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View Winners → Arcadia to Spend $450K to Upgrade Planning, Public Works Software
Arcadia Weekly Jul 29, 2015
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The forthcoming digital makeover is “geographic information system-based, it’s Internet, it’s Wi-Fi, it’s a lot of different technologies working at once,” City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto told the council. – Photo by Terry Miller
By Joe Taglieri
Arcadia’s public works and planning departments are set to receive a comprehensive software upgrade intended to streamline how city personnel track real estate permits and the condition of equipment and infrastructure.
It has been 16 years since the Public Works Services Department began using its existing software, and the Development Services Department initiated its permitting system in 1997, according to a city staff report.
The forthcoming digital makeover is “geographic information system-based, it’s Internet, it’s Wi-Fi, it’s a lot of different technologies working at once,” City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto told council members July 21 before unanimously approving a nearly $450,000 contract with Tyler Technologies Inc. of Duluth, Ga., to implement and manage the company’s EnterGov software.
EnterGov integrates planning data pertaining to the department’s various types of permits, inspections and code enforcement with water management, equipment maintenance and other public works records into a single system, Lazzaretto told the council.
The new software will combine the following under one computer program: “Building permitting, review, and inspection; planning application and review; Code Enforcement cases; Public Works permits and inspection; business tax certificates; engineering permitting and review; asset tracking for the City’s fleet, equipment, parks, street trees, traffic signals, street lights, and warehouse inventory; and a user-defined work order management system that will assist [public works] with planning maintenance of the City’s water and sewer systems,” officials reported.
In January the city received two bids for the software replacement project. Tyler Technologies initially proposed just over $480,000 compared with a more than $800,000 bid from Timmons Group Inc. based in Richmond, Va.
Officials from the two city departments “established an interdepartmental committee to review the proposals and meet with each firm on-site to experience the proposed software systems first hand,” according to the report. “Each proposal was evaluated and ranked based on overall experience, quality of the proposal, compatibility with existing City applications, demonstration of the proposed systems, and cost.”
The public works department currently manages the Arcadia’s infrastructure and city equipment “by utilizing a combination of manual forms, spreadsheet applications, and Cititech, the Department’s existing asset management system,” the report states.
The existing software provides “limited capability in data processing and reporting” and “is unable to integrate with other systems” that include the city’s Geographic Information System, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system and Wasp Barcode Technologies’ inventory program, the staff report explains. “Cititech’s last system update was conducted in 2013 and ultimately provided no substantial improvements in functionality, systems integration, or reporting capabilities.”
Development Services’ existing HdL permitting system “is now very limited in its efficiency and basic functionality, and due to its highly customized nature, an upgrade to a new version of the permitting system is not available,” the report states. “The system has remained virtually unchanged since 1997, except for the Business License system which was updated in 2011. In 2012, the permitting system was eliminated from Code Services since the system was not able to serve the evolving needs of the Division, nor was it useful in adapting to changes in laws and codes, or adequately tracking cases.”
Other clients of Tyler Technologies in the Los Angeles area include Pasadena, Upland, Beverly Hills and Laguna Beach as well as the county’s Public Works and Regional Planning departments.
