RFI_-_SF_County_Clerk_Service_Modernization.pdf
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- Attached to
- EXT ADM | RFI - Records Management Modernization
- Solicitation number
- SFGOV-0000012023
- Issued by
- San Francisco County, San Francisco City, California
About this file
This is a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the City and County of San Francisco's County Clerk and Digital Services department seeking Software as a Service (SaaS) technology solutions to modernize resident access to County Clerk services, including vital records, business services, and other clerking functions. The RFI solicits vendor capabilities, design approaches, and implementation perspectives across functional areas including online application processing, appointment scheduling, real-time status notifications, staff workflow management, and reporting dashboards. A vendor information webinar is scheduled for August 27, 2026 at 11:00 AM PDT via Microsoft Teams, with questions due by August 28, 2026 at 5:00 PM PDT and responses due by September 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM PDT. Showcase invitations will be sent the week of October 5, 2026, with solution showcase presentations occurring the week of October 12, 2026. Responses should be submitted to Amanda Wentworth, Contracts & Procurement Manager, at amanda.wentworth@sfgov.org and should not exceed 20 pages.
The City seeks solutions addressing one or more functional capability areas including simple, accessible online resident experiences; coordinated in-person and digital workflows; real-time status and notifications; staff workflows and records management; reporting and performance accountability; and integration with citywide infrastructure including CityBase/Euna payment platform and Snowflake data platform. Current FY26 service volumes total 85,431 transactions across vital records (40,369), marriage licenses (25,248), marriage ceremonies (8,706), fictitious business names (5,881), and other services. The City emphasizes modular, cloud-native solutions over monolithic platforms and welcomes joint vendor responses combining technology, service design, and change management capabilities. Solutions must comply with San Francisco's Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Standard (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), undergo cybersecurity risk assessment, and provide comprehensive API access. Respondents should include cost estimates for software, implementation, and ongoing maintenance, along with service costs for design, user research, and training. This RFI is for information gathering only and does not constitute a commitment to contract or procurement.
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Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 1 of 20 August 17, 2026
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
County Clerk Service Modernization Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023
ISSUED BY: City and County of San Francisco City Administrator's Office, County Clerk and Digital Services
ISSUE DATE: Monday, August 17, 2026
VENDOR INFORMATION
WEBINAR:
Thursday, August 27, 2026 11am PDT Microsoft Teams Meeting (click to register)
QUESTIONS DUE (via email): Friday, August 28, 2026 5pm PDT
RESPONSES DUE (via email): Friday, September 18, 2026 5pm PDT
SHOWCASE INVITATIONS
SENT (if applicable)
Week of October 5, 2026
SOLUTION SHOWCASE
PRESENTATIONS (if applicable)
Week of October 12, 2026
SUBMIT TO: Amanda Wentworth Contracts & Procurement Manager Office of the City Administrator amanda.wentworth@sfgov.org
1. Purpose The City and County of San Francisco ("City") is seeking information from interested parties on Software as a Service (“SaaS”) technology solutions that can modernize how residents access County Clerk services, including vital records, business services, and other clerking services. Its purpose is to gather vendor capabilities, design approaches, and implementation perspectives to inform service design and procurement decisions.
The County Clerk (“Clerk”) and Digital Services are issuing this Request for Information (RFI) as part of a collaborative effort to reimagine Clerk services from the ground up. This initiative is https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/5b8c69fb-5899-4f3f-9a44-3ad53cee3be5@22d5c2cf-ce3e-443d-9a7f-dfcc0231f73f?source=copyLinkLegacyShareLinkDialog mailto:amanda.wentworth@sfgov.org
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 2 of 20 August 17, 2026 based on direct staff observation and a shared commitment to delivering services that are welcoming, guided, accessible and predictable for every resident who needs them.
The City welcomes submissions addressing any portion of the goals described herein, whether comprehensive or targeted.
2. Background
2.1 The County Clerk's Role in Civic Infrastructure
The County Clerk provides services that are foundational to daily civic life in San Francisco. The records the Clerk issues are frequently required in order to access other City services: benefits enrollment, affordable housing applications, and identity verification all depend on them. This downstream dependency means the Clerk's services are load-bearing civic infrastructure.
These challenges are not unique to San Francisco. Similar record-keeping and rights-verification services are the bedrock of local government in the United States. They are keys that unlock benefits provided by local, state, and federal levels, but they are not offered in the responsive, digitally accessible way that 21st century residents expect.
