RE-ISSUE RFI LMD Citizen Platform 2022.doc

RE-ISSUE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Citizen Platform for Property Permits Lane County Oregon Responses due:

February 16, 2022 8:00 am PST

LANE COUNTY

Department of Public Works Land Management Division (LMD) 3050 N. Delta Highway Eugene, OR 97408 Project Owner: Keir Miller, LMD Manager Procurement Contact: Linda Cook, Principal Analyst Purpose & Goal of the RFI The Lane County property permitting process is operated by the Land Management Division (LMD), a division within the Public Works Department. LMD is located at:

3050 N. Delta Highway

Eugene, OR 97402 Lane County is seeking information from qualified vendors who provide online citizen platforms for property permits. The LMD’s Evaluation Team will act as the administrative agent, gathering and reviewing responses, and will participate in discussions pursuant to this Request for Information (RFI).

Lane County’s intent in re-issuing this RFI is to determine whether purchasing a citizen platform for online permit application processing is viable in terms of public convenience, operational efficiencies, and cost savings.

Please note, the questions in this re-issued RFI are different from the RFI previously released November 9, 2021 for this same purpose with responses that were due December 6, 2021. All respondents to the previous RFI are encouraged to respond to this re-issued RFI.

Responses will help determine whether a Request for Proposal will be issued subsequently. The RFI will further aid the County in familiarizing itself with potential providers for these services. If a decision is made to issue an RFP, it is expected to occur within 3-6 months following completion of this RFI. For clarification, this RFI will NOT directly result in an award of contract for services nor the issuance of an RFP.

County reserves the right to retain all responses submitted and to use any ideas in a subsequent RFP.

Background Information

Lane County is a mostly rural county of 4,610 square miles with a geographic expanse that stretches from the Pacific Ocean coast line to the foothills of the Cascade Range. Portland State University 2020 census data shows 382,971 people living in Lane County with approximately 61% living in the Eugene-Springfield metro area, the second largest urban area in Oregon.

The mission of the Land Management Division (LMD) is to balance the protection of natural resources and the built environment, to support a strong, diverse, and sustainable regional economy, and to provide excellent customer service to the entire community.

LMD is responsible for three broad program areas. These are the Building Program, Planning Program, and Code Compliance. In addition, LMD provides information and public assistance with all these services, making customer service a central focus.

RFI Submission From the issue date of this re-issued RFI until the response deadline date, the sole point of contact will be Linda Cook, unless stated otherwise. Queries addressed to other employees of Lane County will be referred to Ms. Cook.

Linda Cook, Principal Analyst Lane County Public Works Email: linda.l.cook@lanecountyor.gov RESPONSE Due Date: February 16, 2022, 8:00 am PST

SUBMISSION VIA Email: linda.l.cook@lanecountyor.gov Key Dates

The key dates below are guidelines during the RFI process and are subject to change.

Date

Description

Jan 25, 2022 RFI posted on the Oregon Buys internet website

Feb 16, 2022 Responses due at 8:00 AM PST

Questions

Please email all questions to Linda Cook at linda.l.cook@lanecountyor.gov RFI Formatting Instruction

a) Type directly into the “RFI Response Section” electronically using Calibri or Arial 11 font in your response.

b) Please be brief, concise, and focused on the question asked.

c) Do not skip questions. If a question is not applicable, please state reason.

d) When finished, copy and paste only the RFI Response Section into a separate Word document and save the electronic file, entitled as: LC RFI_2 – LMD Citizen Platform.

f) Please email the electronic MS Word copy by the due date of February 16, 2022 via email to: linda.l.cook@lanecountyor.gov. Please DO NOT send a PDF file. Email submissions will be confirmed received within one business day.

Current Permit Processing Overview

Link to Lane County LMD site:

https://lanecounty.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=3585881&pageId=4184653

Current Permit Issues:

The permit application process for Lane County Oregon is complicated. The State of Oregon and other jurisdictions have statutes, laws, ordinances, restrictions, and other forms of land use regulation for the property parcels within Lane County. Each parcel can be subject to multiple stipulations and requirements for a successful permitting process to occur.

For the average citizen, navigating the complex application process can be daunting. At each stage of the process, a property owner may be subject to requests for more information and/or resolution of issues before the next stage can begin. This process can be confusing, frustrating, and downright maddening.

Lane County currently offers online services to assist applicants. Applicants can currently lookup property information, access permit application forms for land use and for building, track permitting progress, schedule inspections, and pay permit fees online. The LMD website also provides access to FAQs, guides, diagrams, and other detailed information about the permitting process.

