding to the Public Health Emergency. Responding to the Public Health Emergency To determine whether a program or service would be eligible to respond to the public health emergency or its economic impacts, the recipient must first identify a need or negative impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency and, second, identify how the program, service, or other intervention addresses the identified need or impact. See pg 4341, Federal Register, Vol. 87, No. 181 Thursday, January 27, 2022. Eligible uses must be in response to the disease itself or the harmful consequences of the economic disruptions resulting from or exacerbated by the COVID-19 public health emergency. Id. The Final Rules streamlined services and standards that are generally applicable or are provided for public health purposes. See Pg. 20, Department of the Treasury, 31 CFR Part 35 [RIN 1505-AC77], available at https:Hhome.treasu[y..qov/system/files/136/SLFRF-Final-Rule.pdf The Final Rules October 18, 2022 Page 4 of 5 organized the eligible uses responsive to the public health emergency into different types of public health problems, one of which was COVID-19 mitigation and prevention. Id. Within the category of COVID-19 mitigation and prevention, one of the enumerated eligible uses of the ARPA funds is capital investments in public facilities to meet pandemic operational needs, such as adaptions to public buildings to implement COVID-19 mitigation tactics. Id. at 20. ARPA monies may also be used for personal protective equipment. Id. I Purchasing a software system that replaces in -person review, distribution, and signing of documents directly responds to the public health emergency by mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. It permits County employees to work away from the office, or if they are at the office to adhere to social distancing measures. Employees would no longer be required to individually contact each department and deliver documents in person. In this manner, it mitigates the spread of airborne viruses. It is a form of personal protective equipment that gives employees the total to either work from home or in the office at a safe distance from others. One of the major concerns of the pandemic was the effect upon work production and employee safety. During the public health emergency employees were either sent home because of illness (or a family member illness), or because the employee or family member was a close contact to a person who tested positive for the virus. Additionally, some departments limited the number of employees or members of the public in a building so as to limit the spread of the virus. Because of lengthy quarantine periods, and to ensure their safety and the safety of others, many employees had to remain away from the workplace. With an electronic system of reviewing and distributing BAFs, quarantined employees may continue to work from home and process the BAFs, or remain in the office but at a safe distance from others, thereby allowing the work to continue while ensuring the safety of employees still at the office. When considering any capital expenditure, it is important to consider whether there are alternatives that may cost less or be more feasible. One option, instead of utilizing the electronic software, would be to communicate and deliver the BAFs via email. Employees already communicate and conduct much of their work by email. And, when employees work on BAFs, they use email to ask co-workers to review and edits the forms. But utilizing email to review, distribute, and sign the documents is not an effective or efficient method of accomplishing the ultimate goal of preparing a Board Agenda. The number of Agenda items on any given Agenda may range from 30-65 items, and to receive emails on each of these items, from various departments, including follow-up emails and the like, would be unwieldy and counterproductive. The Clerk of the Board would be tasked with gathering all of these emails and collecting the information to create an Agenda. This presents a greater risk of error when creating the Agenda. Electronic software would reduce the risk of error, keep the review and distribution of the Agenda organized, while at the same ensuring employee safety. ' For purposes of ARPA, the Department of Treasury defines "Capital Expenditures" as "expenditures to acquire capital assets or expenditures to make additions, improvements, modifications, replacements, rearrangements, reinstallations, renovations, or alterations to capital assets that materially increase their value or useful life." See Pg. 207, Department of the Treasury, 31 CFR Part 35 [RIN 1505-AC77], available at https://home.treasua_4ov/system/files/136/SLFRF-Final-Rule.pdf Capital Assets include equipment and intellectual property. Id. at 208. Equipment is defined as tangible personal property (including information technology systems) having a useful life of more than one year and a per -unit acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the non -Federal entity for financial statement purposes, or $5000. Id. October 18, 2022 Page 5 of 5 Summary Public bodies are required by law to prepare Agendas for public meetings. The Board of Supervisors is the governing body for Mohave County. It must hold public meetings on a regular basis, and every meeting must have an Agenda. The current manner of reviewing, distributing, and signing Board Action Forms in order to create the Agenda utilizes in -person, at the office work. Electronic software can replace or minimize the requirement the in -person review and distribution of the board action forms, thereby providing greater safety and flexibility for county employees. It directly responds to the public health emergency of an airborne illness by providing a tool for employees to do their work in a safe manner, whether it is accomplished remotely or at the office but at a safe distance. For these reasons, ARPA monies may be expended for the purchase of the software. /s/ Ryan H. Esplin Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney DocUnited Imaging, LLC Invoice P.O. Box 39386 DOICUnited IMAGING Phoenix, AZ 85069 US (602)6158297 smosby@docunited.com http://www.docunited.com BILL TO SHIP TO Ginny Anderson Nathan McDaniel Mohave County Mohave County P.O.Box 7000 P. O. Box 7000 Kingman, AZ 86402-7000 Kingman, AZ 86401 INVOICE # DATE TOTAL DUE DUE DATE TERMS i ENCLOSED 102531 05/17/2023 $4,000.00 05/17/2023 Due on receipt I PLEASE DETACH TOP PORTION AND RETURN WITH YOUR PAYMENT. DESCRIPTION Professional Services Estimate for Mohave County Request For Board Action Project SUBTOTAL TAX TOTAL BALANCE DUE QTY RATE AMOUNT 20 200.00 4,000.00 4,000.00 0.00 4,000.00 $4,000.00