County Clerk records include:
• Vital records: certified copies of birth and death records, and marriage certificates for events registered in San Francisco
• Marriage licenses and civil ceremony officiation
• Fictitious business name (FBN) registration and renewal
• Professional registrations: process servers, photocopiers, and other regulated occupations
• Marriage certificates & domestic partnership records (maintained in partnership with the
Assessor-Recorder, who hold public marriage certificates)
• City IDs – Identification cards issued by the city to SF residents, and accepted as valid legal identification by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and other city departments
These services are also integration points across City departments, for example, birth records originate with the Department of Public Health (DPH). Business records and public marriage licenses are created by the Clerk and transmitted to the Assessor-Recorder (ASR), which is the department responsible for maintaining them.
2.2 Current Challenges
Internal Work Streams
Staff face several persistent challenges in the current service model that can make it difficult to meet heavy demand for these essential services:
• Paper forms, manual data entry, and limited digital intake slow processing and introduce errors
• Incomplete applications with incorrect or incomplete information require manual back and forth with applicants to correct
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 3 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Staff workflows rely on disconnected systems that require duplicate data entry and manual coordination
• Data transfer to and from partner systems (DPH, Assessor-Recorder) is manual and fragile, creating risk for eligibility verification and record accuracy
• On-premise systems that are no longer actively maintained by providers make metrics collection challenging, hampering efforts to improve services
Public Facing Access
Residents also face persistent challenges, including:
• Many transactions that could be completed remotely still require in-person visits, creating unnecessary burden for residents
• Residents have limited visibility into the status of their requests once submitted
• Queue management lacks transparency: wait times are not visible outside the office, and joining the queue requires physical presence
• Bookings for in-office appointments are not consistently available or easy to schedule
Technical Difficulties
The technology teams working with the current system also faces significant challenges:
• Integrations with the current system are challenging, preventing the Clerk from adding new features or adopting new tools
• Upgrades are infrequent, making it difficult to keep the system in compliance with modern government standards for technology (e.g. WCAG compliance)
• The system has frequent outages and offers very limited observability and notification features, making it more challenging to respond to outages.
2.3 Service Vision and Design Principles
The County Clerk has articulated three core service promises that will guide any technology investment. These reflect the ideal in-person experience we are working toward today, and what a reimagined digital service should extend and amplify.
Welcoming
• Low friction from first contact: accessible to our most vulnerable residents, including those with disabilities, limited English, or limited digital literacy
• Help residents quickly understand whether they have reached the right door before they invest time in a process (e.g., informing an applicant upfront that vital records for events registered outside San Francisco cannot be obtained from this office)
• An inviting digital design that reduces confusion and anxiety at every step
• Full accommodation for access needs: language support, assistive technology compatibility, and alternatives for residents who cannot complete transactions digitally
Guided
• Clear service context at every step: what the resident is applying for, what it means, and what comes next
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 4 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Assistance with form accuracy: helping residents understand what information they are providing, why it matters, and how to get it right the first time
• Proactive updates as application status changes, reducing the need for follow-up calls and return visits
• Staff support available when and where residents need it, without requiring it for every transaction
Predictable
• All required materials and eligibility criteria are clearly communicated before a resident submits or arrives
• A queue that can be joined remotely and monitored in real time from outside City Hall
• Transparent rules, pricing, and processing timelines — no surprises
• Same-day service wherever operationally feasible
• Respect for every resident's time as a core design constraint, not an afterthought
3. Areas of Interest San Francisco (approximately the 80th-most populous of the nearly 3,000 counties in the United States) does not intend to build a full custom system. Rather, we hope to combine modern SaaS solutions with maintainable City-owned customizations and integrations to fully meet the Clerk’s needs. Our goal is to pioneer a next level of usable, maintainable, future-proof service for these critical functions. Accordingly, we are interested in both Software as a Service products and collaborative relationships with vendors who can help SF build a modular system that our technology team can maintain and improve in the future.
Note that if a solution includes custom software, the customization should be done using modern software languages & libraries (e.g. Python, React), and code that can be maintained and enhanced by the City following the completion of the work.
Partial and targeted submissions are welcome, as are joint vendor partnerships that combine complementary capabilities. The City has a strong preference for modular solutions with well-architected boundaries over monolithic solutions that require heavy customization to meet all our requirements. We are most interested in solutions that meet some core needs very well, and are transparent about what features and functional capabilities lie outside their scope.
The following functional capabilities represent the core of what the City is seeking. Solutions should contribute to one or more of these outcomes.
