Regional License and Permit Program

The City of Sparks, the City of Reno, the Washoe County Health District, and Washoe County have been cooperatively seeking a new regional license and permit program since April of 2012.  The regional team released, through Washoe County, a Request for Proposal (RFP) in late 2012.  After going through a formal requirements and presentation process, the regional team selected Accela, Inc. in April 2013 and received approval in October 2013 to proceed towards developing a contract with Accela Inc. for the program.

Specific to the City of Sparks, the current license and permit program is Permits Plus.  Permits Plus is an early 1990’s software application which is no longer supported by its parent company (Accela, Inc.).  Permits Plus has significant shortfalls which include no internet or on-line capability and extremely limited mobility access for the City’s field staff.  Additionally, since the program is no longer supported by its parent company, any failures with the program could potentially leave Sparks without an electronic permit database.

Sparks must replace the Permits Plus program and, in doing so, the replacement program must meet the internet and on-line expectations of our customers, while providing robust and effective mobility access for the City’s field staff.  The City of Reno and Washoe County also currently possess outdated or outmoded programs (The exception is the City of Reno’s building, planning and code compliance functions, which use the Accela Automation program.), and share the City’s goal to meet the internet and on-line expectations of their customers.

The City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, the Health District banded together to enable a single platform vision for our citizens, promote ease of use and modernization (and therefore regional economic development), and realize cost savings through consolidated purchasing power.  The jurisdictions created an Executive Committee to provide guidance and oversight during the process to negotiate with Accela, Inc., to agree upon a single contract for the regional license and permit program, and to create other mechanisms as required to enable and support the program.

The outcomes of the Committee’s process resulted in the following:

• An interlocal agreement between the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Health District to govern and implement the regional license and permit program.  Since Washoe County is the contracting agency, the interlocal agreement outlines the responsibilities and obligations of each jurisdiction concerning such matters as budget, payment of contract subscription and implementation costs, and program oversight.
• A contract with Accela, Inc. for the regional license and permit program.  The contract includes a detailed statement of work.  Washoe County will be the contracting agency for the regional license and permit program.
• A commitment by Washoe County to loan the City of Reno sufficient funds to cover the initial project costs, which includes both implementation and first year subscription costs.  Repayment of the loan is covered in the interlocal agreement and also requires approval by the Board of County Commissioners to approve the loans to Reno (separate agenda item following this item).
• A further commitment by Washoe County to perform duties as fiscal manager for all four jurisdictions concerning the regional license and permit program.  As the contracting agency and contract administrator, Washoe County will be responsible to pay the initial project costs and subsequent years’ subscription costs on behalf of the participating agencies for the program.  The County will create a special revenue fund for accounting purposes to support the costs and reimbursements for the program as outlined in the interlocal agreement (creation of the special revenue fund is a separate agenda item following this item).
• A recommendation for the four participating jurisdictions to move forward with a regional technology fee for cost recovery for at least the first year after project implementation.

Interlocal Agreement

An Interlocal Agreement establishes a Regional Business License and Permits Program, with the participating agencies being the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Washoe County Health District (Attachment A).  The scope of the interlocal includes the program creation, fiscal management, term, functions, administration, responsibilities, annual operations and budgeting process, initial and on-going contributions, personnel participation, payments and financing, a process to add new jurisdictions, rights and obligations, and terminations.

Washoe County will be the fiscal manager of program, with leadership and administrative support coming from the Manager’s Office, Technology Services and Comptroller’s.  An Oversight Committee consisting of the County Manger, the Reno City Manager, the Sparks City Manager and the District Health Officer (or their designees) shall administer the business affairs of the program.

Contract and Associated Statement of Work With Accela, Inc.

As noted earlier, Washoe County will be the contracting agency and the contract administrator for the contract with Accela, Inc. for the regional license and permit program.  After negotiations with Accela, Inc., it was determined that the optimum approach for a regional program would be to have one contract with one jurisdiction, rather than separate contracts with each of the four jurisdictions.  At the request of the Executive Committee, Washoe County Technology Services Department agreed to be the project lead, based on its success with large, multi-department and multi-agency software programs.  This, in turn, will lead to Washoe County agreeing to be the contracting agency with Accela, Inc.      

The regional license and permit program will be hosted by Accela, Inc. in their data center (i.e., will be “on the cloud”) and consists of three major modules:  Accela Automation (licensing, land management, public health, and asset management), mobility and citizen access.  The Accela Automation module provides the tools and programs required to manage all license and permits functions and transactions.  The mobility module provides the applications and tools needed for field staff to access the program through off-site hardware (e.g., tablet PCs, smart phones, etc.).  The citizen access module provides the interface and functionality for our citizens to access the program through the internet.

