HomeMy WebLinkAboutD-6 Agreement with HDL Software to convert and intergate 3/0/6,
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CONSENT CALENDAR
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: ANN GRAF GAYNOR, INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER
VIA: RICK COLE, CITY MANAGER
DATE: MARCH 18, 2002
SUBJECT: AGREEMENT WITH HDL SOFTWARE TO CONVERT AND INTEGRATE
ANTIQUATED DATABASE INFORMATION INTO EXISTING HDL SOFTWARE
SYSTEMS
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council approve the attached proposal; per municipal code
2-523 (a) software purchase and 2-523 (c), No Competitive Market; Total software purchase
and conversion amount not to exceed $30,000; and authorize the City Manager to execute
the proposal and contract amendment.
BACKGROUND
The Community Development department uses a series of databases in a format that is
antiquated and has become a hindrance when attempting to upgrade hardware and current
versions of operating system software. In order to salvage all this valuable data and create a
system that will integrate into our existing building permits and land management systems,
with the addition of a code enforcement module, these databases must be converted into the
existing systems and some modifications must be done. The current software vendor of these
systems, HDL, was contacted to provide a solution that will integrate smoothly.
FISCAL IMPACT
This project is budgeted for in the 2001-2002 CIP.
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PROPOSAL TO THE CITY OF AZUSA
FOR
ADDITIONAL BUSINESS LICENSE, LAND MANAGEMENT AND CODE
ENFORCEMENT SERVICES
The Community Development Depaihnent of the City of Azusa uses a series of Q&A databases
to track and administer the ownership/details of real property, the issuance and collection of civil
penalties, citizen complaints, registration and inspections of residential rental property, business
license enforcement and historical building permit data. The Department wishes to move the
data from Q&A to a newer technology.
The Q&A databases are described as follows:
"Allprops" Used to track ownership and details of real property
"Adfine" Used to track ownership and collection of civil penalties
"Activity" Used to track citizen complaints, rental inspections
"Rent 1" Used to track registration of residential rental properties
"Blcontact" Used to track business license enforcement caseload
"Real" Used to track real property records report activity
"Building/Buildit" Historical data used to track building permits issued
The HdL Companies currently provide Sales Tax, Property Tax, Business License and Building
Permit services to the City of Azusa. The Q&A data sets contain data that could be tracked and
managed using existing HdL software systems with some modification to the systems. HdL
proposes to convert the data as described below.
All props. This database is used to track ownership and details of real property. This data can
be contained in the HdL Land Management database, which currently sits behind HdL Permits
and HdL Code Enforcement. The Land Management database imports property data from HdL
Property tax. The work to be performed to move this database to HdL and associated costs are
as follows:
The HdL Companies Page#1
Proposal to City of Azusa September 7,2001
Description Cost Comments
Design Modification None
Data Conversion 1,000 Comparison of databases
Reports 300 3 City specific reports/letters
Training Combined
Adfine. This database is used to track issuance and collection of Civil Penalties. This data can
be contained in the HdL Code Enforcement module, but modifications will be required. The
Land Management database sits behind Code Enforcement so that when an address or parcel
number is entered from Code Enforcement, information about the property is entered into the
Code Enforcement record. Although many code enforcement cases are resolved prior to the
assessment of a civil penalty, many are not. Modifications to the current Code Enforcement
program will allow the City to track citations, assess penalties to selected cases, record payments
and review unpaid penalties to determine the appropriate method of collection. The City uses a
variety of methods of collection including dunning letters, collection agency, Franchise Tax
Board filings, small claims court and filing liens against real property.
Description Cost Comments
Design Modification 10,000
Data Conversion 2,000 5233 records
Reports 1,600 16 City specific reports/letters
Training Combined
Activity. This database is used to track citizen complaints, rental inspections, public nuisance
action and follow up of residential rental property registration. This data can be tracked through
HdL Code Enforcement. Prior to conversion, this database needs to be reviewed by the City
staff to clean up the data and to avoid duplication. Some of this data may be contained in other
Q&A databases.
Description Cost Comments
Design Modification None
Data Conversion 3,000 8100 records
Reports No City specific reports
Training Combined
The HdL Companies Page#2
Proposal to City of Azusa September 7,2001
Rentl. This database is used to track registration of residential rental properties. The Azusa
Municipal Code provides generally that registration is required prior to the rental, lease,
occupancy or reoccupancy of any dwelling unit. It further provides for the annual inspection of
each residential rental property. Rental registration certificates expire one year from the date of
issuance or upon change of property ownership. Our recommendation is to convert this database
to the HdL Business License system. If the City does not wish to combine this data with the
existing business licenses, we recommend a separate HdL Business License system to manage
this data. The Business License system can track renewals, fees and payments, send out notices,
track late reporting, assess penalties and track inspections.
Description Cost Comments
Business License User Fee 3,000
Data Conversion 1,000 1,148 records
Reports None 8 City specific reports —Included in
user fee
Training Combined
Blcntact. This database is used to track business license enforcement caseload. This data can be
tracked in either the HdL Business License system or the HdL Code Enforcement system.
Versions 2 and 3 of the Business License system provide for the assignment of inspectors to
individual business license records and also inspection statuses. The Business License Field
Enforcement Officer can flag license records that have been inspected by him and generate
reports of the license enforcement activity. We believe that the Business License System should
be used for the enforcement of existing license records whether expired or in violation. This
avoids the duplication of effort. For those businesses that are not licensed, we believe that a
code enforcement case should be opened to track the enforcement and citation activity.
