The Scott County Board of Supervisors on Monday voted to table two information-technology procurement resolutions — one for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) server storage hardware and services for $748,199.46 and a second for Broadcom VMware enterprise virtualization software from Insight Public Sector in three yearly installments totaling $237,696 — until the county attorney reviews contract terms and legal provisions.

Supervisor Jean said the attachments to the HPE purchase include "general terms" that function as the contract and raised a specific legal concern: "my concern is paragraph 13.8 pertaining to governing law and venue ... the venue in California." Jean said the county attorney had not yet had an opportunity to review the terms and that she would vote no on approval without that review.

The county later moved and passed separate motions to table each item. The motion to table the HPE purchase was made by Supervisor Jean and seconded by the presiding board member; the motion to table the Broadcom/VMware purchase was made and seconded similarly. Board members voted verbally by aye; no roll-call vote with named tallies was recorded in the transcript.

County Administrator Mahesh Sharma told the board that, based on his understanding, "there is no emergency at this point," and that a county-attorney review would allow the items to be returned "to the next cycle." Sharma also urged the IT department to treat large purchases with extra care and suggested an emergency meeting would be preferable to approving a major contract without legal review.

Discussion by supervisors focused on the legal clauses in vendor-provided "general terms" and foundation agreements that appear to specify out-of-state governing law and venue. Supervisors emphasized the size of the expenditures and the need for the county attorney to confirm any venue or choice-of-law provisions before final approval.

Next steps: both resolutions were tabled; supervisors said the items will return to the board after the county attorney completes its review, and board staff indicated the purchases are on the county’s five-year capital improvement plan.