Board authorizes retroactive one‑year extension of sheriff's phone contract, removes sheriff's unilateral extension authority

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Dec. 10, 2013 voted 9–2 to retroactively authorize a one‑year extension of the sheriff’s contract with Global Tel Link (GTL) for inmate telephone services and amended the resolution to remove the sheriff’s authority to exercise a second one‑year option without returning to the board.

The measure, introduced as a retroactive contract amendment, drew several hours of questions from supervisors about phone rates, revenue increases and how revenue from the contract is spent. Breema Hoarder, identified in the meeting as the sheriff’s department chief financial officer, told the board: “The item that you see before you is a request to extend our contract with GTL for 1 additional year.” Hoarder outlined how some contract revenue supports in‑jail staff and programs: she said the department budgets about $745,000 for staff salaries (including a legal services manager, a facilities worker at CJ5, a senior administrative analyst and several rehabilitative services coordinators), roughly $70,000 for professional services (translation and subscriptions), $540,000 for in‑jail programs such as parenting classes and contact visiting, and $56,000 for materials and supplies. Hoarder said the department identified about $22,000 to purchase phone cards for inmates and had encumbered those funds in PODPSH14000389.

Supervisor David Chiu and others pressed the department and the city attorney about whether the resolution, as originally drafted, would allow the sheriff to exercise a second one‑year option without returning to the board. Deputy City Attorney John Givner told the board, “Yes. This resolution would authorize the sheriff’s department to enter into the retroactive contract for 1 year and also to exercise the 1 year option to extend.” The board accepted a legal cleanup amendment recommended by Givner: the resolution was changed to authorize the retroactive one‑year amendment but to strike language that would let the sheriff exercise a further option without board authority; the sheriff’s office must return to the board for permission if it seeks to exercise that second option.

Several supervisors called attention to the cost of calls and to a reported rise in revenue from the program. Supervisor John Avalos said many people paying for calls are “mostly poor,” called current calling fees “ridiculous rates” and questioned how revenues had increased substantially while the jail population declined. Supervisor Kim said she was “philosophically against the concept of charging our inmates” for services and expressed reluctance to approve retroactive contracts generally. Supervisor Campos said the board likely has an obligation to approve the existing contract up to now but signaled support for denying the sheriff the unilateral second‑year extension so the city has time to reexamine how services are provided.

Sheriff’s department and allied remarks indicated the department plans to issue a new request for proposals next spring aimed at securing lower calling rates and to use the final year of the contract to transition vendors if necessary. As the sheriff’s representative said in the meeting, the industry has been largely unregulated and vendors historically set rates through contract processes that many local governments later sought to change.

After debate and the amendment described above, the board adopted the resolution as amended, 9 ayes and 2 noes. The roll call recorded Cohen and Kim voting no and nine supervisors voting aye.

What the action does and does not do: the board’s vote authorizes the sheriff to be retroactively covered for the additional one‑year contract period and prevents the sheriff from unilaterally exercising the option for a further year without returning to the board. It does not itself change the rates charged by the vendor; supervisors said the department intends to put the service out to RFP in the spring and that any rate changes would depend on that competitive process.