LAKEPORT >> Lake County’s Community Development Department will seek approval to upgrade its outdated permitting software system at the Board of Supervisors regular meeting on Tuesday.
According to Director Rick Coel, the current Permits Plus software — which was installed in 1999 — is experiencing several performance issues, can’t be updated and isn’t compatible with Windows 10. Most importantly, it cannot handle the influx of permits coming in from Valley Fire rebuilders.
“Our system is getting bogged down which caused an increase in staff time needed to complete basic tasks,” Coel said in a memo to the BOS. “To make matters worse, Permits Plus will not function under Windows 10, which the county will soon be upgrading to.”
The proposed update would come from Accela and its startup cost would be $189,076. Ultimately, it was chosen out of three companies for its low costs and user-friendly interface that features online scheduling, simple permit acquisition, and mobile accessibility for the system.
However, the cost for transferring Planning Division records over into the new system wasn’t included in the previously listed number. The work for that was estimated at $13,000 and will need to be done before the county upgrades to Windows 10 because that database isn’t compatible with that operating system. Coel recommended that the data transfer be done next fiscal year to minimize initial cost.
“The new Accela system will improve Department efficiency and allow us to better serve the public…” Coel wrote.
