Govtrak Portal Terms of Service

1. The Service

Govtrak Portal helps grantees of federal entitlement programs (such as CDBG, HOME, ESG and HOPWA) manage the organizations they fund, from application and review through reimbursements, reporting and monitoring.

We may improve, change or add features over time. We will not remove a feature the Customer relies on without reasonable advance notice.

2. Accounts and access

The Customer decides who receives access and what each User can do, through the roles and permissions in the Service. The Customer is responsible for removing access when a User no longer needs it.

Users must keep their sign-in credentials confidential and must not share accounts. The Customer will tell us promptly if it believes an account has been used without authorization.

Govtrak staff may access a Customer account only to provide support, maintain and secure the Service, or as the Customer requests. When Govtrak staff view the Service as a User to provide support, that session is recorded in an audit log.

3. Fees

Unless the Customer and Govtrak have agreed in writing to fees, the Service is provided at no charge.

We will not charge the Customer any fee unless the Customer agrees to it in writing in advance. If we ever decide to stop offering the Service at no charge, we will give the Customer at least 90 days' written notice, and the Customer may stop using the Service and export its data (see Section 11) without owing anything.

4. Customer Data

"Customer Data" means the information and files the Customer and its Users put into the Service, including applications, reviews, decisions, reimbursement requests, reports, monitoring records and uploaded documents.

The Customer owns its Customer Data. We use Customer Data only to provide, support, maintain and secure the Service for the Customer, as the Customer directs, or as required by law. We do not sell Customer Data, use it for advertising, or use it to train artificial intelligence models.

We may use information about how the Service is performing (such as error rates and page load times) that does not identify the Customer or any individual, to operate and improve the Service.

5. Public records

We understand that Customer Data held by a public agency may be subject to the California Public Records Act or other public records laws. If we receive a public records request or a subpoena for Customer Data, we will refer the requester to the Customer, notify the Customer promptly (unless the law prohibits it), and help the Customer locate and retrieve the records. We will not respond to a public records request on the Customer's behalf.

The Customer is responsible for its own records retention obligations. The Service lets the Customer export its records at any time.

6. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect Customer Data, including:

• encryption of data in transit (HTTPS) between Users and the Service;
• hashed passwords, and multi-factor authentication available for accounts;
• role-based permissions that limit each User to the records their role allows, with organizations kept separate from one another;
• checks on uploaded files, which are limited to common document and image types;
• access by Govtrak personnel limited to those who need it, with support sessions recorded in an audit log;
• daily backups of the Service database, kept for a limited period.

If we confirm that Customer Data has been accessed or disclosed without authorization, we will notify the Customer without unreasonable delay, and in any event within 72 hours of confirming it, and we will cooperate with the Customer's response.

7. Decisions stay with the Customer

The Service supports the Customer's own grant processes. It does not make funding, eligibility, qualification or compliance determinations, and it does not use artificial intelligence to score, rank or decide applications, reimbursements or monitoring. Every review decision is made by the Customer's own staff.

The Customer is responsible for the accuracy of the information it enters, for the decisions it makes using the Service, and for its own compliance with the laws, regulations and grant requirements that apply to it (for example, HUD program rules and 2 CFR Part 200). Checklists, reminders, status labels and other guidance in the Service are aids, not legal or compliance advice.

8. Acceptable use

Users must not:

• access or try to access records, organizations or accounts they are not authorized to see;
• upload malicious software, or content the Customer has no right to share;
• interfere with or disrupt the Service, or probe, scan or test its vulnerabilities without our written permission;
• use the Service to violate any law or the rights of others;
• copy, resell or reverse engineer the Service, except as the law expressly allows.

We may suspend a User's access if it is needed to protect the Service, other customers or Customer Data. We will tell the Customer promptly when we do and restore access once the issue is resolved.

9. Availability and support

We work to keep the Service available and to fix problems quickly. Planned maintenance is scheduled to limit disruption. Unless a signed agreement says otherwise, we do not guarantee a specific uptime level.

Support is available by email at john@adamsfirst.com.

10. Ending use of the Service and returning data

The Customer may stop using the Service at any time. Either party may end the Customer's use of the Service with 30 days' written notice. We may end it sooner if the Customer materially breaches these Terms and does not fix the breach within 30 days of notice.

For 60 days after the Customer's use ends, the Customer may export its Customer Data, and on request we will provide a copy of it in common formats (such as CSV files and the original uploaded documents). After that period we will delete the Customer Data from the Service. Copies in backups are deleted as those backups expire on their normal schedule. We may keep data longer only where the law requires it.

11. Intellectual property

We own the Service, including its software, design and documentation. While the Customer uses the Service, we grant the Customer and its Users a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use it for the Customer's own operations.

Content the Customer creates in the Service, such as its application questions, notices, email wording and reports, belongs to the Customer. If the Customer gives us suggestions or feedback, we may use them to improve the Service without obligation to the Customer.

12. Confidentiality

Each party will protect the other's non-public information that it receives in connection with the Service with at least reasonable care, and use it only for purposes of the Service. This does not apply to information that is already public, independently developed, or rightfully received from someone else, or to disclosures required by law, including public records laws.

13. Disclaimer

Except as expressly stated in these Terms or a signed agreement, the Service is provided "as is" and "as available", and we disclaim all other warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, to the extent the law allows.

14. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, neither party will be liable to the other for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits or revenue, arising out of these Terms or the Service.

To the extent the law allows, each party's total liability arising out of these Terms or the Service will not exceed the greater of the amounts the Customer paid for the Service in the 12 months before the claim, or $10,000.

These limits do not apply to a party's breach of Section 13 (Confidentiality), our obligations under Section 6 (Security), our indemnity in Section 16, or liability that cannot be limited by law.

15. Indemnity

We will defend the Customer against any third-party claim that the Service, as we provide it, infringes that party's intellectual property rights, and pay any resulting damages finally awarded or agreed in settlement. If such a claim is made, we may modify the Service so it no longer infringes, obtain the right for the Customer to keep using it, or end the Customer's use and return its data as described in Section 11.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the updated Terms on this page with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, notify Customer administrators by email at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Changes to these Terms do not change a separate signed agreement.

17. General

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Any legal action arising out of these Terms will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Fresno County, California.

Neither party may assign these Terms without the other's consent, except that we may assign them to a successor to our business that agrees to be bound by them. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. Nothing in these Terms requires the Customer to act in a way that violates the laws that apply to it as a public agency.

Notices to us should be sent to John Adams & Associates LLC at the address below, or by email to john@adamsfirst.com. We will send notices to the Customer's administrator email address on file.