HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittment Letter for Paper to Digital Grant Application - 081924 Consent Agenda
JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners
Mark McCauley,County Administrator
FROM: Josh D. Peters, AICP, Director, Community Development
DATE: August 19, 2024
SUBJECT: BRIEFING AND POTENTIAL ACTION Re: Commitment Letter— Paper to
Digital Grant Application
STATEMENT OF ISSUE:
The Washington State Department of Commerce(Commerce)has opened up the Paper to Digital Grant
funding. A mandate of Senate Bill (SB) 5290 Section 3, codified as RCW 36.70.241. is the Department of
Commerce must establish a grant program for local governments to update their permit review process from
paper filing systems to software systems capable of processing digital permit applications, virtual
inspections, electronic review,and capacity for video storage. All cities and counties across the state may
apply.
The deadline for submitting an online application for the fund is Wednesday August 21, 2024. Commerce
will evaluate the applications based on scoring of responses to grant application questions and growth
statistics. All supporting documentation must be uploaded prior to completing the application. In order to
make the deadline. DCD requests the Board to review the attached narrative to the scored questions, the
proposed budget and the attached required letter of commitment from an authorized officer(i.e., the Chair of
the Board of County Commissioners). If the Board is in support of the application, the Chair would need to
sign and return the letter of commitment to DCD to be included as a part of the application packet.
ANALYSIS:
DCD anticipates using Commerce funding to defray costs associated with the ongoing transition to the full
functionality of the Enterprise Permitting and Licensing(EPL)software. The Paper to Digital Grant funds
will be used to accomplish the tasks described in the attached narrative;those tasks will complement
objectives for the constant improvement and maintenance of the permitting process.There is no match
required for this grant.
RECOMMENDATION:
Approve and sign a letter of commitment for DCD to provide to Commerce to complete the Paper to Digital
Grant application for work to be accomplished by June 15. 2025.
REVIEWED BY:
VAO
Mark McCau y C.ounty Administrator 13 e
Scored Questions
SYSTEM CAPACITY/VISION
(1)Provide a concise description of your current residential permit process. This
should include any current challenges or issues you are experiencing in your
current process and whether or not you are using an all paper system or a
hybrid digital and paper system to accept and review permit applications and
complete residential inspections.
Response:
Permit Process: Jefferson County is currently utilizing a hybrid permitting system. All
documents must be in digital format. The Building Division will perform the application intake,
which requires an appointment with a permit technician. The applicant will email or share the
digital documents and plans prior to the appointment. During the appointment, the technician
will ensure the application is procedurally complete pursuant to a checklist and ready at
submittal. Incomplete applications will be returned or delay processing.
For most residential building permit applications, review and sign off by four divisions are
required. These divisions and their review are summarized below:
• Building Division: Plan and Fire/Life/Safety review and inspection.
• Land use/Development Review Division: Consistency and Stormwater Review.
• Environmental Health: Wastewater (sewer connection to a purveyor or on-site sewer
system review and approval) and potable water review.
• Public Works: An approved access is required for all county roads if approach has not
been previously approved.
Attached is a flowchart showing a synopsis of the building permit process.
Challenges: Jefferson County started converting to a new permitting system (Tyler's Enterprise
Permitting and Licensing "EPL", formerly known as EnerGov) while the Department of
Community Development (DCD) experienced a significant staff turnover. While DCD as a whole
was able to get the initial set up of EPL established, there are areas that we could improve to
activate EPL's full functionality and complete the paper to digital conversion.
Building Division:
• Building Division is no longer accepting paper building plans. However, there were plans
submitted prior to this policy change. Some of these approvals are still under
construction, and would be beneficial to convert these paper plans and import to the
permitting program digitally. The goal is to have all relevant documents to be stored
digitally in one location
• EPL offers a mobile inspection platform for inspectors to efficiently manage inspections
in a wireless environment. However, like most rural jurisdictions, there are areas that
cellular services are poor or not available. The iPads that the Building Division currently
utilize are not compatible with the Windows based operating system; information that
are stored on the County's servers are inaccessible in the field. Moreover, using the
Bluebeam software on iPads proved to be a challenge. Bluebeam allows the plan
examiner, the architect and engineer to mark up the same plan to eliminate
duplication/confusion. Switching to a Surface Tablet will allow the parties to make
amendment/correction digitally via the Bluebeam software.
• There are two additional EPL modules that would assist the Building and Fire Officials, as
well as Environmental Health staff to perform their jobs more efficiently. The Fire
Inspection would allow the results of the fire/life/safety inspections be recorded in real
time, among other functions. The Business module would have the capability to
schedule required inspections at regular intervals and send out reminders to the
landowners automatically.