This data should be reviewed by City staff prior to conversion. We believe the converted data
should be placed in the Code Enforcement database. Insertion into the Business License
database would be very time consuming and therefore very costly.
The HdL Companies Page#3
Proposal to City of Azusa September 7,2001
Description Cost Comments
Design modification None
Data Conversion 3,000 4,680 records
Reports None 1 City specific reports
Training Combined
Building/Buildit. This database was used to track historical building permit data. This database
is not particularly well constructed. Permit numbers are in the same data field with
miscellaneous text. It will be expensive to parse the data. Our recommendation is to keep the
database in its current form. It can be accessed easily by City staff using Microsoft Excel if the
need arises. We recommend no conversion.
However, if the City wishes to clean up the database and parse the data, it may be possible to
convert the data into the Permit system. The data to be converted would be that data that appears
in the Permit Header. No detail information would be converted. If the City chooses this option,
HdL will provide a list of the fields that will be converted.
Description Cost Comments
Design modification None
Data Conversion 2,500 3,600 records
Reports None None
Training Combined
Data Extraction. The City has asked that HdL extract the data from each of the databases. We
have no way to determine how much time it will take. Our best guess is four to six hours. We
propose to perform this work at $160 per hour.
Report Writer. HdL currently uses Crystal Reports as the report writer for the Permits and
Code Enforcement Systems. Crystal Reports will also be used for Business License Version 3.
If the City wishes to modify reports/letters/forms created by HdL or create new
reports/letters/forms, it must have a copy of Crystal Reports. The program may be purchased by
the City "off the shelf' or through HdL. HdL offers this program in two ways, Crystal Reports
The HdL Companies Page#4
Proposal to City of Azusa September 7,2001
8.5 Professional, which supports SQL server at $400 per copy, or Crystal Reports 8.5 Standard,
which does not support SQL server at$200 per copy.
Cost Summary. Summary of costs are as follows:
Description Cost Comments
Design modification 10,000 Code Enforcement
Business License User Fee 3,000 Residential Rental Properties
Data Conversion 10,000
Reports 1,900
Training 1,200 1 day, 6 users
Data Extraction Estimate 960 $160 per hour
Total 27,060
Optional data conversion 2,500 For historical permits
Total with Option 29,560
The only additional license fees included relate to the establishment of a separate system to track
residential rental properties if the City does not wish to include them in the existing Business
License system.
The data conversion is a very large component of the total cost. The City may wish to review the
number of records to be converted in an effort to reduce this portion of the cost.
Time Line.
The design modification of the Code Enforcement will take approximately 30 days for the
general design, 30 days for programming, and 30 days for testing and corrections. We estimate
90 days to complete this portion of the work.
Data conversion of the "Allprops" can be begin immediately. The process should take about 3
weeks to convert and verify the data.
"Adfine", "Activity", and "Blcntact" are dependent upon completion of the design modification
of the Code Enforcement module.
The HdL Companies Page#5
Proposal to City of Azusa September 7,2001
If "Rentl" is converted into Business License, the work can begin immediately. The process
should take about 30 days to convert the data, establish fees and create reports.
Data conversion of Building/Buildit is outside the scope of this time line since it is dependent
upon the City cleanup of the data.
We estimate 120 days for the total project.
Network and Hardware Specifications.
The software will be installed on the City's on hardware supplied by the City. The software is a
Windows application requiring Microsoft Windows 95/98, Windows NT or 2000.
Network Requirements:
The City will allow HdL to run a net test software program on their network that will benchmark
the City's network performance. This test will be run two times, first, prior to execution of a
contract and second, prior to preinstall of the system.
If either of these tests return with unacceptable results, the processing will stop until the City is
able to raise the performance of its network to an acceptable level.
In a network environment, the server must be a dedicated server (not peer to peer), running
Novell Netware or Microsoft Windows NT/2000.
Example of Network Server Specifications:
Required
CPU Pentium Class Processor
Hard Disk Space 300 MB
Operating System Netware, Windows NT (4 or higher)
The above requirements are for a stand-alone server dedicated to HdL's Software Systems. If
the network server is providing additional services or hosting other applications the requirements
will increase.
The HdL Companies Page#6 •
Proposal to City of Azusa September 7,2001
Hardware Requirements:
Workstations should be, at a minimum, a PC Pentium 300 with 64 MB of memory and a SVGA
monitor. The amount of free space required on the hard drive is dependent on the number of
activity records, and the extent of the history maintained, but will range typically from 100 MB
for a small City and up to 300 MB for an average City.
The program resides in the workstation and the database resides on a dedicated file server. The
program can support Access relational database or SQL server. The prices quoted in this
proposal are for the Access databases. A "run-time" version of Access is included with the HdL
Software programs. However, the City should acquire at least one copy of Access to be used for
database maintenance.
Example of hardware specifications:
The recommendations below are based on user feedback regarding performance levels.
Minimum Recommended
CPU Pentium 300Mhz 400Mhz or better
Memory 64 MB Ram 128 MB Ram
Video 800x600 res capable 1024x768,16 bit color
The software is designed to work with a laser printer. An HP5 or comparable is recommended.
Example of printer specifications:
Each make and model of printer has different drivers and therefore have slightly different results
when printing. The following list reflects printers used by HdL and its current clients. Reports
are designed to work with these printers.
HP Laserjet 5 Series HP Laserjet 4050 Series
HP Laserjet 6 Series HP Laserjet 8000 Series
HP Laserjet 4000 Series
The HdL Companies Page#7