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STAFF REPORT <br />TO:Mayor Keis and Members of the City Council <br />FROM:Heidi Heller, City Clerk <br />DATE:November 6, 2019 <br />RE:Permit & Licensing Software <br />BACKGROUND: <br />As part of the Strategic Planning that the Council and Staff participated in this year, one of the <br />priorities is creating better efficiencies at City Hall, such as eliminating paper files, doing more <br />tasks electronically and offering online services. <br />The processing and tracking of all permits, and licensing of businesses, contractors and rental <br />housing is currently done only with paper forms, and all permit fees are calculated by hand by <br />the Building Official. Staff is doing some limited tracking in Access and Excel, but there is no <br />central electronic system for tracking or being able to search for permits and licenses. If staff <br />needs to find out if a building permit has been issued or an inspection done, they must search <br />through the file cabinet in the Building Official’s office or in the address file cabinets in the <br />basement. There are additional paper files around the office or basement for the business <br />licenses (auto repair, outdoor storage, liquor, etc.), contractor and rental housing licenses. It is <br />standard practice for a city to have permit and licensing software, and unlikely that more than a <br />very few, if any, cities in the metro area do not. <br />By moving to a software-based system specifically designed for issuing and tracking permits, <br />many things that staff are doing on a daily basis can be done so much quicker and easier. A few <br />of the efficiencies that this software will greatly improve on include: <br />-Stores every permit and license in one electronic location <br />-Automatically calculates all permit fees when the permit is created in the software <br />-Automatically creates a page for the applicant with a list of all required inspections for <br />that specific permit type <br />-Tracks all inspections and dates (can easily make a list of <br />-Tracks Contractors and all of their information, including state or city license expiration <br />dates <br />-Tracking all payments and payment types <br />-Can search to see if a permit or license has been issued, or any other information about <br />that permit, in seconds <br />-Able to search by address, contractor, date, permit type, or owner to see all permits and <br />licenses that have been issued to that property or person/company <br />-Able to electronically connect any supporting documents to the permit (the file can then <br />be moved directly into Laserfische) <br />-Automatically creates an official-looking, all typewritten, permit and inspection form that <br />the applicant is given to post on-site