Revenue_Recovery_Collection_Technology_Solution.pdf

Revenue Recovery Collection Technology Solution

Request For Proposal (RFP #RFP-2022-0003)

Tuolumne County

Treasurer - Tax Collector's Office

Issued: Thursday, June 16, 2022

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP No. RFP-

2022-0003)

REVENUE RECOVERY COLLECTION

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

Deadline for Submission of Proposals: Friday, July 29, 2022

RESPONSES MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY TO:

https://secure.procurenow.com/portal/tuolumnecountyca https://secure.procurenow.com/portal/%7bproject.government.code%7d

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. Scope of Services

III. Minimum Qualifications

IV. Proposal Package Requirements

V. RFP Process

VI. Evaluation of Proposals

VII. Contract Information

Attachments:

A - RFP- ORR Collection Software Appendix A

B - RFP- ORR Collection Software Appendix B

C - RFP- ORR Collection Software Appendix C

D - RFP- ORR Collection Software Appendix D

E - RFP- ORR Collection Software Appendix E

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Summary

The County of Tuolumne is seeking proposals from all qualified providers for the acquisition and implementation of an effective and efficient technology solution. This solution will be for the collection and billing of debts typically collected by the Tuolumne County Office of Revenue

Recovery.

1.2. Background

The Office of Revenue Recovery (ORR) was established to provide agencies and departments within the County with professional collection and resolution of delinquent debts owed to the county. Revenue Recovery works closely with these departments to collect money due, while at the same time providing assistance to individuals seeking to clear their financial obligations to the county.

The Office of Revenue Recovery has a long-standing contract with the local Superior Court to collect all current and delinquent accounts on behalf of the Court. Approximately 60% of ORR collection receipts are Court-ordered debt. ORR also collects certain debts on behalf of other local agencies such as the City of Sonora. Enforcement techniques utilized are comparable to those used in the business sector. Collections total approximately $3 million annually.

Tuolumne County is currently utilizing Revenue Plus Collection System (RPCS) version 5.0L by

Finvi (formerly Ontario Systems and Columbia Ultimate Business Systems (CUBS)). This software is used by 6 users within the Office of Revenue Recovery and will be utilized by up to 8 users concurrently.

1.3. Contact Information

Justin Birtwhistle

Treasurer & Tax Collector

2 SOUTH GREEN STREET

SONORA, CA 95370

Email: jbirtwhistle@co.tuolumne.ca.us

Phone: (209) 533-5544

Department:

Treasurer - Tax Collector's Office

Department Head:

Justin Birtwhistle

Treasurer - Tax Collector

1.4. Timeline

Release of published RFP June 16, 2022 mailto:jbirtwhistle@co.tuolumne.ca.us tel:(209)533-5544

Deadline for receiving all questions July 15, 2022, 3:00pm

Deadline for RFP responses to be received by County

July 29, 2022, 4:00pm

Review Committee evaluates and ranks proposals

August 1, 2022

Notice of contract award (Tentative) August 12, 2022

Deadline for protests/appeals

(Tentative)

August 26, 2022

Contract executed (Tentative) August 29, 2022

2. SCOPE OF SERVICES

2.1. Scope of Services

The purpose of this RFP is to acquire an effective and efficient technology solution for the collection, billing, and reporting of accounts receivable collected by the County, including court-ordered debt. The County is interested in the benefits we can expect to realize from the proposed solution, such as built-in time saving workflows and automated document generation for mass billings or collection letters. The County strongly prefers a solution that provides a user-friendly experience with plain-English intuitive navigation, clear custom settings that provide flexibility and automation of routine tasks in order to decrease time spent training and on repetitive tasks, and increase accuracy, ease of use, and time spent actively executing successful collection strategies. The proposed solution must be capable of performing accounts receivable aging, billing, daily and annual interest calculations, assignment of workload to staff, reporting on staff performance, workload, and collected and outstanding receivables. It must provide for automated workflows/programs to move debtors from one stage of collection to the next. It must have the ability to transfer out accounts receivable to Franchise Tax Board Court-Ordered Debt, Interagency Intercept Program, or private collection agencies. The program must provide (or integrate with the County's existing finance system to provide) a check disbursement and reconciliation process for victim restitution and refunds.

It is imperative that the solution generates accurate, well-developed reports. Please provide information regarding the proposed solution’s reporting capabilities including, but not limited to the types of reports, printing options, electronic delivery/export and ad hoc reporting. Please detail how the proposed solution meets government reporting requirements, periodic and other reporting requirements.

