That the City Council:
A.  Authorize the City Manager to execute a Service Agreement ("Agreement") with Tyler Technologies, Inc. ("Tyler") for the software licensing, implementation, maintenance, and hosting of a Land Management System (LMS) in an amount not to exceed $736,874 over three years; and,

B.  Authorize the City Manager to execute a Professional Services Agreement with Park Consulting Group (PCG) for project management consulting services relating to the acquisition and configuration of an LMS in an amount not to exceed $693,000.

In January 2021, staff in the Community and Economic Development Department released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a Land Management System (LMS). The purpose of the proposed procurement of an LMS is to address a Council goal of having staff build a modern permitting system that would meet the current and future permitting and project processing needs for the City. While this project has been a long-standing goal for the City, the need for a contemporary, fully integrated permitting system became apparent during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when online, remotely accessible systems to submit, process and track permits and plans electronically became critical.

The Department currently utilizes a manual, mainly paper based process to track permits and project plans, which has been relatively unchanged for the past 30 years. This system is labor-intensive, inefficient and has been known to result in processing delays as permits and plans work through multiple divisions and departments for review and processing. Due to office shut-downs and remote work during the pandemic, staff developed a temporary, multi-step process that allowed for the continuation of services with limited interruptions, but it was also slow, complicated and not-user friendly for customers, which resulted in some delays in permit review and plan checks. In addition, recent proposed State legislation has been considered to move cities towards providing on-line permitting systems to simplify and reduce project processing times and cost. This is currently required for solar permits and will be required in 2024 for residential developments. To help resolve these challenges and streamline the City's existing permitting process, staff began evaluating the feasibility of upgrading the City's manual permitting system. The City Council supported this effort by directing staff in the City's FY2021-22 and FY2022-23 Goals and Objectives to “Identify and select a vendor for a new LMS to help expedite the review of approved projects through the permitting process.”
 
The Department received proposals from 10 firms in response to the RFP: Citizenserve, CityView, ePlanSoft, ICC, Tyler, Accela, Civos, MainStar, OpenGov and Timmons. The RFP Selection Committee, which consisted of the City's Building Official, Planning Manager, and Code Enforcement Manager, reviewed each proposal and selected Tyler, Accela, OpenGov and Timmons to continue in the evaluation process with software demonstrations. To assist staff with the selection process, the Department retained the services of Park Consulting Group (PCG) to provide consulting services for LMS procurement. PCG was selected based upon its record of accomplishment with other jurisdictions that similarily evaluated and procured LMS systems. PCG helped guide those agencies through the evaluation, procurement, development and implementation process. As part of its effort, PCG reviewed the vendor proposals and validated Department staff's review/selection process, concurring with staff’s rankings of the proposal.

At the end of the evaluation process, the evaluation team determined that Tyler presented the best overall proposal. Tyler is an experienced LMS vendor and currently provides LMS systems for almost 700 cities nationwide, and almost 100 cities in California. Tyler proposed an LMS that would allow staff to process plans electronically and integrate the plan check process across multiple divisions and departments. In addition, the Tyler LMS includes functions to track the processing of discretionary development applications for Planning Commission and City Council review.  For both discretionary and non-discretionary plan reviews, the Tyler LMS will provide tools for efficient tracking and communication with applicants, allowing customers to track and modify their plans electronically. Based on the rankings, staff asked Tyler to provide its best and final pricing and had PCG review the offer to ensure that it satisfied the City's requirements. 

The final pricing from Tyler Technologies proposed a system cost of $736,874 over three years. This amount includes one time fees of $376,550 for the initial professional services to build the LMS and associated travel expenses for the first year; a first year software licensing fee of $97,408 and service fee of $2,700; and annual fee of $97,408 for the software licensing and $32,700 for service fees in each of the next two years of the agreement:
 

Year	One Time Fees		Recurring Fees		Total
	Professional Services	Travel Expenses	Software	Annual Service Fee
1	$365,150	$20,400	$97,408	$2,700	$476,658
2			$97,408	$32,700	$130,108
3			$97,408	$32,700	$130,108
Total	$376,550		$360,324		$736,874

In addition to the agreement with Tyler to license, develop and implement the LMS, staff is also requesting the City Council approve and authorize the continued services of PCG for project management related to the LMS over an 18-month period. After interviewing a number of cities that implemented LMS systems, it became apparent that having an experienced project management support team is crucial to the success of an LMS system build due to the complexity of the system database needs, and the time necessary to ensure that the system architecture is designed properly and that the data migration and upload is done properly and validated with testing. The development of an LMS is a very technical, labor-intensive and time-consuming process and Department staff do not have the expertise or experience to manage a project of this complexity without external support. Therefore, staff is recommending the retention of PCG's services for these purposes.

Department staff have been found PCG to be very capable during the procurement phase of the LMS project and have received positive references from other cities that have utilized PCG's services in LMS implementation projects in their organizations. PCG proposes to provide full LMS project management services to the City in an amount not to exceed $693,000 over 18 months, which is the anticipated timeframe to complete the LMS system acquisition, configuration and implementation.

The first year costs of $476,658 for the proposed Tyler Agreement will be funded through Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant and SB 2 grant proceeds that the City has received from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). These grant funds must be spent no later than December 2023, and were applied for and received specifically to cover costs associated with the update of the City’s Housing Element and the purchase and implementation of the LMS. The annual software licensing and service fee of $130,108 for each of the second and third years will be an ongoing cost and included in future Department budget requests.

The proposed PCG project management contract of $693,000 will be paid for through grant funding secured as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), and that were allocated specifically for government services for cybersecurity modernization. Staff has verified that the consulting services that PCG will provide to help implement the new proposed LMS system is an eligible expense under this ARPA category.

This proposed action achieves the following element of the La Habra General Plan:

Goal ED 6 Development Assistance. Proactive administration, review, and approval of existing property improvements and prospective development projects.
       
This proposed action achieves the following element of the FY2022-23 Goals and Objectives:

Goal 5: Development Activity and Business Assistance
Objective E: Continue to evaluate and improve the City’s development review process and continue to foster a “business friendly” environment with all City departments.
Objective G: Identify and select a vendor for a new Land management System (LMS) to help expedite the review of approved projects through the permitting process.