HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 3.A 06/18/2012 Agenda/ Ite vw#3 .A
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DATE: June 18, 2012
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council through City Manager
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FROM: Tim Williamsen, IT Manager
SUBJECT: Resolution Authorizing City Manager to Sign Purchase Documents for Eden
Permitting Software
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached Resolution, authorizing the City
Manager to sign purchasing documents for the acquisition of the Eden permitting system from
Tyler/Eden in the amount of$84,120 plus travel costs and applicable sales taxes.
BACKGROUND
The City currently utilizes an Accela software system to process building permit activity and to
manage other permitting processes. The City currently utilizes an Eden system for various
functions and purposes including financials, budgeting, and payroll. The acquisition of Eden
was authorized by the City Council December 17, 2007, Resolution #2007-211.
Purchase of the Eden permitting-system was introduced to the City Council Feb. 27, 2012, Item
1.A, page 5 of the staff report among the mid-year adjustments.
The City acquired the Accela program in 2006, under a five-year lease. At time of acquisition,
there was a larger staff in place and Accela permitting was considered properly sized for the
Building Division. The larger staff included several "power users," who were capable of dealing
with minor reporting and customization issues that arose.
The most recent financial audit recommends integration of the permitting system with the
financial system: The purpose the audit recommendation was to eliminate opportunities for
errors in reconciliation of payments between permitting and finance systems. Eden's permitting
is designed to completely integrate with Eden's financial systems, no external interface is
needed, as is the case for Accela permitting.
Agenda Review:
City Attorney Finance Director City Manager
Council goals for 2012 include expansion of the web site functionality. Expansion of permitting
to the web site addresses this goal. Achieving this goal has been problematic with the use of the
existing permitting system.
Lastly, the Economic Development Strategic Plan recommends streamlining permitting,
including expansion of the functionality of the web site. The proposed Eden permitting provides
web site functionality for various permitting functions, including planning, transportation, and
encroachment. Accela's web interface has been problematic since shortly after installation and
has been disabled by staff.
DISCUSSION
Maintenance costs with the current Accela system have become unsustainable. Accela's annual
maintenance cost is calculated on a per-user basis. In order to keep this cost down, it was
necessary to limit the total number.of users to an absolute minimum (currently 15), thereby
keeping the system and access to its information very limited. Additionally, Accela has
informed the City that future year's maintenance costs will escalate at 10% per year, unless the
City opts to sign on to a multi-year commitment. This 10% escalation is far above the industry
standard, as well the annual change in the SF Bay Area CPI.
Implementing Eden permitting resolves these issues. Eden's maintenance costs are calculated
on the size of the licensing jurisdiction, rather than the number of users. Therefore, permit
information would be available to all City staff. Additionally, the removal of a limit on the
number of users,as would be the case with Eden permitting, would allow for additional
evaluation of how the uses of the permitting module could be expanded to other departments at
no additional cost to the City. The current maintenance cost for the Eden Permit module is
comparable to the current 15-user maintenance cost of Accela at $9,606. However, savings will
be realized in future years, as Eden's annual escalation is 3%, compared to Accela's 10%.
It is important to note that the Eden permitting system will serve the purposes for departments in
addition to the Building Division. The Public Works and Utilities Department issues
encroachment permits and transportation (trucking and shipping) permits. The Planning
Division will be able to use Eden permitting for planning permits. The Eden permitting system
will enable automating transportation permits and make encroachment permits and planning
submittals more efficient, through its web interface and its simpler workflow.
The Economic Development Strategic Plan, adopted by Council October 2010, in several
locations recommends improvements to the permitting system and to web interfaces to
permitting systems. These references include page 4, Section K, Appendix I and page 131 —
Summary. Staff feels the proposed project will address several of these recommendations to
improve the permitting process and enhance online permitting.
The Petaluma Economic Development Program attracts and retains businesses to Petaluma by
promoting policies and procedures that are business friendly. One such opportunity is the
addition of a web based portal for permitting that will create an efficient and easy environment
for business to request permits. The Economic Development strategy includes a goal to expand
the use of technology for economic development and specifically identifies an online permit
processing as an area that should be considered. Not only would online permitting be more
efficient for our business clients, but it would also streamline staff processing because the
applicant would be inputting their own data into the system. The applicant benefits by getting
permits issued for minor improvements and repairs without staff interaction. By implementing
an online permitting system, Petaluma would be joining cutting edge cities like San Francisco
and San Jose, standing out from other Sonoma and North Bay cities.