Land Use/Development Review Division:
• As a result of the staff turnover, not all the report templates were completed and
imported to EPL. It would increase efficiency, productivity and consistency to continue
the effort in getting all templates completed. The County is intended to negotiate and
renew a contract with the consultant (previous contract expired in June 2024) to
continue providing support for database administration, coordination of mapping with
permit data and software, include reports writing.
• Configuration improvements to streamline the workflow steps in EPL to make it more
user friendly for both staff and the public.
• Note that Jefferson County restarted the Customer Self Support (CSS) portal in July
2024 as a way to better inform the public on the permitting process. Applicants may
schedule inspection online as well as obtain information through the CSS portal.
County IT Infrastructure:
• The County's current IT infrastructure significantly limit the conversion from paper to
digital at its full capacity. The servers that are serving EPL and other
programs/databases are dated, patches/updates are no longer available for some
platforms. With the current infrastructure, video storage is limited. The management
team is discussing the long term strategy for maintaining, upgrading and enhancing
the databases.
• While Jefferson County is preparing to improve and maintain our databases and
equipment, the most critical decision that need to be made in a short time-frame is to
decide whether the County will move to a Tyler hosted environment or continue a self-
hosted solution. While the County is prepared to support our own strategic IT
planning, it would help to kick start the process by engaging with Tyler on the"Project
Planning Process" (a Tyler required action) as soon as feasible.
(2)How would this grant funding provide for the capability of processing digital
permit applications, virtual inspections, electronic review, and capacity for
video storage? The answer to this question should include whether or not
funds will purchase software, fund research, and/or be used to create and
execute a plan to move to digital,
Response:
Jefferson County is requesting a grant funding in the amount of$94,000.
The County will use the fund to:
• Scan paper plans and import to EPL for all pending/active permits (Estimated cost
S5,000)
• Purchase four (4) Surface Tablets to replace the dated iPads for the Building Official,
Fire Chief, Plan Examiner and Permit Technician. The new tablets would maximize the
functionality of EPL's Permitting Module on and off premises. Staff would be able to take
pictures/videos, take and submit notes while doing inspections in the field, access the
County severs and retrieve relevant information when needed at the project site,
continue working with or without wife/cellular services and sync with office operations
when connectivity is available. (Estimated costs $10,000)
• Reimburse the County for the purchase of the Fire Inspection Module which was verbally
approved by the Board of County Commissioners in early August. (Estimated Cost
$7,000)
• Allow the County to purchase the Business Module to have the capability to schedule
required inspections and send out reminders to landowners (Estimated Cost $47,000)
• Renew the contract with the consultant to provide support for database administration,
coordination of mapping with permit data and software, including reports writing
(Estimated costs through June 15, 2025 $15,000)
• Engage with Tyler on the initial "Project Planning Process"to support the County's
ongoing strategic planning for IT infrastructure (Quoted Cost $9,799). This will be a
positive step to allow video storage in a near future.
0F C.UM`�tis Board of County Commissioners
O ITO 1820 Jefferson Street
PO Box 1220
= _ F•
' Port Townsend, WA 98368
IL. '' 4.
Kate Dean, District I I leidi Cisenhour, District 2 Greg Brotherton, District 3
August 19,2024
Washington State Department of Commerce
Growth Management Services
Paper to Digital Grant
Subject: Paper to Digital Grant Application
To Whom It May Concern:
I, Kate Dean, Chair of the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners, authorize our Department
of Community Development (DCD) to propose the attached scope of work and budget request
for grant funding to implement the requirements of SB 5290 related to permit review process
update grant funding.
In addition, in order to receive grant funds, we understand that this grant has the following
conditions that we must meet prior to becoming eligible for this grant. We agree to the following:
(1) We are committed to the update of our permit review process from paper filing
systems to software systems capable of processing digital permit applications, virtual
inspections,electronic review,and with the capacity for visual storage.
(2) We will abide by the Scope of Work agreement, we must provide deliverables to the
Department of Commerce to receive reimbursement for expenses tied to the completion
of each milestone.
On behalf of the Board of County Commissions, I confirm that Jefferson County is committed to
fulfill the above details and requirements. We appreciate your consideration of our request for
Paper to Digital Grant funds.
Sincerely,
°\ --------
Kate Dean j
Chair, Board of Commissioners
Phone(360) 385.9100 jeffbocc co.jefferson.wa.0