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GLADSTONE — The City of Gladstone made two decisions about software for municipal tasks on Monday.
One currently-implemented system is CivicPlus, which provides an agenda and meeting management platform as well as municipal website. CivicPlus is retiring the version that the city has been using, necessitating a shift. A slightly upgraded version of the same platform was available, which city staff recommended.
“The city’s options at this point (are) either to move to that upgraded product or move to a different product altogether,” said Community Development Director and Zoning Administrator Patricia West.
In order to proceed with the improved version of CivicPlus, the city must allocate an additional $4,313 per year. As of Monday, $10,331 was budgeted for the website and meeting management program, but the quoted amount for the improved version with DocAccess is $14,645.
Commissioners inquired as to the possibility of exploring similar programs from other providers.
West and City Clerk Kim Berry were both in favor of sticking with CivicPlus, but West agreed with Commissioner Steve O’Driscoll’s ask that she keep an eye out for other options while the contract was being negotiated. When West spoke about how the current meeting management platform has streamlined operations, Berry agreed: “That’s been a complete game changer for all our boards and commissions. The look of them, the searchability, just everything, putting packets together — has been amazing… It is far superior to what we were doing before. I’m excited for the upgrade.”
Commissioner Judy Akkala moved to approve the staff request to allow a migration to the updated CivicPlus, and O’Driscoll seconded it. The vote passed.
The additional cost will be divided amongst departments. As per West’s staff report, “the website and agenda management costs are allocated equally among the general fund, electric, water, wastewater, solid waste, and recreation funds.” The shift away from the expiring version of CivicPlus to the newer and more expensive one will increase each participating department’s appropriation by $718.94 per year.
A second piece of digital technology designed to make office work simpler will completely change the city’s permitting process — which has always been done by hand.
“The City currently does not utilize dedicated permitting software and relies heavily on paper-based applications and manual methods of tracking permit information. These processes can be inefficient for both applicants and staff and make coordination between departments more difficult,” read a report from West.
The product chosen to modernize and streamline the permitting process GovWell. West informed the commission that she had met with three possible suppliers before settling on GovWell.
“I was really interested when I watched the demo,” she said. “It did everything that I was hoping something could do. So the online applications are digital, customizable on my end, so I can build them out however I want. It will streamline the process on the back end. When an application comes in, I can route it to the appropriate departments for review. So if it’s a fence application, I can route it to the electric department to ensure it’s not going to interfere with utilities in any way.”
West said that one point of concern was that the product uses some AI, but it appears that might just be to provide responses to frequently asked questions.
GovWell will cost $10,000 per year, but the community development department had already included funding for a software purchase in the current fiscal year budget, so no budget amendment was required.
The commission voted to approve the three-year agreement with GovWell for permitting software at an annual cost of $10,000.