DEPARTMENT: Office of the City Clerk
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Leticia M. Vacek, City Clerk
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City Wide
SUBJECT:
A Contract Amendment with the Department of State Health Services, Vital Statistics Unit for on-line access to Birth Records.
SUMMARY:
The Ordinance authorizes the execution of a contract amendment with the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to provide continued access to the Office of the City Clerk (OCC) to their on-line database of birth records for the term of September 1, 2017 through August 31, 2018.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The Vital Records Division was transferred to the OCC on October 1, 2012. The OCC currently issues certified copies of Texas and Bexar County birth certificates to qualified applicants. In 1997, the city first contracted with DSHS for on-line access to the State Database. The access provides the OCC the ability to print Texas Abstract birth certificates for anyone born in the State of Texas dating back to 1926.
The city pays the State a fee of $1.83 for every birth certificate printed from the State Database. The proposed contract amendment maintains the existing $1.83 fee for the period of September 1, 2017 through August 31, 2018.
Our current contract with DSHS will expire on August 31, 2017 and was adopted by Ordinance 2015-11-12-0949 and the contract prior to that was adopted by Ordinances 2013-10-03-0686 and 2013-01-11-0261.
ISSUE:
The OCC received the proposed contract amendment of February 17, 2017 and will operate under the current contract until August 31, 2017. With this contract amendment in place, the OCC can continue to provide a birth record to qualified applicants that were born in Texas form 1926 to the present.
ALTERNATIVES:
No Alternatives are available since DSHS is the only entity with said database.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The OCC will continue generating revenue for the sale of birth records printed from the State Database. For FY2016, revenue ...
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