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CITY OF COLTON ITEM #13 AGENDA REPORT FOR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF AUGUST 19, 2008 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS FROM: DILU DE ALWIS, FINANCE DIRECTOR SUBJECT: APPROVE A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH GOVERNMENT FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION. DATE: AUGUST 11, 2008 BACKGROUND On May 30, 2003 the City of Colton along with the City of Azusa floated a Request for Proposal/Qualification for a Customer Information System (CIS). On March 1St 2005 the City Council awarded a contract to Advanced Utility Systems for a CIS/Utility Billing system. DISCUSSION/ ANALYSIS The CIS/Utility Billing System was implemented in October 2005 and has been operational since this date. The utility billing system has had more than its share of short -comings that require the vendor to continue to provide assistance in making numerous system fixes. Staff continues to have issues with the system that has been continuously raised, with less than satisfactory results from the vendor, of which the most pressing issue being that the Water Utility may not be realizing all of its revenue when compared to its production. There are additional billing issues that have been identified as needing immediate attention, which include, but are not limited to the following: the method utilized to print bills (both regular bills and level pay customers), cash distribution between the utilities and estimation of some water reads, net metering, demand billing, and billing for street lighting.. Currently there is no in-house staff that has sufficient knowledge of the system to address and fix these issues and staff recommends hiring of a consultant to analyze the following; • Request for Proposal/Qualification • Functional Specifications • Current System Performance Once the consultant has analyzed the above mentioned criteria, staff will work with the consultant to develop a list of items that need addressing and prioritize same to be addressed with Advanced Utility System. The scope of the current contract does not include the consultant to work with the software vendor and that decision will be made based on the complexity of the list of unresolved issues that will be developed by staff and consultant. If there is a need to keep the consultant on board to assist with working with the vendor to resolve said issues, staff will get a revised scope of work and pricing and bring that back to the Council for approval. Staff met with three consulting firms (1) James M. Derry (2) Navigant Consulting and (3) Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and discussed at length the needs for this assignment. After evaluating the responses received from all three firms staff is recommending the awarding of this contract to the consulting division of the GFOA. CONFLICT OF INTEREST Government Finance Officers Association Barry McMeekin — Consulting Practice Manager