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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOW 2011-11-14 Item 5I - Discussion - Permit Tracking System ReplacementCOUNCIL AGENDA SYNOPSIS Meeting Date 11/14/11 11/21/11 Initials Prepared by I 411ayor's review NG ,//;l F NG ITEM NO. Council review ITEM INFORMATION STAFF SPONSOR: NORA GIERLOFF OItIGINAI,AGI NDA DA "1'E: 11/14/11 AGl_,NDA I'rEm Trrl::e: Permit Tracking System Replacement C,\ I'I ,GORY Discussion lltg Date 11/14/11 Motion Resolution Ordinance Bid Axard ❑Public Hearing Other A -1tg Date 11/21/11 Mt g Date Mtg Date Mt Date tVltg Date A/Itg Date SPONSOR Council Mq)1or HR DCD .Finance Fire IT P &R Police PIu SPONSOR'S The software program used to track City permits is being phased out by the vendor. An SU,NJIMARY interdepartmental committee has been formed to research issues and options for its replacement. This is an opportunity to significantly improve service to the public. The Council is being asked to consider a budget amendment for 2012 that would allow us to move forward with the permit software selection and migration process. Implementation and additional costs expected in 2013. A technology fee could cover this expense. RI ,vI ISWI =,D RY cow Mtg. CA &P Cmte F &S Cmte Transportation Cmte Utilities Cmte Arts Comm. Parks Comm. Planning Comm. DATE: 10/24/11 COMMITTEE CHAIR: SEAL RECOMMENDATIONS: SPONSORR/ADMIN• Department of Community Development Co k'M "I °rr:I: Unanimous Approval; Forward to Committee of the Whole COST IMPACT FUND SOURCE EXPI- 1NDrI'U1ZL RL?()UIR13D AMOUNT BUDGETED APPROPRIATION REQUIRED $175,000 2012 $150,000 2013 $0 $175,000 in 2012 Fund Source: OFFSET OF $50,000 IF WE STOP PAYING MAINTENANCE ON PERMITS PLUS. Conznents: Costs are approximate, a technology fee could pay back the investment in 4 -6 years MTG. DATE 11/14/11 RECORD OF COUNCIL ACTION I MTG. DATE I ATTACHMENTS 11/14/11 Informational Memorandum dated 10/14/11 with attachments Minutes from the Community Affairs and Parks Committee meeting of 10/24/11 163 164 City of Tukwila Jim Haggerton, Mayor INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Haggerton Community Affairs and Parks Committee FROM: Nora Gierloff, Deputy DCD Director DATE: October 14, 2011 SUBJECT: Permit Tracking System Replacement ISSUE The software program used to track City permits is being phased out by the vendor. An interdepartmental committee has been formed to research issues and options for its replacement. The change will require a significant investment of financial and personnel resources. BACKGROUND The City's current permit tracking system is Permits Plus by Accela. We have used this system since 1992 (when it started as a DOS -based system). It is used by the Building Division (building, plumbing, mechanical and electrical permits), Planning (land use applications, sign permits), Public Works (land altering, utility, paving, street use permits), Code Enforcement and Rental Housing. Over time we have made improvements to the system to improve service to the public. Applicants can call the City's automated inspection request line which then populates the daily inspection schedule in Permits Plus. Applicants can also send an e-mail and receive an automated response with the status of their permit, inspection results, and fees. Accela has developed a web based permit tracking system called Accela Automation and is focusing its efforts on enhancements to that program rather than on Permits Plus. We expect that support for Permits Plus will be phased out over the next few years. Another issue is that annual maintenance fees for Permits Plus have been steadily increasing by 10% a year for a current annual fee of $45,000. For these reasons developing a recommendation for replacement of Permits Plus is a 2011 program goal for the Department of Community Development (DCD). A 2008 report on permit software selection commissioned by the eCityGov Alliance cities had this to say: Recent changes in the permit management software marketplace, notably Accela's planned retirement of its earlier generation products, drove participating cities to re -think their approaches to permit automation. Accela's replacement product, Automation, will be expensive to implement and appears to have high operating and maintenance costs. In addition, Accela's preferred funding model for online permits through Automation would collect a percentage of permit fees. A number of Accela clients, including at least seven cities using myBuilding Permit. com, will have difficulty passing these costs on to their customers. As a result, many local governments are considering alternatives to WA2011 Info Memos- CouncilTermitSystem.docx 10/19/2011 165 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 2 Automation, and some of them (e.g., the City and Borough of Juneau, AK) have decided to move off the product. Tukwila formed an interdepartmental committee in March of this year to identify City -wide permitting needs, hear vendor presentations, find out more about why other jurisdictions have chosen their vendors and reach consensus on a recommendation to Council. DCD invited participation by