HomeMy WebLinkAbout26 - Audio & Voting System Updatea(�W Pp�T
OA Newport Beach City Council
U z AGENDA ITEM 26
cgtrFOvk January 11, 1999 Council Meeting
TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: DAVE KIFF, ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER
LAVONNE HARKLESS, CITY CLERK
SUBJECT: AUDIO/VOTING SYSTEM UPDATE
SUMMARY:
This agenda item updates the City Council on City staff's progress on replacing
the City Council Chambers' sound system and voting system.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Receive and File
BACKGROUND:
On October 12,1998, the City Council approved a budget amendment that
authorized the expenditure of $10,000 for a new sound system for the City Council
Chambers. As a part of the Fiscal Year 1998 -99 Budget, the Council had previously
approved the expenditure of $25,000 for a new voting system for the Chambers.
I. Voting System
Since the Council's October action, we have contacted five voting system
vendors, including:
• Bill's Sound and Security (Costa Mesa)
• Cibola Systems (Santa Ana)
• Engineering Dynamics, Incorporated (Englewood, CO)
• Forespar Products Corporation (Rancho Santa Margarita)
• Lieberman and Associates (Beverly Hills)
From our review of the vendors products, we note that there are at least two
clear voting system alternatives available to the City - these include a hardwired
"button and display board" system that Engineering Dynamics and Forespar provide
and the software -based computerized system that Cibola supports.
We believe that the software -based alternative, if it falls within budgeted
appropriations ($25,000), may be a better alternative to the button and display board
system. The software -based system has a number of important enhancements that
Newport Beach City Council
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should make Council meetings easier to run and easier for the public to follow. These
enhancements include:
✓ The use of the existing video monitor to both display votes and cite the current
agenda item;
✓ The use of "request to speak" buttons and a "queue' that the Mayor may use (at
his discretion) to determine the order in which Council members have asked to
speak on a specific item; and
✓ The option of transmitting the vote (from the video monitor) directly to
Comcast's video feed so that residents at home can follow the meeting as well as
a resident in attendance.
After an initial review and site visit, Cibola s system appears to have the most
promise here because Lieberman and Associates has stopped providing voting systems.
Bill's Sound and Security, while a strong contender in sound systems, has only
completed one voting system (for the City of Irvine). Cibola, which installed the
software -based system at Metropolitan Water District's new headquarters in Los
Angeles, completed a site visit on December 22 and has promised us a formal proposal
by the second week of January.
II. Sound System
We have also contacted three vendors capable of installing a new sound system.
These vendors include:
• Bill's Sound and Security (Costa Mesa)
• Cibola Systems (Santa Ana)
• Micworks Incorporated (Costa Mesa)
We have a current bid in from Bill's Sound and Security and have been
"promised" one (after a site visit in November) from Micworks. We have yet to receive
the Micworks proposal despite repeated phone calls - they explain that they are "very
busy" lately. While at some point in the near future we will have to make a decision
regardless of their submittal, the strong work that Micworks has done for other agencies
makes us inclined to prompt them further.
Cibola plans to submit its sound proposal during the second week of January (in
concert with its voting system proposal), just as Bill's Sound and Security has offered to
submit a voting system proposal with its sound proposal. Bill's Sound has not yet
presented a voting system proposal, again despite prompting on our part.
Unless directed otherwise by the Council, we will make a final decision on the
appropriate vendor (or vendors) for the sound and voting systems by the close of
January 1999. After selection, installation may take from 5 -10 working days.
In closing, we regret the delay in making these selections. We attribute the lack
of "willing' system vendors to a strong local economy and very limited quantities of
vendors who provide public agency chambers voting systems. The latter is, apparently,
a highly specialized market with few formal providers.