LTC 333-2016 Tyler Permitting Project Update m MIAMIBEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # 333-2016 LETTE r TO COMMISSION
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TO: Mayor Philip Levine and Members o the City Co mission
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: August 10, 2016
SUBJECT: Tyler Permitting Project Update
The purpose of this Letter to Commission (LTC) is to provide an update regarding changes to
the Permits Plus historical search system after the launch of the City's new permitting and
licensing system, known as Energov. The last LTC providing an update of the project was
provided April, 2016.
Permits Plus, the prior permitting system replaced on May 2, 2016, had a website that allowed
customers the ability to perform their own online historical archive searches. This website was
commonly known as the Velocity Hall website. Velocity Hall reflected information that was
specific and particular to issues that were handled by the Building Department and by the Code
Department. The information was specific to the selected folio number or address only.
If the researched property was located within a multi-family property, such as a condominium,
there may have been outstanding building violations or liens attached to the commonly owned
areas. These areas, such as lobbies, hallways, elevators, pools, etc., may have had separate
violations and/or liens and could be found under the folio numbers for that separate property.
Velocity Hall users were directed to contact the Utility Billing Division and Code Compliance for
more information about Liens and Code Violations.
Although the tool was very useful to its users, the information it held started to become obsolete
when the new system, Energov, was implemented in May 2016. The information accessible by
Velocity Hall was "frozen" as no further changes were made in Permits Plus after the end of
April 2016. Some users of Velocity Hall erroneously continued to assume that the information in
the searches was up-to-date and this created confusion since the accurate information was now
in Energov. As time passed, the content "frozen in time" became more obsolete and the
amounts of complaints about its accuracy increased.
To eliminate the possibility of mistakenly using outdated information as current information, the
City will discontinue access to Velocity Hall. In its place, the City will post a statement with the
most efficient way to obtain the correct information being sought. The statement will read as
follows:
The City of Miami Beach understands that you, our customer, relied on Velocity Hall to conduct
historical searches. Velocity Hall is part of the permitting program that has been replaced. The
records in Velocity Hall became outdated at the end of April 2016, as we transferred to the new
system. Since historical research is a very important function, the City has set up the following
options to assist you with your tasks:
• To search for permits, visit our Citizen Access Portal page at
http://www.miamibeachcap.com, and click on the Search button under the Permits tab.
Once in this section, you can search by Address or Permit number.
• To search for inspections scheduled before May 2"d, 2016, you may come to City Hall
and make your request at the Building Department counter. Information on inspections
scheduled on or after May 2nd, 2016 is available at http://www.miamibeachcap.com when
searching by address or permit number.
• To search for code cases opened before May 2"d, 2016, you may come to City Hall and
make your request at the respective department's counter. To search for code cases
opened on or after May 2"d, 2016, visit our Citizen Access Portal page at
http://www.miamibeachcap.com, and click on the Search button under the Code tab.
Once in this section, you can search by Address or Code Case number.
• You may also make a Public Record Request by visiting the City Clerks Office located at
1700 Convention Center Drive, floor 1.
Additionally, the City is developing its own new research tool that will soon allow customers to
have functionality similar to that found through Velocity Hall. This new tool will produce reports
that would be clearly labeled with warnings regarding the accuracy of the findings based on the
fact that a new system is in place and the user is researching inside the old system. This
warning, although intuitive, was very challenging to include in Velocity Hall as the City did not
publish that application, it was owned by a separate entity.
Should your office receive questions or concerns regarding the new systems, please refer all
these issues to Assistant City Manager Mark Taxis. Mr. Taxis will ensure that the issues are
addressed by the proper city departments.
Please contact me if you have any concerns or require additional information.