minfin 11-30-20 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Took over management of technology for Lakewood Municipal Court and have been working with the Court on a technology upgrade on an aggressive timeline. 2021 & Beyond • Mr. Coletta Discussed his long-term plan to transition to Cloud computing, which was advanced by moving to Office 365 last year. The next step is to move all servers to Microsoft Azure with the goal of improving access and reliability and having a more robust infrastructure. This is expected to be a two-year transition. • Upgrade dispatch center technology and financial server (water bills etc). • Digitize and index housing and building documents over two years. This will be contracted out. Mr. Coletta remarked that the surveillance camera technology may be put on pause in 2021 so that the incoming police chief has a chance to weigh in on the strategy and placement of the cameras. There is still money in the budget to add in a few cameras as needed. Councilmembers expressed appreciation for the IT team's work helping to transition to remote meetings and for its other initiatives. In response to a councilmember question, Mr. Coletta discussed the police surveillance camera system in greater detail. The system is widely used by multiple departments such as Fire and Public Works. Public Works uses the cameras to view street conditions for plowing and conditions at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. There are presently 80 cameras on the streets and another 90 on City Buildings. Mr. Coletta credited the investment in the fiber network for the success of this program. Building & Housing Department Building Commissioner Meyers & Assistant Commission Parmalee delivered a presentation that is attached and summarized here. They presented the department's key statistics regarding property maintenance and construction for 2020. Figures varied widely from 2019 due to the disruptions of COVID-19. Certain types of interior inspections were lower in 2020 because staff could not safely enter buildings due to the pandemic. On the other hand, the department experienced an increase in complaints due to so many people being at home. For construction, the overall trend indicates that the same or more property improvements are being made but that the projects are smaller in nature, with lower valuation. Commissioner Meyers & Assistant Commissioner Parmalee discussed trends in plan review. Overall, the department has increased its number of plan reviews. About 25% of plan review is done in-house by a part-time employee. Urban Designer Allison Hennie has also recently become certified to do plan review. All commercial plan review is outsourced. They discussed the department's many adaptations to continue to work safely during the pandemic. All steps in the permit process can now be completed online and some inspections can be done on video calls