With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020, this resulted in modified City Hall services that transitioned from appointment based services to full-closure of the public services counters. This pandemic prompted further assessment of an alternative service delivery model to address increasing construction activities for both electronic plan review and on-line permitting service needs. The goal is to improve and streamline remote and web-based access for development service customers. The current plan check and permitting process continues to be very limited with only a partial digital/ partial manual process which requires Planning, Building, Engineering, Water, and Environmental Divisions to collectively generate procedures to maintain an acceptable level of service. Coordination with the City’s Information Technology (IT) and Finance Departments was also required to ensure the proposed workflow and new systems integrate with the existing permitting software, and the City’s payment processor.  

The priorities are to streamline delivery of on-line application, plan review, permitting, automate workflow, introduce public portal capabilities, and other modern collaboration technology. The City’s IT Department along with adjacent Orange County cities staff, provided professional recommendations to solicit Request for Proposals (RFP) from vendors who  offered a customized solution to meet specific requirements outlined by the City, within restricted time and budget limitations.

The Community and Economic Development Department launched an extensive RFP process to seek out an all-inclusive integrated enterprise system which originally included both electronic plan review and on-line permitting services.  Seven (7) prospective firms were invited, and three (3) proposers’ submitted formal responses.  A comprehensive selection panel consisting of six (6) key members from Planning, Building, Engineering, Permit Center, Water, and IT, rated the proposals on the basis of qualifications, work plan, references, oral interviews, and program demonstrations without considering cost. 

Based on the evaluation results, staff determined two (2) separate technical expertise offered by the firms.  E-PlanSoft, Inc. was rated the highest with a solution focused on electronic plan review, with the suggestion of integration with the current permitting system.  The second highest, was Civos, Inc. with a solution focused specifically on full-system integration and upgrade from the City’s current permit software (PermitCity), with the suggestion to integrate with the future 3^rd party plan review system.  

With consideration of time, budget, and future needs, staff is recommending contracts with two of the three firms.  Award of contract to e-PlanSoft, Inc. for electronic plan review, and award of contract to Civos, Inc. for on-line permitting. The following is a summary of the ratings:

CONCLUSION

In summary, e-PlanSoft, Inc. is an Irvine based company with over 10+ years of experience with a complete cloud-based solution that includes a customer public portal. The applications are deployed in Amazon Cloud, making the system fully web-based, which requires no additional software installation. Most recently, samples of experience include similar solutions by the City of Irvine and the City of Anaheim for Building, Planning, Public Works, and Fire.

Civos, Inc. is a Santa Barbara based company with over 17+ years of experience implementing custom permitting software for both Building and Engineering Divisions. As the current provider of the City’s existing permitting software, PermitCity, customers, shall have a seamless transition to continue with City projects that were previously submitted through the existing system.

City references for both firms confirmed positive results, and excellent customer service and response time from the development community, who can now submit applications on-line 24/7, as well as provide convenience and flexibility to check the status of their permits at any time. The proposed solutions will save travel time, printing and scanning costs, and improve efficiency with all parties involved with real-time updates.

For e-PlanSoft Inc. the contract will be established for a five (5) year period in the not-to-exceed amount of $100,000, per year. Deployment of the new plan review system will be completed in approximately 3-6 months.  Funding will be provided by a combination of the City’s Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant funds and by the General Fund; funding for this solution is included in the Building & Safety Division’s operational budget.

For Civos, Inc. the contract will be established for a five (5) year period in the not-to-exceed amount of $100,000, one-time cost. Deployment of the full-system upgrade and new permitting system will be completed in approximately 6-8 months.  Funding will be provided by the City’s LEAP grant funds, and an annual maintenance cost of $25,000 is included in the Building & Safety Division’s operational budget.

It is recommended that the City Council:

• Award a contract for electronic plan review services to: 1) ePlan Soft, Inc., in the not-to-exceed amount of $100,000 per year, for a total performance period of five (5) years.

• Award a contract for on-line permitting services to 2) Civos, Inc., in the not-to-exceed amount of $100,000, one-time cost, for a total performance period of five (5) years.

• Authorize the City Manager, or his designees to execute the agreement, and make minor modifications as appropriate thereto, on behalf of the City; and

• Authorize the City Manager, or his designees to exercise option year terms and sign the option year amendments.

By: Alana Cheng, Administrative Officer