representatives from all City departments and a core group of representatives from DCD, IT, Public Works, Fire, Finance, and the City Clerk have regularly attended. ANALYSIS One of the Committee's first objectives was to learn what we could from the experiences of other cities as they made their permit system choices. Lynnwood issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for permitting software in April 2008 and selected the EnerGov program. A group of six cities (Bothell, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton and Sammamish) joined together under the eCityGov Alliance framework to issue a joint RFP for permit software systems in November 2009. They did a very thorough selection process and required all of the information we would need to make our decision. They received fourteen responses which they narrowed down to a short list of seven. They then conducted in -depth demonstrations and due diligence research with each vendor. Ultimately five of the participating cities chose the EnerGov system while Issaquah chose to go with CRW. Short List Recommendation i ecityGov i Hosting Red'. Avg lV,y cost >455oK. Black AJj yr cost <$300K ,f `o fit esources Infbr CSDC Accela Best Match FnerGov i Ckw <$4a0K Cost Gov' Partnek i t EDEN They designed the RFP to allow other cities to join it later through an interlocal agreement per RCW 39.34and receive the same terms as they had negotiated with the vendors. Pricing, including the negotiated group discount, is guaranteed for three years from the first executed WA2011 Info Memos- CounciWermitSystem.docx 2 10/19/2011 166 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 3 contract in 2010. Using the interlocal process to join the existing RFP would be faster and simpler than issuing our own RFP. Ranae of Costs Of the cities who participated in the eCityGov process Tukwila is most similar to Sammamish with 20 simultaneous system users and Bothell with 30. While Tukwila may choose different options than the ones specified in the vendor price estimates the bids are useful for getting a ballpark estimate of the purchase cost and in determining relative costs between vendors. Vendor Infor Hansen Accela EnerGov GovPartner CRW Systems Tyler Eden 1 s Year Costs 1 5 Year Costs Sammamish 1,022,370 785,129 419,577 241,000 210,400 173,613 1,217,475 971,841 514,941 325,000 283,945 248,059 Bothell 1 s Year Costs 1,135,120 724,075 490,258 238,200 230,450 217,103 5 Year Costs 1,409,635 934,662 619,806 315,000 320,803 325,242 Hansen is so much more expensive than the other vendors staff recommends removing them from consideration. Accela, our current vendor, has the second highest price quote and is three times the cost of the three lowest priced vendors. They also have high ongoing maintenance costs. EnerGov is the mid priced quote and five of the cities chose this vendor as the best match for their needs. GovPartner is the next lowest price though the consensus of the eCityGov group was that it did not have the full functionality they were looking for. CRW was chosen by Issaquah, the sixth member of the eCityGov group, whose Building Official said that it meets their needs well for half the cost of EnerGov. Staff made a site visit to Puyallup to see Tyler and spoke with staff from Bonney Lake who also use that system. While they were satisfied with the program it seemed to require a lot of work arounds to meet their needs. At first it appeared that choosing Tyler would make for an easier integration with our Eden financial system but after talking with other cities any of the permit systems can interface with Eden. Issaquah is a recent example of integration between CRW permitting and Eden financial programs. Benefit Many of the jurisdictions in our region already have a web based permit system or are implementing a system within the next 2 -5 years. These systems typically allow for electronic plan submittal, online status checks, greater automation of processes and public access to permit information. Another benefit is a more efficient link to the KC Assessor's Office resulting in faster property tax updates for new construction. The MyBuilding Permit. com application is used in conjunction with a permit tracking system by thirteen local jurisdictions allowing contractors to do "one stop shopping" for over the counter permits. Other jurisdictions use electronic permitting modules that are part of their permit tracking system. Some cities such as Seattle have developed proprietary systems. While there are capital costs associated with implementing an electronic permitting system it could have significant benefits for our customers and our staff. Mercer Island did a study when they implemented their ePlan review system and found that the benefits included: WA2011 Info Memos- CouncilTermitSystem.docx 3 10/19/2011 167 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 4 increased efficiency of staff review, faster permit review since there is no wait for plans to be stamped and routed, greater convenience for applicants as permits can be submitted at any time, significant cost savings for applicants due to elimination of paper, printing and