Title
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to sign an agreement with GovWorx, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $359,250, effective October 1, 2026 and continuing through June 30, 2031, for hosted public safety software services; and
b. Authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to sign up to three (3) additional amendments to this Agreement where the amendments do not significantly change the scope of services and do not add more than 10% ($35,925) of the original agreement amount for a maximum aggregate agreement total of $395,175.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to sign an agreement with GovWorx, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $359,250, effective October 1, 2026 and continuing through June 30, 2031, for hosted public safety software services; and
b. Authorize the Director of the Emergency Communications Department to sign up to three (3) additional amendments to this Agreement where the amendments do not significantly change the scope of services and do not add more than 10% ($35,925) of the original agreement amount for a maximum aggregate agreement total of $395,175.
SUMMARY
The Monterey County Emergency Communications Department (ECD) is a consolidated public safety answer point and dispatch facility serving 28 law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical services (EMS) response agencies throughout Monterey County.
This agreement is for the GovWorx suite of hosted software products that provide workforce management tools, artificial intelligence non-emergency call processing, records request support and call transcription and translation services.
DISCUSSION:
The Department has partnered with GovWorx since May 2024 and has acted as a beta tester for the quality assurance module that provides Quality Assurance (QA) for Evaluations, Audio Transcription, Key Word Search, Review Queues, Reports, and Evaluator Feedback. This partnership has allowed the Department to get preferred pricing in perpetuity for this QA module and access to the ASSIST, DISCOVERY, TRAIN, and HIRE modules at no additional cost.
This new agreement expands the suite of products the Department will be receiving in addition to QA to include:
- ASSIST: Real time call transcription and translation to telecommunicators with in-call guidance and evaluations while notifying others of criteria that match their settings.
- DISCOVERY: 9-1-1 and CAD records request fulfillment including configurable multi-stage workflows, service-level workflow assignment, role-based access controls, requester correspondence and templates, as well as secure magic link delivery after human approval.
- TRAIN: Training Simulations created by the County or from a simulations library.
- HIRE: Pre-hire and pre-promotion candidate assessments using simulations, interactive questions, evaluations and reporting.
- NEAL: AI-powered voice agent that answers and manages non-emergency calls, provides agency-approved information, gathers information from callers, and routes or escalates calls to telecommunicators based on agency-defined criteria and workflows.
The Department has been using a similar AI-powered voice agent to answer and manage non-emergency calls since 2023 through separate agreements with BackingFire, Inc. for the AI technology and Amazon Web Services for the cloud computing. GovWorx has acquired the BackingFire intellectual property and will be providing the AI non-emergency call handling through the NEAL software through this Agreement as well as the cloud computing support.
This Agreement will support continuity of the Department’s existing services following the merger and provide a framework for transitioning to GovWorx products and services. It will also allow the Department to evaluate and implement new capabilities as they become available, including opportunities to be an early user of technology solutions that may improve operational efficiency and enhance public safety communications services.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT/COMMITTEE ACTIONS::
County Counsel has reviewed and approved this contract as to legal form. Risk Management has reviewed this agreement. The Information Technology Department has reviewed these services and this agreement as to network connections and security. The Auditor-Controller and Contracts-Purchasing have reviewed and approved this agreement.
FINANCING:
There is no impact to the General Fund resulting from this action. Sufficient appropriations and estimated revenues are included in 1340-152001 in the FY2026-27 Adopted Budget.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STRATEGIC PLAN GOALS:
This agreement correlates to the Board’s Safe and Resilient Communities Strategic Plan Goal by providing tools to the Emergency Communications Department to provide enhanced services to the community and better manage its workforce.
____ Well-Being and Quality of Life
____ Sustainable Infrastructure for the Present and Future
_X_ Safe and Resilient Communities
____ Diverse and Thriving Economy
____ Dynamic Organization and Employer of Choice
Link to the Strategic Plan:
<https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/home/showdocument?id=139569>
Prepared by: John Vaught, Finance Manager II, x8883
Approved by: Lee Ann Magoski, Director of Emergency Communications, x8880
Attachments:
Agreement
Board Report