Throughout the Economic Development Strategy, it is emphasized that the City should take steps
to better utilize technology to improve its building permit business processes. Specifically, the
plan states, "The City should assess how it can streamline the building permit and planning
process through technology. Past improvement efforts experienced technology software glitches
but improvements should continue to be pursued, including areas such as digital plan reviews
and permit payments." Implementing Eden permitting will allow the City a more cost-effective
way of making the improvements that the plan's summary calls out as a"key area on which to
focus." This will be achieved by a tighter integration with the City's financial system, broader
use throughout the City organization, and increased potential for public access through improved
online capabilities.
The most recent financial audit findings, Schedule of Material Weaknesses, #2011-02 and 2011-
03, discussed issues with permits interfacing with the general ledger. While the interface
between Accela and Eden financials has been difficult and problematic to achieve, staff feels an
interface between two products of the same vendor (both permitting and financials) will
satisfactorily address the audit findings. City responses to the subject audit findings included
purchase of the Eden permitting for fall of 2012 implementation.
The Accela system, as originally purchased, was sized for a much larger department. A larger
department has the ability to provide a"champion," one user skilled in the software and
workflow, while having ability to work with vendors in tuning and improving a large capacity
system. Several issues exist that are not subject to workarounds, rather, cause lost productivity
in the Building Division. Since the Community Development Department (CDD) was
downsized in 2008, one of the reductions was that of the reduction of the Department champion.
Additionally, Accela is better suited to larger department workflows.
Accela's permitting system is not well integrated with the City's finance system nor with GIS.
This causes users to access multiple systems that are not linked, adding to users' difficulties and
expending of unnecessary labor.
The 2012 Council goals include expansion of web interfaces and expansion of web presence with
more efficient and more interactive interfaces. The Eden permitting system, as recommended,
features web interfaces for a variety of permit types. Staff feels the result of this proposed
project will substantially address this Council goal, as the proposed project includes provision of
web interfaces to permit information, application, submittals, tracking and inspections.
A critical role of the IT Division is to ensure continued business operations in the event of and in
the days following disaster. This often involves the creation of a redundant system at a second
location. For example,the financial system currently resides on servers at City Hall, and a
redundant system is ready for operation if needed, at a remote location. Currently, there is no
redundant setup for the permit system. Moving to Eden permitting module would allow us to
take advantage of the Eden financial system's existing hardware setup to similarly have a back-
up for our permit operations.
The Building Division, as well as other permitting staff in Public Works and Utilities and
Planning have seen the demonstrations for the Eden permitting and believe the Eden system will
meet their needs. Additionally, the Building staff have visited the City of Oakley, seen the Eden
permitting system in use, and believe the Eden permitting system meets the needs of the
Division.
Staff recommends this acquisition follow the requirements as outlined in the City's Municipal
Code 4.04.100. The referenced section provides for cooperative purchasing of items that have
been publicly bid and awarded. The proposal meets the code section by having been bid and
awarded by the National Joint Purchasing Alliance (NJPA). Tyler's award contract is #113011.
Staff recommends that the Council adopt the attached Resolution, Authorizing the City Manager
to sign purchase order to Tyler/Eden in the amount of$84,120, plus travel costs and applicable
sales, personal property or other similar taxes.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS
Purchase of Tyler/Eden is funded by #6300.63200 (Building Division) $66,480 and 7300:73100
(IT Division), $17,640. Both amounts are already within the 2011-2012 fiscal year budget. The
amount within the Building Division budget was transferred as part of the mid-year adjustments
on Feb. 27, 2012.