3.1 Simple, Accessible Online Resident Experience
Every resident regardless of language preference, disability, or level of digital literacy, should be complete a Clerk transaction online with as little friction as possible. This means:
• Online application with guided, validated form completion
• Remote identity verification appropriate to the legal requirements of the record type
• Document upload for supporting materials
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 5 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Online payment, ideally via integration with the City’s payment platform (CityBase/Euna)
• Digital signature workflows where legally permissible
3.2 Coordinated In-Person and Digital Workflows
For services that retain an in-person component, including marriage licenses, ceremonies, and professional registrations, digital tools should allow residents to learn about the service and complete as many steps as possible before arriving, and should meaningfully reduce time-to-service at the counter. The City is also interested in how the digital experience can support residents who begin a transaction online but need to transition to in-person assistance without losing progress or repeating steps.
Key capabilities include:
• In-office kiosk self-service with identity verification as a same-day option for residents who prefer or require in-person access
• Online application submission and pre-review prior to an in-person visit
• Online appointment booking
• Data integrations with in-person queueing system (currently Qless) for easier residents and staff engagement
• Pre-payment to accelerate in-office processing
• Payment in person, including cash handling, card payment terminal integration, and receipt capability
3.3 Real-Time Status and Notifications
Residents should not need to call or return to the office to learn what is happening with their application. The City is interested in solutions that offer:
• Real-time application status lookup, accessible with minimal friction
• Appointment notifications and other proactive reminders that help residents have successful experiences with County Clerk
• Proactive SMS and email updates at key process milestones
• Ability for customers to set communication preferences so they can receive notifications in the manner and channel that’s most helpful for them
• Plain-language status labels that describe what is happening and what the resident should expect or do next
• A consistent status experience whether the application was submitted online or in person
3.4 Staff Workflows and Records Management
Staff need tools that reduce manual coordination and support accurate, timely, and auditable processing of vital records. The City is interested in:
• Unified workflow management across transaction types and channels (online, in person, mail, VitalChek)
• Application review, updates, and data corrections with a clear audit trail
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 6 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Integrated print and fulfillment workflows for certified copies
• Reduced duplicate data entry across systems
3.5 Reporting and Performance Accountability
Leadership and staff need real-time visibility into service performance. The City seeks:
• Dashboards showing transaction volume, wait times, processing durations, and error rates
• Integrated customer feedback and satisfaction surveys to measure sentiment over time
• Role-based access for staff, department leadership, and potentially the public
• Comprehensive API access to all transactional data in the system, for export to the City's
Unified Data Platform (Snowflake) for citywide reporting
3.6 Categories of Interest
As described above, the City is interested in a modular solution that combines SaaS products with maintainable custom code. The City anticipates that products in the following categories may potentially be included in the solution:
• Records management
• Search & indexing
• Document capture / scanning software
• Optical character recognition (OCR) / intelligent document processing
• Case / workflow management
• Appointment scheduling
• Document certification/verification
• E-signature
• Identity verification
• Notification / messaging
The City is also open to solutions from other categories if they address the needs of the Clerk and its customers.
3.7 Integrated with Citywide Infrastructure
The County Clerk's services intersect with a growing set of shared City platforms including identity, payments, data, and benefits. The City is interested in solutions that are designed with integration in mind: that connect to shared infrastructure where it exists, avoid creating new silos, and can adapt as the citywide technology landscape evolves. Solutions should expose well-documented, robust APIs that enable reliable integration with current and future City systems.
4. Current Systems and Integration Context The following table describes the current systems landscape relevant to County Clerk operations.
This list is not exhaustive but is intended to help vendors understand the current integration
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 7 of 20 August 17, 2026 environment. The City is open to proposals that replace, integrate with, or supplement any of these systems.
# Function / System Current Tool Notes for Vendors
1 Records management Granicus We welcome vendors proposing to replace this system
2 Queue management QLess We expect to keep this system and seek vendors who can integrate with Qless
3 New birth and death records
Dept. of Public Health (source)
Records currently manually imported;
automation preferred
4 Historic birth records VRIRSA (source) Clerk staff request records from this system when they’re missing from the local repository. VRIRSA does not offer any API or automated export, so Clerk staff must manually download records for import.
5 Public marriage records
Neumo, Assessor- Recorder (“ASR”)’s records management system (destination, source)
The Clerk must send marriage records (except confidential marriages) to ASR. The Clerk would also like to be able to search ASR’s repository of public marriage licenses to provide better customer support.
6 Death records Neumo (consumer) ASR would like to be able to search the Clerk’s repository of death records.
7 Customer service / general inquiries
311 (Department) / Verint (tool)
311 agents need to be able to answer questions about the status of vital records orders.
8 Payment processing CityBase / EUNA (online); Clover
(POS)
See note below for vendors who propose to use a different payment platform.
