Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Jon Walton, CIO/Director, Information Services Department
Subject: Agreement with Interpersonal Frequency, LLC for COVID-19 Website Creation
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution waiving the request for proposals process an authorizing and agreement with Interpersonal Frequency, LLC to build and update a public facing website informing the public of San Mateo County’s COVID-19 virus preparation and response, for the term of March 17, 2020 through March 16, 2022, in an amount not to exceed $400,000.
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BACKGROUND:
San Mateo County’s public facing website is the primary communication mechanism to disseminate COVID-19 information to its residents. To be effective, the content needs to be organized in a format accessible to a diverse population with differing language capabilities. In addition, this information must be accessible from a variety of personal computers (PCs) and Mobile Operating Systems.
Due to the recently enacted Shelter in Place orders, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) requested a COVID-19 focused website to provide the public necessary information. ISD was asked to utilize its existing Drupal platform to create a new website. The vendor, Interpersonal Frequency, is familiar with the County’s website framework, has the expertise and ability to create the website quickly, and therefore is the most capable vendor to meet the needs of the EOC. A website with the following elements and functionality will be developed by the vendor:
• A sector landscape analysis to determine best practices for municipalities in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• A Content Strategy to determine page hierarchy and labeling.
• Optimized content for sharing on social media and ensuring that all content is easily recognizable as originating from San Mateo County.
• Alerts to be featured across all sites.
• Implementation of a social share function to allow for the easy sharing of content.
• Utilization of advanced language translation capabilities on templates to allow for the content to be easily translated to multiple languages.
DISCUSSION:
ISD is seeking approval from the Board to contract with Interpersonal Frequency, LLC to build and update a public information website in response to the COVID-19 virus response by San Mateo County.
An effective public-facing website is essential to provide accurate and current information to the public during an Emergency Response event. Given the diverse and dense population of San Mateo County and the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic the development of a user-friendly, multi-lingual, and informative website is a high priority.
ISD staff provide primary support of the County website, but because of the highly-specialized skills required for Drupal development and the specific skills required to build an Emergency Response website, ISD is seeking a vendor to build the COVID-19 website discussed in this memo.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The term of this agreement is March 17, 2020 to March 16, 2022 in an amount not to exceed $400,000. Funding for this Agreement has been appropriated in Non-Departmental Services through a mid-year ATR.