Implementation of this proposed project will result in savings to staff for processing permits,
allow savings in ongoing maintenance costs, and improve staff workflow for maintaining
financial transactions related to permitting.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Resolution Authorizing the Purchase of Tyler/Eden Permitting in the Amount of$84,120
2. Tyler/Eden quote #19241 (referred to as Exhibit A in the resolution).
ATTACHMENT 1
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PETALUMA
AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASE OF TYLER/EDEN PERMITTING IN THE
AMOUNT OF $84,120
WHEREAS, the City of Petaluma's most recent financial audit recommended
improved integration of the City's permitting system with its financial system, and
WHEREAS, the City's Economic Development Strategic Plan recommends streamlining
of permitting, including expansion of the functionality of the City website; and
WHEREAS, the current permitting system is based on a software system that has not
performed adequately for integration purposes, does not allow access over a broad base of City
users and is over sized to serve the current size and functions of the Community Development
Department and other City users; and
WHEREAS, the Eden Building Permit Module ("Eden system") is the same software
used for the City's financial system and therefore will facilitate better integration of the
permitting system and the financial system; and
WHEREAS, the Eden system will reduce annual maintenance costs over time and allow
permit information to be available to all City staff, rather than a limited number of users; and
WHEREAS, the Eden system will feature web interfaces for a variety of permit types
and facilitate online information gathering, application, submittals, tracking and inspections for
use by the permittees, the City and the general public; and
WHEREAS, the City has obtained a cost quotation from Tyler Technologies for the Eden
system which was previously competitively bid and awarded through the National Joint
Purchasing Alliance, and therefore conforms to Petaluma Municipal Code section 4.04.100,
providing an exception to a City formal bid process.
NOW,THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Petaluma
as follows:
The City Council authorizes the City Manager to execute purchasing documents to
acquire permitting software, training and consulting services and one year of annual maintenance
from Tyler/Eden not to exceed the sum of$84,120, plus travel costs and applicable sales,
personal property or other similar taxes, as outlined in the Sales Quotation from Tyler
Technologies dated April 24, 2012 and attached hereto as Exhibit A.
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Quoted By: Christina Hendrickson p•
4100.0.0%. �a`�A Date: 06/07/2012
7' G Quote Expiration: 07/30/2012
0 technologies Quote Name: Permits & Inspections
Quote Number: 19241
Sales Quotation For:
Tim Williamsen Mr. Phone: (707)778-4573
City of Petaluma
PO Box 61 Fax:
Petaluma,CA 94953 Email: timw @ci.petaluma.ca.us
1 Software
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CS-PERM-SW-E Permits/Inspections- Software 1.00 536,000.00 536,000.00 57,200.00 528,800.00
l6e:sWBPI`SWf_ETPRitstWebBxtenstonTSoftware1 ,t007 1ftS1 8,gOQ00 j $;.18!
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3 Maintenance ?, 2 0/13
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CS-PERM-SP-E Permits/Inspections-Support 1.00 56.480.00 56.480.00 S0.00 56.480.00
GS WBPI SFfE vii Pe inns Web Eztenstom Suppo t ,l oho Oj I $3,241.07)1F s3 242 ooJR $0:00 533 f00,, ;' '
Total: Total:
$0.00 $9,720.00
Summary Fees Maintenance
Total Software $43,200.00 $9,720.00
Total Services $31,200.00
Summary Total $74,400.00 $9,720.00
Comments
Tyler's quote contains estimates of the amount of services needed,based on our preliminary understanding of the size and scope of your
project. The actual amount of services depends on such factors as your level of involvement in the project and the speed of knowledge
transfer.
Prices submitted in the quote do not include travel expenses incurred in accordance with Tyler's then-current Business Travel Policy.
ESTIMATED TRAVEL-$1700.00 per trip.
Tyler's prices do not include applicable local,city or federal sales,use,excise, personal property or other similar taxes or duties,which you
are responsible for determining and remitting.
For existing EDEN Clients,the fees are billed as follows:
- 100%of Application Software License Fees upon delivery of the software products
- 100%of the Year I.Application Software Maintenance Fees are billed upon Initiation(first day of training)
-Services and associated expenses as provided incurred.
Payment is due within 30 days of invoice receipt. Quote is subject to existing Contract.
***The pricing included in this quote meets or exceeds the NJPA discount pricing.
Customer Approval: Date:
Print Name: P.O. #:
All primary values quoted in US Dollars
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