The proposed solution must be able to integrate with other systems including the County’s finance system, CentralSquare ONESolution (Finance Enterprise), the Superior Court’s case management system, Journal Technologies eCourt, the California Franchise Tax Board, Experian and TransUnion credit reporting agencies, and the California Employment Development

Department (EDD).

The proposed solution must be able to integrate with the proposed California Judicial Council

MyCitations tool in accordance with their implementation of California Government Code §

68645, for adjudicating infraction violations. Although this not a requirement at this time, the

Judicial Council is expected to make this tool available statewide on or before Jun 30, 2024. This would be a necessary requirement at that time (or at which time the tool has been implemented and available for use).

The vendor must detail the functionality and capabilities of the proposed application software.

Please provide in succinct narrative form, information regarding the features of the application recommended in the proposal. The County is interested in the benefits we can expect to realize from the proposed solution, such as built-in time saving workflows; please highlight these capabilities in your proposal narratives.

• The provider must follow a standard System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), including the following activities:

A. Discovery of Tuolumne County business requirements, based upon but not limited to the requirements described in this document

B. Data analysis and conversion

C. Server configuration

D. Interface development and implementation

E. Software installation and configuration

F. Training activities

G. Acceptance testing

H. Parallel processing

I. Final implementation

J. Annual maintenance and support

• See Technical Requirements Specifications (Attachment A), Business Requirements List

(Attachment B), and Functional Requirements List (Attachment C) for a detailed list of system performance, business, and functionality requirements.

• A software service level agreement is required, with clearly defined deliverables, guaranteed availability (via phone), response times and minimum qualifications for support staff.

• A deliberate and predefined implementation plan is required, that is modeled after prior successful implementations. The plan must list milestones, key tasks, resource assignments and an appropriate level of redundant operations during implementation, and contingency planning to ensure continued successful operation of County processes.

Implementation must be generally managed and administered by the vendor. ORR staff will make themselves available to the greatest extent reasonably possible under the vendor’s guidance but must continue to process daily workloads throughout the course of the project. The plan should include planning, organizing, installing, configuring, testing for acceptance, and training, as well as integration with 3rd party services.

• Implementation will require conversion and import of approximately 39,000 debtor accounts, with an outstanding receivable value of approximately $60 million. Data must be appropriately transferred and allocated in order to preserve and maintain all account demographics, various data and financial fields, historical notes, transaction history, and any images associated with the account record. Newly added and historical records are expected to appear sequentially continuous in the new system.

• Provide a list of minimum specifications for servers hosted on-premises, including but not limited to application, web, and database servers. Provide minimum specifications for client workstations for ORR staff.

• The proposed solution will need to provide interfaces for the following applications and systems:

A. CentralSquare ONESolution (Finance Enterprise) – The proposed solution will need to automatically post daily (and manually post custom period) transaction detail and summary information to ONESolution, which is hosted off-site by the vendor, CentralSquare.

B. Journal Technologies eCourt – The proposed solution will need to receive applicable case-related information, including fines, court-ordered debt and supporting information from eCourt, which is not owned, supported, or maintained by county, but rather, the Superior Court of California, Tuolumne County.

C. Franchise Tax Board – The proposed solution will need to export and import reports to communicate with the Franchise Tax Board for both Court-Ordered Debt (COD) and Interagency Intercept Program.

D. Experian and TransUnion – The proposed solution will need to export reports to upload data to the Experian and TransUnion credit bureaus.

E. California Employment Development Department (EDD) - The proposed solution will need to export and import data via electronic transfer in a preset file format from

California EDD

If an interface does not exist between the proposed solution and the application listed, the proposal should include a description of how an interface could be achieved and the cost for developing that interface. Proposals should also describe the vendor’s general approach to developing system interfaces.

• The vendor must provide a description of the design and architecture of the application, including but not limited to network diagram, security methods, encryption, login and/or transaction auditing capabilities.

• In an effort to maximize the effectiveness of implementation, implementation training and ongoing (on call) training over the course of the contract will be required for all impacted staff. Impacted staff may include technical, management and operational staff from across the County

3. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Please see below the minimum qualifications:

Business/Functional Minimum Qualifications

The proposed collection solution will need to contain features that support management of the full life cycle and automation of the various flows of the debt collection process containing, but not limited to the following functions:

A. Placement for collection

B. Management of debtor communications

C. Billing

D. Payment processing

E. Collaboration with partner agencies

F. Legal action

G. Bankruptcy

H. Probate

I. Reporting

Technology Minimum Qualifications

A. Proposed solution shall be supported in a Microsoft Windows environment (both client and server).

B. For a proposed solution that is web-based or thin-client application, supported web browsers must be then current versions of Microsoft Edge (Chromium), Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox.