9 Identity and Access Management for staff
Oracle OIDC or SAML supported, JIT provisioning is the default
10 Unified Data Platform Snowflake The system must support exporting or delivering data to the City’s Snowflake environment through secure, standards‑based integration mechanisms
Vendors who propose an alternative online payment platform must provide transaction-level data sufficient for the City to reconcile payments against bank deposits and post revenue to the City's financial system (PeopleSoft), including at minimum: transaction date/time, amount, payment
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 8 of 20 August 17, 2026 method, unique transaction/reference ID, associated record or case identifier, and applicable revenue/fee code. Data must be deliverable in a format and on a schedule (e.g., daily file transfer or API) compatible with the City's existing financial reporting processes.
5. Vendor Scope and Responsibilities
5.1 In Scope for Respondents
• Technology solutions that support one or more goals in Section 3
• Integration with existing City systems described in Section 4
• User-centered design and implementation approaches that account for the full range of resident access needs
• Service design, user research, or process improvement expertise
• Change management, staff training, and onboarding support
5.2 Joint Responses Welcome
The City welcomes joint vendor responses, particularly from teams that combine technology, service design, user research, implementation, and change management capabilities. If submitting as a partnership, please identify each organization and describe their respective roles clearly.
6. Response Guidelines
6.1 Guiding Principles
• Solutions must be able to integrate with existing City systems, in particular the centralized payment gateway (CityBase / EUNA) and the Unified Data Platform (Snowflake)
• Solutions must meet San Francisco's Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Standard (DAIS) and support residents with disabilities, limited English proficiency, and limited digital literacy. DAIS requires that systems meet all technical requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, Level AA.
• The solution must utilize a cloud-native architecture aligned with industry standards for high availability and business continuity.
• The City prefers that any code written as part of the solution defaults to use of standard open-source libraries.
• Data privacy and security must meet City standards, including readiness for a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment (see Appendix D)
• The system must have a well-documented API with that provides read/write access to all key data objects
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 9 of 20 August 17, 2026
• The City welcomes vendor advice on process improvements, sequencing decisions, and implementation planning
6.2 Format and Submission
Responses should be submitted in PDF format to amanda.wentworth@sfgov.org with "County Clerk Service Modernization " in the subject line. Responses should be concise, no more than 20 pages, and address the following:
1. Respondent Information
• Company overview: contact information, years in operation, and company profile
• Government experience: relevant prior work in public sector technology, vital records, or similar service delivery contexts
• References: contact information for at least two public-sector clients who can speak to your experience at comparable scale
2. Solution Overview
• Description of your proposed solution and which areas of interest from Section 3 it addresses, in full or in part. The description need not be lengthy and can reference public product documentation to explain core functionality.
• If available, credentials to a sandbox or demo environment allowing RFI readers to try your product. The sandbox environment need not be configured to San Francisco’s specific requirements; the goal is to help reviewers understand the user experience of a generic version of your product.
• Respondents may also send a brief video demonstrating functionality as part of their response. The demonstrated functionality should clearly address one or more of the Areas of Interest. This video is an optional part of the solution overview, and should not be more than 10 minutes in length.
3. Implementation Approach
• Technology interoperability: how your solution can be integrated with the City systems described in Section 4
• Data security and privacy approach, including accessibility compliance (standard certifications like SOC 2 or WCAG compliance level may be submitted in lieu of a narrative)
• If your solution includes any custom code:
a. Software development approach: What software development methodology your team follows, including how you incorporate feedback from users, and how you collaborate with city staff during development.
b. Maintenance plan: How the city’s technical staff will maintain the code that’s included in your proposal (e.g. deployment plan, software languages and libraries used, technical capabilities required for city staff)
• If your solution includes implementation services, please describe your approach to onboarding, change management, and staff training strategy
4. Resource and Cost Estimates
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 10 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Estimated software costs: software, implementation, and ongoing maintenance
• Estimated service costs for both required and recommended services (e.g. service design, user research, or process improvement services). For all services listed, please specify whether the service is delivered in-house or subcontracted.
• Description of pricing plans, tiers, enterprise solutions, etc. (e.g., costs per seat, minimum license requirements, discounts)
5. Open Questions (Optional but Encouraged)
• Vendor views on architectural and design questions
• Assumptions, risks, or dependencies the City should be aware of
• Recommendations on what the City should decide or resolve before or during procurement to accelerate delivery
6.3 Optional Showcase of Products
Following review of RFI responses, the City may invite vendors to participate in a solution showcase.
7. Important Notes
• This RFI is issued solely for information gathering and planning purposes. It is not a
Request for Proposals (RFP) and does not constitute a solicitation or commitment to contract.
• Information provided in responses may be used to develop future solicitations, which may differ significantly from the scope described here.