transport costs, and streamlined emergency response and disaster recovery efforts. According to Marty Grisham this last item could be an important element of our disaster recovery strategy because it would allow us to help get our businesses open and operating more quickly after a disaster. Staff is working on developing a low cost pilot project to allow for electronic submittal of sign permits as we work through the larger permit software issue. Implementation Issues Listening to the experiences of other cities it seems that implementing a new permit system is time consuming and requires a significant investment of staff resources. Staff has been attending a working group of cities implementing the EnerGov program and several of them recommended the use of a consultant to negotiate the contract with the software vendor. Making sure that the City's needs for customization in permit processes, reports and permit documents are documented in the contract and included in the price can prevent costly overruns during implementation. Of the six cities in our region who have decided to switch to EnerGov in the past several years, only Lynnwood and Bothell have actually gone live with the system. Lynnwood spent three years in the migration and implementation phase. Issaquah went live with CRW almost a year ago and reported that implementation took about six months, much faster than the EnerGov cities. Financing Options Given the significant investment required to upgrade to a new permit system many cities are imposing technology user fees. Fees are assessed as either a flat fee, fee per sheet or percentage that ranges from 1.3% to 5 see Attachment B. The Master Builders have written a letter in support of city technology fees if they are used to provide better service and in our informal discussions with applicants many think the efficiencies of electronic permit review would be worth a modest fee increase. The cost to use the online MyBuilding Permit. com electronic permitting site is 1.3% of the permit fee. The intent of a proposed technology fee would be service cost recovery. It would be applied to all permits that are processed through our tracking systems (except fire department licenses, rental housing). However, it would apply to the "Permit" fee only, excluding the plan review fee, mailing fees, state building code fee, impact fees, Cascade Water Alliance Fee and any other water or sewer assessments. For hourly land use permits it would be assessed once on the retainer and not added to any additional hours that may accrue during permit review. A chart of the amount Tukwila would have collected from different fee structures is included as Attachment C. It appears that we could cover the annual expenses associated with a permit tracking system that allowed for electronic plan review with a fee in line with that charged by other jurisdictions in our area. Over a longer term we could recover most or all of implementation costs, depending on future permit volumes. If we opted to proceed with this approach one question would be whether to start charging during the implementation phase when we were incurring costs or wait until the system was live. It would be most equitable to only charge the fee once the applicants were able to benefit from the upgrade. VVA2011 Info Memos- CouncilTermitSystem.dou 4 10/19/2011 168 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 5 Timinq Staff suggests that a reasonable time frame for Tukwila to move forward with replacing our permit system would be: 2011 Review our permit processes to increase efficiency and prepare for electronic permitting Adopt an interlocal agreement to join the eCityGov Alliance RFP Select a permit software vendor Decide on an electronic permitting approach (MyBuilding Perm it.com or vendor system) 2012 Select and contract with a consultant to assist with negotiating the software contract Negotiate a contract for the permit software Start migration and customization which will extend into 2013. 2013 Go live with permit system and electronic permitting Adopt a financing mechanism This timeline will require a budget amendment for 2012 to cover expenditures for a contract consultant and initial permit software payments. The cost for these items would be approximately $175,000 with a possible offset of $50,000 if we opted to stop paying maintenance on Permits Plus. Additional costs for data migration, training, hardware and maintenance of approximately $150,000 would need to be included in the 2013 budget. Depending on the software configuration and technology fee level that we choose we anticipate a payback time of 4 -6 years. RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends that the Council consider a budget amendment for 2012 that would allow us to move forward with the permit software selection and implementation process. The Council is being asked to consider this item at the November 14 Committee of the Whole and November 21 Regular meeting to authorize acquisition of the Permit Tracking System and include the amount of $175,000 in the year -end 2011 -2012 budget amendment. ATTACHMENTS -Short List Vendor Information Comparison Technology Fee Survey Potential Technology Fee Revenue WA2011 Info Memos- CouncilTermitSystem.docx 5 10/19/2011 169 lM (In N !n u C) LA u N I 0 i� r 0 F. 