C. For a proposed solution that will be hosted on premises, the solution must support a then currently supported version of Microsoft Windows Server.

D. For a proposed solution that will be hosted on premises, the database(s) must be supported on a then currently supported version of Microsoft SQL Server.

4. PROPOSAL PACKAGE REQUIREMENTS

Proposals are to be straightforward, clear, concise and responsive to the information requested.

In order for proposals to be considered complete, proposers must provide all requested information.

Each proposer must submit their response online via the County’s e-Procurement platform, https://secure.procurenow.com/portal/tuolumnecountyca.

4.1. Proposal Elements*

Experience

Vendor will provide a narrative that at minimum details the following:

• Executive Summary of Company

• Experience implementing and supporting the technology solution with Local

Governments such as the County

• References, preferably California county government collection programs

Approach & Timeline

Vendor approach needs to include at minimum:

• Anticipated number of assigned staff by position title .

• Number of hours anticipated for implementation of project

• A narrative that includes the process in which the vendor will conduct to implement the system. This narrative should clearly define the extent to which any task will require

County staff support.

Timeline for the project should state number of weeks expected for each task from contract acceptance to the completion of implementation.

Cost

Costs must be itemized by activity and clearly delineate one-time implementation costs and annual maintenance costs.

Additional Documents

Any documents that support the vendors proposal.

*Response required

4.2. Proposal Cost*

Proposer shall upload a fee schedule here. Information should include any and all costs associated with the fulfillment of the Scope of Services.

*Response required

5. RFP PROCESS

5.1. Submittal of Proposals

Sealed proposals must be received at the online, NO LATER THAN 4:00 pm on Friday, July 29, 2022.

Proposals are to be submitted electronically using the County’s e-Procurement platform, https://secure.procurenow.com/portal/tuolumnecountyca. Proposals will be received only as instructed above, and must be received before 4:00 pm on Friday, July 29, 2022. Proposals shall not be submitted via hard copy, (hand delivered or mailed), facsimile, nor via email. It is the sole responsibility of the proposer to properly upload its proposal so that it is received by the time and date required. Any proposal received after said time and/or date or in any other format other than as instructed herein, cannot be considered and will not be accepted. The County’s e-Procurement

Platform records the time stamp for every proposal submitted properly in the system. Once a proposal is submitted in the e-procurement platform, the Proposer will receive an email confirmation, and the proposal status will also show as “submitted.”

5.2. Submitter's Questions

Questions regarding the RFP must be submitted exclusively in writing to the County by 3:00 pm on Friday, July 15, 2022 via the County’s e-Procurement platform, in the Q&A tab. Except for questions that might render the award of this contract invalid, the County will not respond to any questions submitted after this time. The County will use an addendum to the RFP to post any questions received, along with written responses, on the County e-Procurement platform, https://secure.procurenow.com/portal/tuolumnecountyca. It is the responsibility of the proposers to check the County website to review the questions and responses. Any oral responses to questions are not binding on the County.

5.3. Cost of Developing the Proposal

All costs incurred in the preparation of a proposal are the responsibility of each proposer and will not be reimbursed by the County.

5.4. Proposal Terms and Conditions

It is the responsibility of each proposer to be familiar with all of the specifications, terms and conditions of the RFP. By the submission of a proposal, the proposer certifies that if awarded a contract, proposer will make no claim against the County based upon ignorance of or misunderstanding of the specifications.

Each proposer shall submit its proposal with the understanding that the proposal will become a part of the official file on this matter and shall be subject to disclosure, if requested by a member of the public, following the completion of negotiations.

By submitting a proposal, each proposer certifies that all statements in this proposal are true.

This constitutes a warranty, the falsity of which shall include the right, at the County’s option, of declaring any contract made, as a result thereof, null and void. Proposals shall be completed, executed, and submitted in accordance with the instructions of this RFP. If a proposal is not submitted in the format specified in this RFP, it may be rejected, unless the County determines that the nonconformity is either a minor irregularity or that the defect or variation in the proposal is immaterial or inconsequential. The County may give the proposer an opportunity to cure any deficiency resulting from a minor irregularity or an immaterial or inconsequential defect, or

County may waive such deficiency, whichever is most advantageous to the County.