• The City is under no obligation to issue a solicitation or award a contract based on this RFI.
• All submissions become the property of the City and County of San Francisco and may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act and the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance, unless exempt. Respondents should clearly identify information they believe constitutes a trade secret or confidential proprietary information.
• Respondents are solely responsible for all costs associated with preparing and submitting responses. The City assumes no financial obligations as a result of this RFI.
8. Questions & Answers For questions regarding this RFI, please submit inquiries via email to amanda.wentworth@sfgov.org by the deadline noted in the timeline above. The City strongly discourages respondents from submitting Questions written by AI. While the City agrees that AI has many productive uses, these questions should reflect an expert’s assessment of the RFI and its fit for your products and / or services. The City reserves the right to decline to re-answer questions that are answered in the RFI, or questions that are not relevant to the problem space.
mailto:amanda.wentworth@sfgov.org
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 11 of 20 August 17, 2026
We may also group similar questions and provide a single response. Questions and Answers will be posted with the RFI material following the Questions due date.
Appendix A: Functionality summary The user stories describe functionality that the City thinks of as part of a County Clerk system of record. This list is provided for informational purposes only, these are not non-negotiable system requirements. The City desires solutions that can center the goals listed in section 3 (welcoming, guided, predictable) in the delivery of services such as those described below. Proposed solutions do not need to address all user stories.
Appointments As a resident, I want to:
• Find available appointments for a requested service
• Choose a time rather than a staff member, so that I see every slot the office can actually serve (i.e. “round robin scheduling” where capacity is modeled as concurrent service windows not individual staff calendars)
• Join a waitlist for an already fully booked date or service (e.g. marriage ceremony on Valentine’s Day)
• Complete intake forms online (e.g. marriage license application)
• Nice to have: The system helps me avoid common mistakes (e.g. providing father’s surname for mother’s maiden name)
• Pay for fees associated with an appointment
• Enter contact information so I can receive notifications about my appointment
• Provide notes or comments in my appointment booking (e.g. requesting accessibility accommodations)
• Receive notifications, and access appointment details from those reminders
• Nice-to-have: self-serve reschedule my appointment o Understand I am allowed a one-time courtesy reschedule, and pay for rescheduling after the first reschedule o Understand if my reschedule date is valid for the service I wish to have performed (e.g. will my marriage license still be valid if I’m delaying the date of my marriage ceremony appointment?)
• Cancel my appointment, and understand that there are no refunds for cancelled appointments
As a clerk staff member, I want to:
• Find the next available appointment.
• Create an appointment
• Record contact information for customers and designated alternate contacts
• Add notes
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 12 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Accept payment for an appointment, and document that payment was received
• Schedule related appointments (e.g. marriage ceremony after marriage license) without requiring duplicate data entry
• Nice to have: Help customers find back-to-back or same-day appointment availability for related services (e.g. get a marriage license and get married on the same day)
• Complete other basic operations on an appointment (search for, view, edit / change status, delete)
• Offer a one-time courtesy reschedule of an appointment, and accept fees for further rescheduling
• See appointment history, e.g. whether an appointment has been previously rescheduled
As a clerk admin staff member, I want to:
• Create & configure a new appointment type, including:
• Appointment duration, capacity (how many slots with the Clerk offer at a given time), description, number of participants, tags or statuses (e.g. “military priority”, “rescheduled”)
• Ability to add and delete appointments as needed after configuration
• Set up and manage a waitlist for an appointment (e.g. folks who want to get married on
Pride)
• Set office closures in advance (e.g. annual holidays)
Marriage license application As an applicant, I want to:
• Complete my application on paper, on a kiosk, or online (when booking my appointment)
As a clerk, I want to:
• Summon the next appointment in Qless, open their record, and mark the couple as present
• Nice-to-have: The customer is automatically marked present when I begin processing their license
• Specify the license type (Public, Confidential, Declared, Non – Clergy)
• Accept payment for the license, or see that payment has already been made online or via kiosk
• Help the customer review and correct their application information prior to finalization
• Record customer acknowledgement and approval of application information
• Leave details blank (e.g. person solemnizing the marriage) to be added when the marriage is performed
• Capture required customer signatures
• Finalize the license, assign an official license number, and generate the official document
• Generate and print a receipt with the marriage license number
• Nice to have: see the appointment automatically marked “complete” when the license is issued
• Print a duplicate marriage license
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 13 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Void a finalized license
Vital Records Registration & Indexing As a Clerk, I want to
• Import records from CCSF DPH and California state systems (e.g. new birth and death certificates, amended records, amendments, and replacements)
• See records that require indexing or other processing
• Capture images of documents received from the public for storage in the local records repository
• Review, capture, validate, and correct key metadata used for local registration and indexing, while viewing associated document images from which metadata is being captured
• Nice to have: Review and correct index metadata suggested by OCR or AI-assisted extraction tools
• Prevent creation of duplicate or conflicting indexed records (e.g. see an alert when I accidentally typed a State File Number or Local Record Number that already exists)
• Create and process local records from imported metadata when the associated document image is not yet available, and later associate and verify the document image when received
• Review and process records flagged for missing information, rejected imports, conflicting metadata, or other workflow exceptions
As an admin, I want to:
• Nice to have: Configure a schema for the local index of a given vital record type (e.g.
