| Item Title: | Public Defender's Office - Thomas Reuters/CLEAR Contract |
| Submitted By: | William R. Cox, Interim Chief Public Defender, Public Defender's Office (915) 546-8185 |
| Subject: | Approve and authorize the County Judge to sign the contract with Thomson Reuters for CLEAR on-line person search services for the Public Defender's Office in the amount of $3,600. Funding is available in GF-PUBLICDEFEND-BOOKS&SUBSCRPT. (Contract No. 2019-0732)
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| Background: | This contract is under the current state contract rate with on-line services provider Thomson Reuters/CLEAR. The agreement provides on-line person search tools for our investigative team to locate individuals. In addition to our work on criminal cases, these tools are a vital part of the work we do on Child Protective Services (CPS) cases, where we are appointed to represent either unknown, or unlocatable, parents. With the CLEAR program, we are able to efficiently access nationwide database to assist in locating those parents, so they can be informed and part of their children’s cases. |
| Fiscal Impact: | Under Lexis contract we were paying $1,600 per month (or $19,200 per year). The new agreements with Thomson Reuters provides more licenses for online person search services and reduces our cost by 7.4% to $1,482 per month (or $17,784 per year).
The CLEAR person search services contract covered in this item is for $300 per month or ($3,600 per year).
Funds are available in COGF-1000-0000000-431-20-21005-0001-000000-600206-GF-PUBLICDEFEND-BOOKS&SUBSCRIPT.
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| Recommendation: | Approve. |
| Prior Action: | Commissioner's Court approved the bid award covering this contract to Thomson Reuters, in item 17, on Monday, October 29, 2019.
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| Strategic Plan: | 2019.PEO.8 |
| Strategic Plan Information: | The new contract with Thomson Reuters furthers the County’s goals of professional, financially sound government by providing Public Defender team members the computerized tools they need to represent clients effectively while also obtaining the needed services in a cost effective manner
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