The County cannot accept proposals from any individual who is currently employed with the

County of Tuolumne (California Government Code §29708).

5.5. Successful Proposal as Part of Contract Services

Proposals received in response to this solicitation, at the County’s discretion, may be incorporated into the awarded contract and may serve as basic terms and conditions for the ultimate contract. Therefore, proposers are advised that, if successful, they will be held responsible for levels of services proposed at the funding levels quoted. The County reserves the right to negotiate modifications or revisions to any awarded contract.

5.6. Evaluation of Proposals

See #Evaluation of Proposals.

5.7. Other Requirements

In order to contract with the County of Tuolumne, a proposer must meet the following requirements:

• Make available to the County its federal Tax Identification Number (TIN) or Social

Security Number (SSN).

• Comply with all Federal, State and local rules, regulations and policies, including but not limited to:

o Standard contract language of the County; and, o Insurance coverage to include worker’s compensation, general liability, auto liability and professional liability, unless waived by the County.

• Meet the requirements for audit of its expenditures if required in the above documents.

5.8. Non-Discrimination

Non-Discrimination: The Contractor selected through this RFP shall provide services without discrimination based on race, creed, color, ethnic or linguistic identification, gender or sexual preference, disability or handicap or any other basis prohibited by law.

5.9. Protest/Appeal Process

The following procedure is provided in the event that a proposer wishes to protest the RFP process or appeal the recommendation to award a contract for RFP once the Notices of

Award/Non-Award have been issued.

https://secure.procurenow.com/portal/tuolumnecountyca/projects/21640?section=167591

Any protest must be submitted in writing to Treasurer - Tax Collector's Office, 2 SOUTH

GREEN STREET, Sonora, CA 95370, Attention: Justin Birtwhistle

The protest must be submitted before 5 pm of the tenth (10th) business day following the date of the Notice of Award.

The protest must contain a complete statement of the basis for the protest. The protest must include the name, address, telephone number and e-mail address of the person representing the protesting party.

The procedure and time limits are mandatory and are the proposer’s sole and exclusive remedy in the event of a bid protest.

Proposer’s failure to comply with these procedures shall constitute a waiver of any right to further pursue the protest, including filing a Government Code claim or legal proceedings.

Upon receipt of written protest/appeal, the Treasurer - Tax Collector will review and provide an opportunity to settle the protest/appeal by mutual agreement, will schedule a meeting to discuss or issue a written response to advise of an appeal/protest decision within five (5) business days of receipt of the appeal/protest.

5.10. Public Records Access

Proposers should be aware that submitted proposals are subject to the California Public Records

Act and may be disclosed to members of the public upon request. It is the responsibility of the proposers to clearly identify information in their proposals that they consider to be confidential under the California Public Records Act. To the extent that the County agrees with that designation, such information will be held in confidence whenever possible. All other information will be considered public.

All information regarding the proposals will be held as confidential until such time as the

Review Committee has completed its evaluation and, or if, contract negotiations are complete.

6. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

The objective is to perform a thorough and fair evaluation of submitted proposals and facilitate the selection of a contractor/consultant that best satisfies the County’s requirements. The following describes the evaluation process and associated components.

A. Selection Process:

1. The County shall name, for the purpose of evaluating the proposals for this RFP, a

Review Committee composed of representatives from the County. The County may also elect to include as part of the Review Committee qualified representatives from other agencies or entities.

2. Proposal documentation requirements set forth in this RFP are designed to provide guidance to proposers concerning the type of information that will be used by the

Review Committee. Proposers shall be prepared to respond to requests by the Review

Committee for additional items deemed necessary to assist in the evaluation process.

B. Evaluation Criteria & Scoring:

1. The Review Committee shall be responsible for performing the evaluations of each proposal. Each member of the Committee shall rate the proposers separately. The scores of each of the Committee members shall then be averaged to provide a total score for each of the proposers. The proposals shall be evaluated on the following categories and the maximum weight possible for each category is listed below.

C. Award:

Award will be made to the qualified proposer whose proposal will be most advantageous to the

County, with price and all other factors considered. The County will negotiate with the highest ranked proposer to develop the scope of work and contract for mutual satisfaction.

If the County cannot successfully negotiate a contract with the highest ranked proposer, the

County will terminate negotiations and begin negotiations with the next highest ranked proposer.