specify what fields are in the index for a birth certificate)
• Nice to have: Configure required, optional, searchable, and restricted fields
• Nice to have: Configure workflows, statuses, queues, and rejection reasons
• Monitor import failures and synchronization issues
• See audit history for a vital record
Vital Records Issuance & Retrieval As a resident, I must be able to
• Order a vital record online or via kiosk by providing key information that allows the clerk to find the record
• Pay for a vital record ordered online or via kiosk
• Nice to have: Verify my identity during an online order so that I don’t have to come to the
County Clerk office, and the record can be mailed to me (if found)
As a clerk, I want to:
• View and manage vital records work queues for requests awaiting processing, fulfillment, review, or mailing, and track aging or unresolved requests
• View third-party online orders (e.g. VitalChek) ready for fulfillment and mailing
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 14 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Summon the next customer visiting the Clerk for a vital record (done via Qless), and open their online or kiosk application
• Scan in a paper application
• Verify requester identity and authorization eligibility for different vital record types
• Record the requester’s relationship to the registrant
• Record issuance to government agencies or exempt requesters separately from standard public requests
• Collect payment for the record request
• Search for vital records using metadata provided by the customer in their request
• Search for vital records owned by other CCSF departments, e.g. public marriage certificates from ASR
• For a record that is not found in the local records repository: search California state vital records system (VRIRSA), download the record, and import it
• Manage the “open order queue” of records requested from the state but not yet received or delivered to the customer
• Improve document image quality for readability and printing, for example:
o deskew (auto-correcting scanned pages that are crooked), despeckle (removing scanner noise/artifacts), border/edge cleanup (removing black borders or punch-hole marks from scanning), contrast and brightness normalization, and blank-page detection/removal.
• Redact information from documents before providing them to the requester
• Capture and retain signatures, sworn statements, and supporting authorization documents
• Generate certified or informational copies of vital records for printing
• Issue documentation indicating that no matching record was found after a paid search
• Print the document on the correct paper o Nice to have: I don’t need to select a printer / paper source, the system automatically makes selections appropriate for the document being printed
• Record security paper or document control identifiers (e.g. banknote number) associated with issued records, so the validity of the document can be verified later
• Void a security paper serial number with a reason, and be prevented from reusing a voided number
As a 311 operator, I want to
- Look up a vital records order given the applicant’s name, order number, or other identifying information so I can tell the customer their order status
As a staff member at the Assessor Recorder, I want to:
- Search Clerk vital records (e.g. death records), so that cross-department lookups don’t require a phone call or a manual request
As an admin, I must be able to
• See record issuance history for a customer with banknote numbers, and issuance-related audit events
Sourcing Event ID: 0000012023 15 of 20 August 17, 2026
• Configure printing per document so the vital record is printed on the appropriate paper
Fictitious Business Names
As an applicant (registrant or agent), I want to:
• Search the FBN index online to check whether my desired business name is already registered before I file
• Nice to have: See links to check my chosen name against Secretary of State, USPTO, and public library trademark/name resources so I don't infringe on existing rights
• Complete and submit my FBN Statement application online, in person, or by mail
• Nice to have: The system helps me avoid common mistakes on my application (e.g.
missing registrant address, missing business type)
• Pay FBN filing fees online, in person, or by mail
• Submit my Proof of Publication in a local newspaper (online, by mail, or in person)
• Receive a reminder before my FBN statement's 5-year expiration so I can renew on time
• Renew my FBN online, in person, or by mail (including payment)
• File a Statement of Withdrawal or Statement of Abandonment online, in person, or by mail
• Order a certified copy of my FBN filing
• Subscribe to receive daily, weekly, or monthly reports of newly filed FBNs, and pay for the subscription
As a clerk, I want to:
• Search for an existing FBN filing by business name, registrant name, or file number
• Avoid filing a duplicate or conflicting FBN under a name that's already registered
• Verify an applicant's business registration status o Nice to have: verify automatically based on what the applicant has already filed (via integration with TTX systems), rather than manual verification
• Review and correct application data prior to finalizing — with manual entry only required when the source is a paper application with no digital submission behind it.
