County seeks digital permitting, planning manager promotion and to bridge GIS vacancy

Planning staff asked the Board to approve creating a planning manager position and promoting the current Planner 3 to fill the role effective July 1, a personnel move the board approved by voice at the workshop.

Staff said they are preparing an RFP for permitting and application software to allow online submittal, workflow automation and integration across planning and public-works permit workflows. The department cited an approximate $50,000 cost to migrate data and build the initial workflow and signaled a possible annual license or hosting cost that could amount to another $50,000; dividing those costs across the application volume would raise per-application fees if needed.

The county also discussed a GIS and assessor staffing gap arising from a recent departure in GIS support. The surveyor and assessor proposed a short-term bridge (using an OSU student intern or internal staff with GIS skills) and cross-training to cover core functions while recruiting for a long-term solution: the assessor flagged new legislative workload tied to forest/farm property rules that will require sustained assessor staff time this year.

Commissioners encouraged collaboration across departments to avoid buying multiple, incompatible systems and asked staff to coordinate an interdepartmental technology meeting as part of the RFP process.