Proposers will receive mailed Award/Non-Award notification(s), which will include the name of the proposer to be awarded this contract.

Proposers are advised County reserves the following prerogatives:

• To reject any or all proposals;

• To consider historic information and fact, whether gained from the proposer’s proposal or any other source, in the evaluation process; and

• The proposer is cautioned that it is the proposer’s sole responsibility to submit information related to the evaluation categories and the County is under no obligation to solicit such information if it is not included with the proposal. Failure of the individual or firm to submit such information may cause an adverse impact on the evaluation of the proposal.

No. Evaluation Criteria Scoring Method Weight (Points)

1. Completeness of Proposal Pass / Fail 20 (20% of Total)

2. Qualification 0-100 Points 20 (20% of Total)

3. Approach & Timeline 0-100 Points 15 (15% of Total)

4. Suitability 0-100 Points 20 (20% of Total)

5. Reasonable Cost of Service 0-100 Points 25 (25% of Total)

7. CONTRACT INFORMATION

7.1. Sample Agreement

Sample Agreement language is included in this RFP, which details all standard terms and conditions required by the County of Tuolumne.

7.2. Term/Termination

The term of the initial contract awarded under this RFP will be for: TBD. By mutual agreement, this contract may be extended for timeframe, under the following circumstances:

• The County receives adequate funding to extend program operations;

• The Contractor has achieved demonstrable success by meeting all of the contract’s service requirements;

• The County continues to need the services purchased under this RFP;

• The Contractor is willing and able to modify the services provided to best meet the needs of the program as determined by the County.

The contract will be subject to termination by either party upon (60) days’ advance, written notice of intent to terminate. The County may terminate the contract at any time, without written notice, upon a material breach of contract by the Contractor.

7.3. Funding Availability

It is mutually agreed that if the County budget of the current year and/or any subsequent years covered under this Agreement does not appropriate sufficient funds for the program, this

Agreement shall be of no further force and effect. In this event, the County shall have no liability to pay any funds whatsoever to Contractor or to furnish any other considerations under this

Agreement and Contractor shall not be obligated to perform any provisions of this Agreement.

Contractor’s assumption of risk of possible non-appropriation is part of the consideration for this

Agreement. County budget decisions are subject to the discretion of the Board of Supervisors.

If funding for any fiscal year is reduced or deleted by the County budget for purposes of this program, the County shall have the option to either cancel this Agreement with no liability occurring to the County, or offer an Agreement amendment to Contractor to reflect the reduced amount.

7.4. Insurance

A. Contractor shall procure and maintain for the duration of the contract insurance against claims for injuries to persons or damages to property which may arise from or in connection with the performance of the work hereunder and the results of that work by the Contractor, his agents, representatives, employees or subcontractors. Coverage shall be at least as broad as:

1. Commercial General Liability (CGL): Insurance Services Office Form CG 00 01 covering CGL on an "occurrence" basis, including products and completed operations, property damage, bodily injury and personal & advertising injury with limits no less than $2,000,000 per occurrence. If a general aggregate limit applies, either the general aggregate limit shall apply separately to this project/location (ISO

CG 25 03 or 25 04) or the general aggregate limit shall be twice the required occurrence limit.

2. Automobile Liability: ISO Form Number CA 00 01 covering any auto (Code 1), or if Contractor has no owned autos, hired, (Code 8) and non-owned autos (Code 9), with limit no less than $1,000,000 per accident for bodily injury and property damage.

3. Workers' Compensation: as required by the State of California, with Statutory

Limits, and Employer's Liability Insurance with limit of no less than $1,000,000 per accident for bodily injury or disease.

4. Cyber Liability Insurance - with limits not less than $2,000,000 per occurrence or claim, $2,000,000 aggregate. Coverage shall be sufficiently broad to respond to the duties and obligations as is undertaken by Contractor in this agreement and shall include, but not be limited to, claims involving security breach, system failure, data recovery, business interruption, cyber extortion, social engineering (max limit of

$100,000), infringement of intellectual property, including but not limited to infringement of copyright, trademark, trade dress, invasion of privacy violations, information theft, damage to or destruction of electronic information, release of private information, and alteration of electronic information. The policy shall provide coverage for breach response costs, regulatory fines and penalties as well as credit monitoring expenses.