Accela, Inc. will create a regional license and permit program with each of the four jurisdictions housed as a separate tenant within the larger regional database.  This design will facilitate the flow of license and permit information between and among the four jurisdictions.  The regional database will enable the sharing of common customer information between the jurisdictions, and will reduce the need for a customer to enter their information multiple times within the program.  The regional program will be designed to share common license and permit workflows and business processes among the four jurisdictions whenever feasible.  The program will also be designed to start the customer at a common “regional” entry point and then direct the customer seamlessly into the individual jurisdiction’s business process to complete a license or permit transaction.  Finally, the regional program is also scalable, in that other jurisdictions can join in the future to share the common license and permits workflows and business processes.

The total implementation cost, with a 5.5% project contingency component, and first year subscription cost is $ 1,667,444.32, with Sparks’ cost being $448,542.52.  The jurisdiction sharing of the total cost is as follows:

Note:  The contribution amounts include the 5.5% project contingency.

Jurisdiction contribution percentages were determined based upon the number of seats (users) for the Accela Automation and mobility modules, jurisdictional population for the citizen access module, directly allocable implementation costs, and a percentage allocation for the regional implementation costs.

Note:  County includes Health District, Assessor’s Office and Treasurer’s Office (common users)

After the first year, the contract provides for annual subscription costs paid to Accela, Inc. for use of their data center and the common regional license and permit program.  The current total annual subscription cost for years two through three is $ 281,964.73 with Sparks’ initial annual licensing fee being $37,030.87.  At the end of year 3, there will be a user “true-up” count and the maintenance costs will be recalculated.  At the start of year six, subscription costs will go up 3% as per the Accela contract.  The jurisdiction sharing of the annual years two through three subscription cost is as follows:

Over time but after year three, the subscription cost may be adjusted based on changes to a jurisdiction’s number of seats in a module, changes in population percentages, and/or additional seats as the result of other jurisdictions joining the regional license and permit program.

The contract includes a Statement of Work which includes the following key components:

• Outlines the responsibilities of Accela, Inc. and each of the four jurisdictions during project implementation;
• Establishes work plans, documentation requirements, staff assignments, and other components essential to complete all actions and steps necessary to bring the program “on-line” within the 16 month time frame stipulated in the contract; and,
• Relies heavily on project staff from all four jurisdictions to perform the majority of the work and tasks to actually re-engineer updated processes and workflows, to transfer the data into the new program, to create the interfaces for staff and customers to access the program, and to develop the reports and forms required from the program (e.g., printed invoices).

The reliance on project staff to perform the majority of the work outlined in the last bullet above achieves a substantial savings for all jurisdictions with implementation costs.

Technology Fee

The Executive Committee arranged meetings with our region’s license and permits customers to discuss the potential regional technology fee. These customers included:

• Builders Association of Northern Nevada   
• Associated General Contractors
• The Chamber      
• All jurisdictions’ business license customers

Customer reaction to the potential fee was positive overall, provided that any fee was specifically identified and “set aside” for the regional license and permit program.  The customers were comfortable with the proposed fee amounts (4% for permits, $4 for annual business licenses, and $2 for quarterly business licenses).  The consensus from the customers was to start the fee only when the program “went live” (i.e., 16 months after contract signing) and to consider ending the fee when all project implementation costs are recovered (estimated to be around five years after fee collection starts).

Staff now seeks direction to continue to pursue a technology fee after “go live” of the platform, with the above percentage and dollar parameters.

1. The Council may approve the City of Sparks’ participation in an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement Establishing the Regional Business License and Permits Program the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Washoe County Health District, in an amount not to exceed $448,542.52 for the initial system investment including an 5.5% funding for project changes; authorize the initial annual operational licensing fee of $37,030.87; and direction to staff to return prior to the go-live date with a regional technology fee to recover portions of the project costs as presented by staff.

2. The Council may not approve the City of Sparks’ participation in an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement Establishing the Regional Business License and Permits Program the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Washoe County Health District, in an amount not to exceed $448,542.52 for the initial system investment including an 5.5% funding for project changes; authorize the initial annual operational licensing fee of $37,030.87; and direction to staff to return prior to the go-live date with a regional technology fee to recover portions of the project costs as presented by staff.

3. The Council may not approve the City of Sparks’ participation in an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement Establishing the Regional Business License and Permits Program the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Washoe County Health District, in an amount not to exceed $448,542.52 for the initial system investment including an 5.5% funding for project changes; authorize the initial annual operational licensing fee of $37,030.87; and direction to staff to return prior to the go-live date with a regional technology fee to recover portions of the project costs as presented by staff and provide other direction to the City Manager.

“I move the Council may approve the City of Sparks’ participation in an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement Establishing the Regional Business License and Permits Program the City of Sparks, the City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Washoe County Health District, in an amount not to $448,542.52 for the initial system investment including an 5.5% funding for project changes; authorize the initial annual operational licensing fee of $37,030.87; and direction to staff to return prior to the go-live date with a regional technology fee to recover portions of the project costs as presented by staff.”