On June 23^rd, 2014 the Sparks City Council approved  the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement establishing the Regional Business License and Permits Program for the City of Sparks, City of Reno, Washoe County, and the Washoe County Health District.   In the same action, the Council also approved the selection of Accela, Inc. as the vendor for the Program.  The vision for the program is to enable a single platform with on-line capabilities and promote ease of use for our customer.   Participation by the regional partners enhances and expands the purpose and usefulness of the platform as a one-stop shop for customers to interact with their government.

The regional project team from the Cities of Sparks and Reno, Washoe County and Washoe County Health District met with three vendors to demonstrate their payment processing software.  The Statement of Work for the implementation of the Accela Program states the regional partners will standardize and select the same payment processor.  It was determined that Official Payments Corporation, OPC, would best fit the needs for processing on-line payments in the Accela platform.  OPC is able to fulfill Accela system requirements and provide the functionality to collect, disburse and report funds to meet the needs of the various agencies.

The City of Sparks, City of Reno, Washoe County, and Washoe County Health District have been working cooperatively since April 2012 seeking a new regional business license and permits software solution to enhance on-line services to customers.  Official Payments Corporation, OPC, has been selected by the regional project team to compliment the business license and permit services that will be launched in August 2016.

Currently, customers do not have the opportunity to pay for their services on-line.   Customers must come to City Hall to make payments using a credit card.  The credit card fees year to date for business license, fund 1101, are $4,974.38 and permit, fund 2201, are $124,130.14.  Total fees will vary according to the number and volume of transactions.  Payment processing fees are likely to increase as more customers utilize credit, debit, and echeck payments on-line. It is anticipated that fees will exceed the $50,000 threshold required for Council approval.

The City Council may choose to not approve the contract with Official Payments Corporation and provide further direction to staff.

I move to approve the contract with Official Payments Corporation for payment processing services in the Accela regional business license and permit platform.