5. Technology Professional Liability Errors & Omissions Insurance - appropriate to

Contractor’s profession and work hereunder, with limits not less than $2,000,000 per occurrence. Coverage shall be sufficiently broad to respond to the duties and obligations as is undertaken by Contractor in this agreement and shall include, but not be limited to, claims involving security breach, system failure, data recovery, business interruption, cyber extortion, social engineering (max limit of $100,000), infringement of intellectual property, including but not limited to infringement of copyright, trademark, trade dress, invasion of privacy violations, information theft, damage to or destruction of electronic information, release of private information, and alteration of electronic information. The policy shall provide coverage for breach response costs, regulatory fines and penalties as well as credit monitoring expenses.

6. If the Contractor maintains broader coverage and/or higher limits than the minimums shown above, the County requires and shall be entitled to the broader coverage and/or the higher limits maintained by the contractor. Any available insurance proceeds in excess of the specified minimum limits of insurance and coverage shall be available to the County.

B. Other Insurance Provisions: The insurance policies are to contain, or be endorsed to contain, the following provisions:

1. Additional Insured Status. The County, its officers, officials, employees, and volunteers are to be covered as additional insureds on the CGL policy with respect to liability arising out of work or operations performed by or on behalf of the Contractor including materials, parts, or equipment furnished in connection with such work or operations. General liability coverage can be provided in the form of an endorsement to the Contractor's insurance (at least as broad as ISO Form CG 20 10 11 85 or if not available, through the addition of both CG 20 10, CG 20 26, CG 20 33, or CG 20 38;

and CG 20 37 if a later edition is used).

2. Primary Coverage. For any claims related to this contract, the Contractor's insurance coverage shall be primary coverage at least as broad as ISO CG 20 01 04 13 as respects the County, its officers, officials, employees, and volunteers. Any insurance or self-insurance maintained by the County, its officers, officials, employees, or volunteers shall be excess of the Contractor's insurance and shall not contribute with it.

3. Notice of Cancellation. Each insurance policy required above shall provide that coverage shall not be canceled, except with notice to the County.

4. Waiver of Subrogation. Contractor hereby grants to County a waiver of any right to subrogation which any insurer of said Contractor may acquire against the County by virtue of the payment of any loss under such insurance. Contractor agrees to obtain any endorsement that may be necessary to affect this waiver of subrogation, but this provision applies regardless of whether or not the County has received a waiver of subrogation endorsement from the insurer.

5. Self-Insured Retentions. Self-insured retentions must be declared to and approved by the County. The County may require the Contractor to purchase coverage with a lower retention or provide proof of ability to pay losses and related investigations, claim administration, and defense expenses within the retention. The policy language shall provide, or be endorsed to provide, that the self-insured retention may be satisfied by either the named insured or County.

6. Acceptability of Insurers. Insurance is to be placed with insurers authorized to conduct business in the state with a current A.M. Best’s rating of no less than A:VII, unless otherwise acceptable to the County.

7. Verification of Coverage. Contractor shall furnish the County with original

Certificates of Insurance including all required amendatory endorsements (or copies of the applicable policy language effecting coverage required by this clause) and a copy of the Declarations and Endorsement Page of the CGL policy listing all policy endorsements to County before work begins. However, failure to obtain the required documents prior to the work beginning shall not waive the Contractor's obligation to provide them. The County reserves the right to require complete, certified copies of all required insurance policies, including endorsements required by these specifications, at any time.

8. Special Risks or Circumstances. County reserves the right to modify these requirements, including limits, based on the nature of the risk, prior experience, insurer, coverage, or other special circumstances.

9. Failure to Comply: Upon failure to comply with any of these insurance requirements, this Agreement may be forthwith declared suspended or terminated. Failure to obtain and/or maintain any required insurance shall not relieve any liability under this

Agreement, nor shall the insurance requirements be construed to conflict with or otherwise limit the indemnification obligations.

7.5. Hold Harmless

Contactor shall hold harmless, defend and indemnify County and its officers, officials, employees and volunteers from and against any and all liability, loss, damage, expense, costs

(including without limitation costs and fees of litigation) of every nature arising out of or in connection with Contractor's performance of work hereunder or its failure to comply with any of its obligations contained in the agreement, except such loss or damage which was caused by the sole negligence or willful misconduct of the County.

If such indemnification becomes necessary, the County Counsel for the County shall have the absolute right and discretion to approve or disapprove of any and all counsel employed to defend the County. This indemnification clause shall survive the termination or expiration of this

Agreement.