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O 4i a 0 0 1 U z F^ C 1� p e in T 0 -s3 ME Technology Fee Usage yf= Fee ifildi I q:. ar�tl l sc jMb 1161,fbrkg�N #es I I I also charged against mech, plumb, City of Federal Way 6.00 yes yes yes elect also charged against mech, plumb, City of Covington 38.00 yes yes yes fire sprinkler /alarm (City of Bellingham 1$ I I I I (City of Des Moines 1 25.00 (yes Ino Ino I City of Black Diamond I I City of Auburn I$ I I I I ICity of Ocean Shores I I I I ICity of Kent 1 3 %1 I I (considering adoption of technology ICity of Burien 1$ I I I I City of SeaTac 1$ City of Newcastle 1$ City of Lynnwood I I I City of Sammamish I$ I I I I effective 11/2010 applies to all City of Renton 3% permits The cost to submit via the EPlan process is based on the number of original plan sheets (at $2 per sheet; there are not additional fees for subsequent submittals, see supplemental documents, City of Mercer Island notes calculations, letters, forms, etc.). City of Maple Valley I l applies to all permits, land use City of Redmond 3% applications, public works, fire 1City of Tacoma 1 5 %1 I 1 levery permit added to all fees listed other than City of Bothell 5% state, impact, mitigation or facility also charged against mech, plumb, City of Issaquah 1.3% yes yes yes fire sprinkler /alarm also charged against mech, plumb, City of Kirkland 1.3% yes yes yes fire sprinkler /alarm Email sent out April 2010 Updated: July 27, 2011 181 N CD IQl Ul Lq r-i C) i r, CY) 1 6 r- 0 Lf) o 0 r-4 r- rn J). �..'px z��*�:� °pro i Ln o ._I 0 0 0 0 00 rf) 00 ry) 00 CD Ln CD 00 rIj Lo (Y) CY! (7� 06 ry� Ln Lo "0 CT) CY) Cj) L-n 0 0 77 00 0 0 0 a) 00 0 N O "t va- 0 0 06 (y) 00 O m rl CD C) C) m 0 r1i 0 m r4 -,D m 00 Lri r-4 0 Ln 0) O 6 rl) Ln r-I 4 LL bb N Ln Ln C:) C:) 0 M" 00 r- N 'T Ln Ln lD kD C) Ln r-4 C� 111 Ln 00 LO (N r1i (N VT V). V} V)- Vj 00 m LO CD C 0 0 C Ln Lf) i LI) -C 00 Cf) Lr) 0 V). C) 0 0 0 0 0 CD 0 0 CD CD 0 cu ai aj CL CD C 0 CD CD C C) C C) C� 0 u u u Gi Q) _0 Q) C) 0 N CD CD 00 0 tD 0 cY 0 r-4 -T 0 1 0 0 i in cli (L) 0 1 0 0 CD LO Lf) ryi i Lrj J m 182 City of Tukwila Community Affairs and Parks Committee COMMUNITY AFFAIRS AND PARKS COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes October 24, 2011 5:00 p.m.; Conference Room #3 PRESENT Councilmembers: Verna Seal, Chair; and Joe Duffie Absent: De'Sean Quinn Staff: Derek Speck, Peggy McCarthy, Nora Gierloff, Jack Pace, David Cline and Kimberly Matej CALL TO ORDER: Committee Chair Seal called the meeting to order at 5:03 p.m. I. PRESENTATIONS No presentations. II. BUSINESS AGENDA A. Parks Recreation Events Calendar As an information only item, Committee Members reviewed the Parks Recreation calendar for November and December. INFORMATION ONLY. B. Resolution: Foster Golf Links Green Fees Staff is requesting Council approval of a resolution to increase green fees at Foster Golf Links. The draft resolution proposes a $1.00 in each category with the exception of Junior and Twilight green fees increases. The last fee increase at Foster Golf Links was in 2010 when Council approved increases across the board from $0.50 to $2.00. This green fee increase is anticipated to raise revenue by approximately $45,000, and will be implemented immediately upon Council passage. UNANIMOUS APPROVAL. FORWARD TO NOVEMBER 14 COW FOR DISCUSSION. C. Permit Tracking Svstem Reolacement Staff is seeking Council approval for a 2011 -12 Budget Amendment for approximately $175,000 which will allow staff to contract a consultant and make initial payments for a new permit tracking system that will replace the current Permits Plus program by Accela. The vendor for Permits Plus is phasing out the software program. City staff has known this for some time and had planned accordingly; however, this was an item removed from the budget during cuts over the past several years. After implementation of an interdepartmental committee to assess permitting software options, and review of information provided by the eCityGov Alliance, staff is recommending moving forward with a new computerized permit tracking system that will improve communications, support citizen interaction and link staff reports and other necessities such as pictures. Staff is hopeful that potential assessment of a technology fee to each permit application will eventually pay for the new system over a 4 -7 year timeframe making this purchase revenue neutral after a set payback period. Regardless of the permitting software chosen, implementation and migration will require a financial investment and a significant amount of staff time. Although a software vendor has not yet been chosen, initial costs in 2012 are anticipated to be approximately $175,000, with an additional $150,000 in 2013. Annual maintenance costs, if any, are not yet known. Currently, the City pays an annual fee of $45,000 to Permits Plus for maintenance, and costs have increased on an average of 10% per year. UNANIMOUS APPROVAL. FORWARD TO NOVEMBER 14 COW FOR DISCUSSION. 183 x