REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION

 

April 16, 2007

 

The Honorable,

The Board of Commissioners of Cook County

 

ATTENDANCE

 

Present:

Chairman Beavers, Vice Chairman Gorman, Commissioners Butler, Daley and Schneider (5)

 

Absent:

Commissioners Goslin, Moreno, Peraica and Steele (4)

 

Also Present:

Stanley A. Molis – Director, Management Information Systems; Brandon Neese – Deputy County Clerk; and Mary Jo Horace, Director of Office Technology

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

 

        Your Committee on Information Technology and Automation of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County met pursuant to notice on Monday, April 16, 2007 at the hour of 10:00 A.M. in the Board Room, Room 569, County Building, 118 North Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois.

 

        Your Committee has considered the following items and, upon adoption of this report, the recommendations are as follows:

 

 

285672

BUREAU OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND AUTOMATION, by Catherine Maras O’Leary, Chief Information Officer, transmitting a Communication:

 

requesting authorization for the Purchasing Agent to enter into a contract with IRON MOUNTAIN, Itasca, Illinois, for off-site storage of computer media countywide.

 

Reason:   Through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, Iron Mountain provided the lowest cost solution that met with all of the County’s main requirements, such as use of metal containers, support of electronic data transmittal, and depth of coverage facilities, for the protection of the company records.

 

Estimated Fiscal Impact:  $210,000.00.  One time purchase.  (490-441 Account).  Requisition No. 74900002.

 

*Referred to the Committee on Information Technology and Automation on

03-20-07.

 

Vice Chairman Gorman, seconded by Commissioner Daley, moved to discuss Communication Number 285672.

 

Stanley A. Molis, Director of Management Information Systems, remarked that this Item addresses off-site storage of data cartridges and reel tapes; pickups occur every day at multiple locations in the County.

 

Commissioner Daley inquired whether this safeguarding measure is part of a larger County-wide disaster planning effort.

 

Mr. Molis replied in the affirmative.

 

Vice Chairman Gorman inquired as to how many companies submitted RFPs.

 

Mary Jo Horace, Director of Office Technology, replied:  Seven companies submitted RFPs.  Three were disqualified because they could not support operations of the size of Cook County.  The others were higher than the recommended supplier.

 

Vice Chairman Gorman, seconded by Commissioner Daley, moved the approval of Communication Number 285672.  The motion carried.

 

285946

COOK COUNTY CLERK, David Orr, by Brandon Neese, Deputy County Clerk, transmitting a Communication:

 

requesting authorization for the Purchasing Agent to increase by $206,653.90, Contract No. 05-41-650 with LANAC Technology Corporation, Chicago, Illinois, for the purchase of a new integrated cashiering and accounting system (Phase I) and the back file conversion project (Phase II).

 

Board approved amount 05-17-05:

$1,506,000.00

Previous increase approved 01-18-06:

  1,900,000.00

Previous increase approved 10-17-06:

     150,000.00

This increase requested:

     206,653.90

Adjusted amount:

$3,762,653.90

 

Reason:     This increase is necessary due to unexpected difficulties the vendor experienced during the indexing process, therefore requiring additional personnel to enter the records manually.  On May 17, 2005 the Board approved Phase I of this contract, the new integrated cashiering and accounting system for the Real Estate and Tax Services Division, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Department of Ethics and Department of Elections.  On January 18, 2006 the Board approved an amendment, extension and increase to the original contract to add Phase II, the back file conversion project converting 24 million birth, marriage and death records into a digitized format.  On October 17, 2006 the Board approved an increase to the contract to scan 1.5 million additional paper records in place of film that were too poor to image.  The expiration date of the current contract is December 31, 2007.

 

Estimated Fiscal Impact:  $206,653.90.  (717/110-579 Account).

 

Sufficient funds have been appropriated to cover this request.

*Referred to the Committee on Information Technology and Automation on

04-03-07.

 

Vice Chairman Gorman, seconded by Commissioner Daley, moved to discuss Communication Number 285946.

 

Chairman Beavers called on Brandon Neese, Deputy County Clerk, to provide an overview of this Item.

 

Mr. Neese delivered the following remarks:  This project commenced several years ago.  It is comprised of two phases.  The first phase is the creation of the cashiering and accounting system, which has been installed for the entire Clerk’s Office, but primarily for the Tax Department and the Vital Records Department.  In the second phase twenty-four million vital records, from 1871 to the present, are being scanned and digitized.  These two phases will merge, and as a result, clerks will be able to provide documents immediately and receive payment immediately.  The project incurred $150,000 in extra costs, because some microfiche had deteriorated to the point where they were not legible.  Instead, the original paper documents had to be scanned, and this was more costly.  Further costs have arisen because, in merging the 24 million index numbers with the 24 million scanned documents, duplicate index numbers have been found.  To a large extent these duplicate index numbers are from between 1911 and 1929 when births and deaths often occurred at home instead of at the hospital.  When duplicates are found, the vendor has to manually enter the second document.  The cost has risen from 2 cents per document to 5 cents per document and, in the case of marriage, 9 cents per document.  The increased cost amounts to approximately $200,000.00.  As a result of this project, twenty-five positions will be eliminated.  The project is not expected to exceed its deadline by more than three months.

 

Chairman Beavers inquired as to whether tax records will be affected.

 

Mr. Neese replied:  He has been working on a plan with staff from the County’s information technology areas.  Many of the records have been computerized, however, the State of Illinois still requires that the hard copy books be retained.  The plan is to focus on this issue after the present project is finished; the goal is to have everything on computer.

 

Commissioner Schneider inquired whether Mr. Neese foresees at the present time the need for any addition funds in the future.

Mr. Neese replied in the negative.

 

Chairman Beavers inquired whether Mr. Neese had been in touch with the Recorder of Deeds.

 

Mr. Neese replied in the negative, and added that the Treasurer, however, is very interested in this project.

 

Vice Chairman Gorman, seconded by Commissioner Daley, moved the approval of Communication Number 285946.  The motion carried.


YOUR COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THE FOLLOWING ACTION

WITH REGARD TO THE MATTER NAMED HEREIN:

 

Communication Number 285672                               Approved

 

Communication Number 285946                               Approved

 

Commissioner Daley moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Commissioner Butler.  The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned.

 

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Committee on Information Technology and Automation

 

 

 

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William M. Beavers, Chairman

 

 

Attest:

 

 

 

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Matthew B. DeLeon, Secretary