• Generate the official FBN statement document for the applicant to review before finalizing
• Review and approve a Proof of Publication submitted by the applicant online (reported publication date plus uploaded affidavit), rather than re-entering the date from scratch;
enter it manually only when the affidavit is presented in person or by mail with no prior online submission
• See the statutory 45-day publication deadlines (to begin publication, and to file proof of publication) calculated automatically from the filing date, rather than tracked manually
• Nice to have: See filings flagged automatically once a Proof of Publication deadline has passed with no affidavit on file, so staff can follow up with the registrant
• Process FBN renewals, withdrawals, and abandonments through a comparable workflow, including the required published notice steps
• Generate a certified copy of an FBN filing for the applicant, on request
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• Accept payment for FBN transactions, including certified copy fees
• See the full history of an FBN record (filed, renewed, amended, withdrawn, abandoned) with associated dates and audit events
As a clerk admin, I want to:
• Configure and manage the FBN subscription service, including setting fees and seeing subscribers
• Configure record retention so FBN filings and associated documents (proof of publication, affidavits) can be purged per the statutory schedule (4 years after expiration)
• Nice to have: See dashboard visibility into filings pending publication or approaching expiration across all staff
Payment Most of the features below are currently handled by Citybase / Euna, the city’s payment platform and POS system. As noted above, vendors should either integrate with this system, or if they propose to replace it, provide transaction-level data sufficient for the City to reconcile payments against bank deposits and post revenue to the City's financial system (PeopleSoft).
As a resident, I must be able to:
• Pay for County Clerk services online via credit card, e-check, or integrate with the city’s payment system (Euna / Citybase)
• Pay for County Clerk services in person via cash, check, credit card
• Pay for County Clerk services by mail via check
As a clerk, I must be able to:
• Accept payment for a service, including via multiple tender types (e.g. $10 via debit card and $10 in cash)
• Invoice a customer for a service, if they’re set up for invoicing
• Print a receipt for a payment
• Pause and resume transactions in progress
• See that payment has already been made online
• Handle payment for a service whose price has recently changed, where the payment was postmarked before the price change
As an admin, I must be able to:
• Adjust daily cashier reconciliation records (e.g. correct the record if a clerk marked the wrong tender type for a transaction)
• Set the price for various services
• Set up invoicing for frequent customers (e.g. the school district)
• Run reports where I can clearly see revenue by service type
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Notices & Correspondence This section covers formal or legally-required correspondence generated from a record's status (e.g. rejection letters, statutory deadline notices). It's related to, but distinct from, the resident-facing real-time updates described in Section 3.3.
As a clerk admin, I want to:
• Edit the content and formatting of notice and letter templates used for specific record statuses, rejection reasons, or deadlines (e.g. missing information, expired application, upcoming statutory deadline), so the right letter is available without drafting free text each time
• See records flagged automatically once they've crossed a status-based deadline that requires action or correspondence, so staff can follow up
• Nice to have: Specify whether a given status or deadline trigger should also fire a resident-facing SMS/email update per Section 3.3's communication preferences, in addition to generating the letter
As a clerk, I want to:
• Generate a pre-configured notice or letter for a record by selecting its status or reason, rather than writing one from scratch
Appendix B: Services and Downstream Use Cases The table below summarizes County Clerk services and their known downstream use cases within the City. This context is intended to help vendors understand the full impact of service reliability and record accuracy on residents' ability to access other City programs.
