TREASURE ISLAND — If any good came out of dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, the city has decided to launch itself into the age of virtual town halls and online payments for services.
“If the pandemic showed us anything, it’s there are a number of avenues where we are going to have to rethink how we do our business, and a lot of it is for the good,” Assistant Finance Director Mike Munger recently told city commissioners.
“We noticed there were a lot of things we could start moving online, with the biggest one being our parking permits.”
The biggest hurdle to processing a credit card payment was having to phone the company by hand, he noted. “That’s just a little outdated for the internet age. We started looking for online payment options and Paymentus jumped out as the one that meets all our needs, right out of the box,” Munger said.
“Over the past few years we have been challenged to implement a virtual town hall, where the public can conduct business with the city anywhere they have an internet connection. One of the most obvious enhancements needed is an online payment solution.”
He said the city currently cannot take online payments for any of the routine purchases such as the resident parking pass, special trash pickups and for lien services.
“Implementing this online payment solution will provide another innovative level of customer service,” Munger said. “It will also minimize staff interaction with these payments, which reduces the chances of human error.”
He noted the system can generate invoices, allow for PayPal payment and accept e-checks, as well as process credit cards.
During a test scenario, the 2021 resident parking passes had an option to submit an application online with a follow-up call from staff once reviewed and approved. Since then, about 13% of passes sold this year were sold using this method.
The ability for someone to pay their bill online will greatly reduce or eliminate the amount of time a staffer needs to process payments, Munger told commissioners. For example, staff processes between 300-400 lien search requests each fiscal year. Since the requests initially come into the Finance Department for payment, followed by official review by Code Compliance, each request requires in interaction by two city departments.
The data from last fiscal year and projecting trends for this year indicates that staff processes about 200 special garbage pickups during each year. Like the lien searches, both the Finance and Public Works departments must interact with each resident for each request, “making for a less-than-ideal user experience,” he noted.
“With the forced adaptation to more online processes as a result of COVID restrictions, both the public and city staff have more fully embraced ways to provide the same services, in more innovative and user-friendly ways. These changes also helped highlight areas where there are still areas for improvement to provide even better service to our residents and customers,” he said.
Paymentus’ fees are in line with what the city expects to pay in credit card fees for transactions made in-person at City Hall, Munger advised commissioners. There is $71,400 budgeted citywide in all of the operating and enterprise funds for credit card processing fees. Because the fees are commensurate with those of credit card companies, staff does not anticipate any significant budgetary impact.
Commissioners unanimously approved staff’s request to approve a five-year master services agreement with Paymentus to provide processing and collection of online payments.
City Attorney Jennifer Cowan told commissioners staff could not have had any better timing. The state Legislature passed a bill in its recent session that demands local governments take payments online, “so you are actually ahead of the curve on this,” she said.
City contracts with second firm to provide Building Department services
In order to address persistent criticism and complaints from the public and developers, as well as city commissioners, staff contracted with a second building services firm to add additional support staff to provide permits, inspection and plans review.
In June 2020 M.T. Causley was chosen to provide support staff for Building Department services, chiefly acting in the role of building official, Munger told commissioners.
Munger recently presented commissioners with the first amendment to the second year of a 5-year contract with M.T. Causley. Changes requested by the city are designed to clarify work assignments for associates working under contract. It requires more detailed backup for invoices, summarizing exactly what projects are being worked on.
“We expanded regular hours to start at 7 a.m., rather than 8 a.m., in line with a lot of the building activity. We meet with the project manager once a month for a status update, a customer service monthly check-in meeting,” he added.
Mayor Tyler Payne said “it’s been a rough year, and we are in a rough spot with the building department. I know they’re working, but they need all the help they can get, so we definitely need to keep a careful eye on this and make sure it’s to the most benefit to the city.”
City commissioners also approved staff’s request to hire Joe Payne Inc. to provide ancillary Building Department services.
“While it was a service-priced in our agreement with them, even M.T. Causley itself did not have any permit technicians on-staff at the time to make available to us,” Munger said. “Since the permit techs are the frontline in the city’s Building Department, extended vacancies and absences can quickly create delays and an inevitable backlog.”
Staff decided to contract with Joe Payne Inc. to provide a full-time permit tech and a part-time building inspector and plans examiner to address the backlog of permitting activity. Joe Payne Inc. estimated the cost of providing ancillary Building Department services will be $75,600 for 2021.
“Executing the contract will give the city another tool to address the most pressing issue in the building department by doubling the number of firms that we have for these services,” the assistant finance director said.