In spite of the online accessibility to information and forms, incomplete and inaccurate permit applications are submitted on a regular basis. In addition, questions asked by citizen applicants during in-person visits, email, and phone calls tend to be repetitive, with the answers to these questions being available online and either not read or understood. Citizens are frustrated when issues arise during the permit review process. Many of those issues require more information or additional items. These surprises, after time and money have been invested in the permitting process, are bad for the applicants and for LMD staff.

Citizen Platform Lane County LMD is seeking information about possible solutions to the current permit issues detailed above and captured in the questions below:

· What can be done to provide clearer and easier to understand information to the general public?

· What tools or products can help make the permit application process more understandable and efficient for the average citizen?

· How can LMD cut down on the number of incomplete applications and repetitive questions?

· How can LMD provide a better, more efficient experience for its citizen customers?

Please assist us by filling out and returning the section that follows below.

When finished with the following section, please copy and paste only the RFI Response Section into a separate Word document and save the electronic file, entitled as: LC RFI_2 – LMD Citizen Platform.

Please email the electronic MS Word copy by the due date of February 16, 2022 via email to: linda.l.cook@lanecountyor.gov. Please DO NOT send a PDF file. Email submissions will be confirmed received within one business day.

RFI Response Section

Please help us gain a basic understanding of your company’s solution to providing a Citizen Platform for Property Permits.

A. Firm Information

Company Name:

Address of U.S. Headquarters:

Address of Service Office:

Service Office Phone Number:

RFI Contact Name/Title:

RFI Contact Email:

RFI Contact Phone:

B. Questions

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

1. From a citizen’s perspective, describe how your product guides a member of the public through the permit process. Describe any mapping features the applicant sees or interfaces with. Please limit the use of adjectives such as “easy” or “seamlessly” and instead describe how or why a feature or function would be described that way.

2. Do customers have to log-in/create an account in order to use the software?

3. Does your application use pop-ups or other small graphical displays to convey information? If so, can the information be copied/pasted from the pop-up? Does your system have screen-shot capabilities? Does your product allow documents and receipts to be downloaded as PDFs? Please describe these and other ad hoc record-keeping features end-users may find useful.

Notifications and Alerts

4. Please list and describe all communication capabilities built into your product such as email, cell-phone texting, auto-dialing, VOIP etc., and how they are designed to enhance service delivery and / or operational efficiency. How does your product “communicate” with the applicant that the permit is in a status that requires action from them? Is this a two-way process in that the applicant gets an alert and, in turn, they can access the system to see more information? Describe how County staff is notified that the applicant has updated their information.

Third Party Integration

5. Lane County is using Accela for permit tracking; describe if and how your product interfaces with Accela for displaying permit status to the applicant. When an update happens in either Accela or your product, how long does it take for both systems to display the same information? Is this instantaneous or dependent on nightly uploads / updates?

6. When integrating with third party programs such, as Blue Beam and Adobe Pro, how is version control for submitted documents managed?

7. Lane County uses Esri’s ArcGIS software for mapping and property information (parcels, zoning, etc.,) how does your product integrate with Esri products?

8. Please list all third party applications your product integrates with today as installed at other customer locations.

Large Volume Handling Capacity

9. Lane County Land Management has approximately 50 – 60 permit types between land use, building and sanitation. What is the largest number of permit types you have implemented for a customer? Given Lane County’s volume, how long would it take or you to implement this large number of permit types?

Document Management

10. Does the system enable documents to be uploaded by either the customer or staff? How are the documents managed? What security measures exist to prevent malware or other harmful software from being uploaded?

Reporting

11. What is the process used to create reports. What level of technical training is required? Is programming / coding required? Is this a basic or advanced function?

12. Describe the reporting features available in your product, including data analysis, historical data and statistical reporting.

County Responsibilities

13. From a system administrator’s perspective, describe how and by who your product is configured:

a. to prepare for go-live and;

b. when new regulations go into effect.

What is the resource commitment from Lane County? What level of expertise is required from Lane County staff? Please describe what is involved from Lane County for ongoing system maintenance and new version releases?

14. How does your product or service produce forms and fee schedules? In other words, what is required from the County is terms of supplying templates, excel files or other source data to ensure your product collects mandatory data and the correct fees. How are mandatory data and fee tables maintained and kept current?

Timeline

15. How long does it typically take to fully implement your product, from point of contract execution to go-live status and what are the key milestones along the way? What is the average number of unique electronic application forms that can be built out within this timeframe?

Cost

16. Please provide a cost range that your product might fall into. Please provide a list of the license types and implementation services that would be covered in that cost range. Please include any annual support costs and standard service level agreements.

Workflow Diagram

17. Please provide a workflow diagram depicting resource flows and hand-offs between various roles including dependencies and ownership (i.e., your product, the County’s resource or database, third-party software, etc.).

CONFIDENTIAL

VERSION DATE: january 28, 2004