Service Partner Department(s) Key Downstream Use Cases
Birth certificate (certified copy)
CCSF DPH and CA DPH (source of record)
Benefits enrollment, school enrollment, housing applications, identity verification
Death certificate (certified copy)
CCSF DPH and CA DPH (source of record)
Estate administration, benefits cessation, identity verification
Marriage certificate (certified copy)
Assessor-Recorder (public records)
Benefits enrollment, legal name change, identity verification
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Fictitious Business Name registration
Treasurer and Tax Collector (TTX), CA Secretary of State
Business licensing, tax registration, contract eligibility
Marriage license issuance
CA DPH Legal marriage, spousal benefits, name change
Professional registrations
State of California, courts
Legal process serving, court filings, regulated business operations
Appendix C: Data around current processing volumes (FY 26) Service Category / Line Item FY26 Volume
County Clerk Operations FY26 — Total Service Volume 85,431
Vital Records TOTAL 40,369
Authentication TOTAL 1,882
Signature Authentication (GC 26852.1) 779
Certification of Copied Documents (GC 26833) 1,103
Birth TOTAL 30,383
Certified Copy – Birth 29,283
Information – Birth 565
Birth, Certified Copy – Government 337
Certificate of No Record 198
Death TOTAL 4,169
Certified Copy – Death 3,142
Information – Death 846
Death, Certified Copy – Government 19
Certificate of No Record 162
Marriage TOTAL 3,935
Certificate of No Record 324
Certified Confidential Marriage License, Additional Copy 3,611
City ID Card Services TOTAL 2,146
Marriage License Services TOTAL 25,248
Amendment to Marriage License 38
Duplicate Marriage License 1,375
Confidential License Issued to Notary Public 1,237
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Service Category / Line Item FY26 Volume Marriage License Appointment Booked 12,294
Public Marriage License Issued 10,304
Marriage Ceremony Services TOTAL 8,706
Souvenir Marriage Certificate 59
Advance Offsite County Clerk Fee 6
Civil Ceremony Appointment Booked 8,418
One Day Oath – Deputy Marriage Commissioner (FC 401(b)) 223
Domestic Partnership Services TOTAL 289
Fictitious Business Name Services TOTAL 5,881
Fictitious Business Name Statement (B&P 17929) 2,989
Additional Registrant on FBN 114
Additional DBA Business Name on FBN 397
Statement of Abandonment 103
Affidavit of Filing Proof of Publication (GC 26850) 2,236
FBN Index – Daily 1
FBN Index – Monthly 29
FBN Index Subscription Fee 12
FBN Index Delivery Handling Fee 0
Environmental Services TOTAL 96
Notary Services TOTAL 1,027
Professional Services TOTAL (e.g., Bond Recording Fee, Copies of Records on File, Bond Additional Page)
1,669
Appendix D: Digital Accessibility and Cybersecurity Standards
Digital Accessibility All technology solutions must meet San Francisco's Digital Accessibility and Inclusion Standard.
The City will also consider API-based solutions that deliver content for display within SF's existing accessible .gov web platform.
Solutions must be designed and tested for residents using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and other assistive technologies. Language access for threshold languages in San Francisco is a required design consideration.
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Cybersecurity Requirements Should the City proceed to procurement following this RFI, bidders will be required to participate in the City's Cybersecurity Risk Assessment (CRA). The CRA may be required for each entity manufacturing the product, performing technical functions, or accessing City networks and systems. To conduct a CRA, the City will request one of the following:
• SOC 2 Type 2 Report covering Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, or Privacy
• Responses to the City's Cyber Risk Assessment Questionnaire. The City will accept the following certifications: SOC 2 Type 2, CSA STAR Level 2, FedRamp, ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, and StateRAMP. For reference, the Clerk’s data is Level 4 (“Protected”) under the City of San Francisco’s Data Classification Standard.
Reports will be evaluated by the relevant department and the City's Department of Technology. If risks are identified, the City may afford the vendor an opportunity to remediate within a reasonable timeframe. Ongoing compliance will be subject to review through standard methodologies including on-site visits, penetration testing, and code reviews.
https://www.sf.gov/resource--2021--data-classification-standard
| 1. Purpose |
| 2. Background |
| 2.1 The County Clerk's Role in Civic Infrastructure |
| These services are also integration points across City departments, for example, birth records originate with the Department of Public Health (DPH). Business records and public marriage licenses are created by the Clerk and transmitted to the Assesso... |
| 2.2 Current Challenges |
| 2.3 Service Vision and Design Principles |
| 3. Areas of Interest |
| 3.1 Simple, Accessible Online Resident Experience |
| 3.2 Coordinated In-Person and Digital Workflows |
| 3.3 Real-Time Status and Notifications |
| 3.4 Staff Workflows and Records Management |
| 3.5 Reporting and Performance Accountability |
| 3.6 Categories of Interest |
| 3.7 Integrated with Citywide Infrastructure |
| 4. Current Systems and Integration Context |
| 5. Vendor Scope and Responsibilities |
| 5.1 In Scope for Respondents |
| 5.2 Joint Responses Welcome |
| 6. Response Guidelines |
| 6.1 Guiding Principles |
| 7. Important Notes |
| 8. Questions & Answers |
| Appendix A: Functionality summary |
| Appointments |
| Marriage license application |
| Vital Records Registration & Indexing |
| Vital Records Issuance & Retrieval |
| Fictitious Business Names |
| Payment |
| Notices & Correspondence |
| Appendix B: Services and Downstream Use Cases |
| Appendix C: Data around current processing volumes (FY 26) |
| Appendix D: Digital Accessibility and Cybersecurity Standards |
| Digital Accessibility |
| Cybersecurity Requirements |
File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated .