Pittsfield Switching to OpenGov for Permitting Software
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city plans to move on from its "clunky" permitting software in the new fiscal year, switching to OpenGov instead.
On Thursday, the Finance Subcommittee supported a $199,269 free cash appropriation for the conversion to a new online permitting software. Chief Information Officer Kevin Zawistowski explained that Permit Eyes, the current governmental software, is no longer meeting Pittsfield's needs.
The nearly $200,000 appropriation is for the software license and implementation. Going forward, the annual cost for OpenGov will be about $83,000; about $66,000 for the next fiscal year, not including building permits.
"We've had significant issues across the board with the functionality of the system, right down to the actual permits that they're attempting to help us with," he said.
"Without going into details with that, we have to find a new system so that our permits can actually be done effectively, and we can kind of restore trust in our permitting process online."
The city is having delays on permits, customer support, and a "lack of ownership and apology" when mistakes are made, Zawistowski reported. Pittsfield currently pays $49,280 annually for the software, which Open Gov is expected to replace after July 1.
Running alongside this effort, the city wants to bring building permitting software under the city umbrella, rather than being countywide under the vendor Pittsfield is moving away from.
Finance Director Matthew Kerwood explained that the city has gone through a procurement process, OpenGov being the lowest bidder, and the vendor has been paid with contingency money "because we needed to get this project moving." He said Permit Eyes is a "clunky" piece of software, and the company has not invested in technology upgrades where it should have.
"This project is already underway. In fact, the majority of the invoices have already been paid, so we'll just have to do invoice maintenance transfers if this is approved. If you don't approve it, we continue to fund it out of the contingency, and I have no more contingency money left for FY 26, which is not a good thing," he said.
"So that's why we're here this evening."
It has always been the idea to use free cash, Kerwood reported, but it was sent to a subcommittee under the previous City Council. Councilor at Large Peter White, who was president at the time, said there was no communication that this needed to be done in a timely fashion, and so, it was sent to subcommittee.
Before the Ordinances and Rules subcommittee is a request to upgrade the ordinance on fee structures for licenses and permits.
"These two things are interlinked, because the idea is to have those new fee structures in place so that it can be exported into the new system that's being implemented now, so that as of when July 1 comes, when we want the new vendor to go live, those new fees are built into the system," Kerwood said.
Zawistowski reported that building inspectors would prefer to use Pittsfield for its permitting if they have a system that is "actually usable."
Councilor at Large Earl Persip III, whose day job uses the same permitting system as Pittsfield, confirmed that it is clunky on the user end, adding, "I don't think it could be any worse."
"I think it does seem like a lot of money when you think about stuff, but just I know software, and I could only imagine how many users are actually using the software, between city employees and then people who are applying for permits," he said.
"… I'm glad we're moving something that's more user-friendly for the staff, and getting permits done faster for people."
The subcommittee spent a couple of hours discussing a request to borrow as much as $15.2 million for the construction of a new administration and laboratory building at the Wastewater Treatment Plant before it was tabled.
Councilors had several questions about the scope of work and project financials. They requested more information and continued the conversation to next month. Persip asked for some value engineering when looking at the proposed design for a building that is not visible from the road.
"Bay windows, really?" he said. "This building could be built at a cheaper rate than this."
Mold, layout issues, rodents, ineffective air conditioning, and insufficient lab space have been cited as conditions that necessitate the project. This means samples have to be sent to external labs, causing delays, while the new lab will allow same-day analysis.
Tags: permitting, software,
