HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence - BOCCGrant County
Office of The
Board of County Commissioners
P O Box 37
Ephrata WA 98823
(509)754-2011
January 6, 2020
Mr. Robert Soelberg
Huntleigh USA Corporation
545 E. John Carpenter
Suite 175
Irving, TX 75062
Re: Termination of Agreement for Services for Breach of Contract
Dear Mr. Soelberg,
Effective at the end of day, 31 December 2019, Grant County is terminating the Agreement for
Services (Agreement) executed 4 May 2016 between the County and Huntleigh USA (Huntleigh). The
term of this Agreement was contracted to end 3 May 2021. Early termination is made necessary by
Huntleigh's on-going and serious breaches of its contractual obligations under that Agreement.
The Grant County Sheriff's Office finally must acknowledge neither its escalating concern over
Huntleigh's lack of response to our complaints nor the overall deterioration of service will be remedied
such that Huntleigh will fulfill its obligations under the Agreement. The Agreement obligates Huntleigh
to provide:
• Security surveillance services, including dispatch center over -watch of our cameras 24
hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year;
• Software, including storage equipment of video for a minimum of 60 days;
• Hardware, including cameras, mounting brackets, electrical junction boxes, et cetera; and
• Installation and maintenance of all equipment owned by Huntleigh USA.
You and I have discussed repeatedly and often a number and variety of declines in Huntleigh's
service. The issues we have been able to rectify frequently required direct involvement by Grant
County's Technical Services Department. In other cases, the Sheriffs Office was required to wait—
sometimes two to three months—until you were able to return to Grant County for site evaluation.
Cameras remained inoperable while we waited.
Richard Stevens Tom Taylor
District 1 District 2 Cindy Carter
District 3
"TO MEET CURRENT AND FUTURE NEEDS, SERVING TOGETHER WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ENTITIES,
WHILE FOSTERING A RESPECTFUL AND SUCCESSFUL WORK ENVIRONMENT
January 6, 2020
Page - 2
Your original presentation to our office and the Board of County Commissioners described
surveillance services operated from a Las Vegas, Nevada dispatch center, with a Huntleigh employee
specifically assigned to monitor our cameras 24 hours a day, seven days a week, an employee with the
ability to assist when Grant County experienced an active call for service. I and other deputies have
called this service only to discover Huntleigh dispatchers unfamiliar with our cameras and entirely
lacking in the understanding necessary to manipulate them, or to search or assist with events in progress.
They have also been unable to assist in locating records of past events.
Huntleigh's software services have been similarly dismal. The Sheriff's Office recognizes there
was an original issue involving your battle with a third party vendor. However, the replacement platform,
while user-friendly, has suffered its own issues, issues that took some time to resolve. We are still
struggling to obtain incident histories in criminal investigations, discovering needed video footage was
no longer available or had never been captured to begin with.
Huntleigh's proposed remedy—installation of a storage unit at our facility—has yet to function
properly and video from your cameras has had issues maintaining steady recordings. Huntleigh expects
our Technical Service employees to either physically restart the new storage unit to existing hard drives
or to open technical channels so Huntleigh can remotely view the storage unit. These are services that
should be performed by Huntleigh. It not financially feasible to ask Grant County Technical Services to
divert employees from its own priorities in favor of performing services allocated to Huntleigh under the
Agreement.
Huntleigh's hardware has also been problematic. Although the cameras and hard drives have
been, for the most part, durable, Huntleigh has no functional plan in place for their repair when they do
fail. Our office has been placed into the middle of extended disputes between Huntleigh and Basin
Network over which company bears responsibility for these failures, with the result that Grant County
continues to be billed by both entities without resolution from either.
Instead of assisting in the installation of two additional cameras in the Desert Aire area, the
Sheriff's Office assembled cameras and delivered them to our Public Utility District for installation.
Installation was not the PUD's responsibility. Continuing to impose on the excellent, longstanding
relationship between the County and the PUD is becoming awkward and embarrassing when Huntleigh
is responsible for the installation under the Agreement. Further, this installation involves yet another
unreasonable and unacceptable time lapse between implementation and functionality.
It appears three circumstances contribute to the current unfortunate situation: distance,
conflicting job duties, and inadequate resources to provide acceptable service.
The distance between Huntleigh's base of operations in Las Vegas, Nevada and Grant County,
Washington has made it increasingly difficult for Huntleigh to provide on-going service responses
necessary to ensure the camera systems remain functional.
January 6, 2020
Page - 3
You, as Huntleigh's representative under this Agreement, have insufficient time to spend in
Grant County when you are able to make the trip and often need to leave the area to attend to other
duties before resolution of all our outstanding issues.
Finally, and perhaps, most significantly, Huntleigh's ever -lengthening response time for physical
inspections and repair is not only frustrating, it is dangerous and compromises our ability to provide the
level of surveillance contracted for under the Agreement. From inception, Grant County has experienced
numerous moments where some or all of the system has gone down. Months have passed before downed
cameras and failed data collection systems have been restored.
Please be advised that the Board of County Commissioners for Grant County are exercising the
termination option contained in 15 of the attached contract. Termination of this contact is effective
January 1, 2020. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Undersheriff Ryan Rectenwald at
(509) 754-2011 ext. 2017.
Sincerely,
ljARD OF COUN COMMISSIONERS
n.
Cindy Cartair
Richard Stevens, Vice-ehalrTom Taylor, r
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