Accela’s move of our ePermitting servers to the Microsoft Azure cloud is proceeding smoothly and on schedule. The plan is to move the Production environment to Azure over the weekend of Nov. 2 – 4. On Nov. 5, we will all be logging in with the same user names and passwords. You shouldn’t see anything different when you log in, but the database and all of our server infrastructure will be located at Microsoft, rather than at Accela. The only visible change for end users will be for jurisdictions that use the Data Warehouse for running reports; rather than running these at the State Data Center, these will run off of a “read only data stream” at Microsoft Azure. We are currently working with jurisdictions that use the Data Warehouse to get them set up to use Azure.
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We have had a list of standard inspections across all ePermitting agencies since 2009. Many jurisdictions have requested this list be pared down or changed. To facilitate this project, a group of Building Officials and inspectors gathered and came up with proposed changes to the list of standard inspections. Changes include: removing inspections and changing the names of inspections to make them more relevant to the work that jurisdictions do. The ePermitting Team will be sending out these changes in September to all jurisdictions to provide feedback during a 2 week review window. Please keep an eye out for this. We want your feedback, as these changes will affect all ePermitting agencies!
If your agency has an upcoming fee increase, please send your new fees to the ePermitting team no later than two months before the effective date by sending an email to ePermitsHelp.BCD@oregon.gov. The ePermitting team now supports over 60 OSM agencies and we need this much lead time to update each agency who will have new fees. Please keep in mind that sending your new fee schedule to the Policy section of BCD for review is a separate process than sending your new fee schedule to ePermitting for updating in the Accela software. Also, please do not wait for your local approval process to submit your proposed changes to us. Often times this does not provide us enough time to complete and test this volume of change for all agencies requesting. Thank you for your help with this!
ePermitting is partnering with Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) on a couple of exciting enhancements to the APO processes:
If your agency has a July 1 fee increase, please send your new fees to the ePermitting team no later than June 1 by sending an email to ePermitsHelp.BCD@oregon.gov. The ePermitting team now supports over 55 agencies and we need this much lead time to update each agency who will have new fees. Please keep in mind that sending your new fee schedule to the Policy section of BCD for review is a separate process than sending your new fee schedule to ePermitting for updating in Accela. Also, please do not wait for your local approval process to submit your proposed changes to us. Often times this does not provide us enough time to complete and test this volume of change for all agencies requesting. Thank you for your help with this!
On May 1, 2018, City of Coos Bay went live on the ePermitting System as our newest OSM agency. Coos Bay has been participating with the ePermitting System since 2013 as a “D14” agency and are now using the Building, Planning, and Public Works OSM modules.
On March 26, 2018, Wallowa County went live on the ePermitting System as our newest OSM agency. Wallowa County is using the Building and Planning OSM modules. We converted Wallowa’s building data from Simply Sassy and converted their planning data from a spreadsheet. Wallowa marks our 55th OSM agency and our 25th Oregon county on the ePermitting System. We are thrilled to have Wallowa County join the ePermitting System!
This new report has been configured to work specifically within the Public Works module. There are two required parameters which are the Start Date and End Date. These dates will use the Permit Issued Date field in the database. It will display a high level summary of each record and will total how many permits were issued on the last page of the report. To view this report, go to the Public Works Reports page, expand the Public Works report section, and click on the “PW Permits Issued” report.
Fields on the report:
On February 12, 2018 Gilliam, Sherman, Wasco, and Wheeler Counties went live on the ePermitting System. Previously, MCCOG provided services for all of these counties, grouped together under one agency in Accela. Now, each county was broken out into it’s own agency and the Building Codes Division provides Building services for these counties. All MCCOG permits were converted into the correct county but the permit numbers did not change to make it easier for contractors and citizens to find their existing permits. In addition to the Building module, Wasco County now utilizes the OSM Planning module. We took advantage of a newer feature in Accela where Wasco County was configured in a way to allow the Building and Planning modules to use two different Converge accounts and the system automatically deposits the money into the correct Converge accounts.
ICC has published a new version of the valuation calculator rates. We will load the new rates into the database for ALL ePermitting agencies, effective April 1, 2018.
On March 5, 2018 City of Junction City converted from a custom configuration to the Oregon Standard Model (OSM). Junction City has participated in the ePermitting Program since 2011. Junction City now uses the Building and Planning modules. Welcome to OSM, Junction City!
ePermitting Construction Contractors Board (CCB) and Building Codes Division (BCD) License Refresher2/1/2018 CCB issues a variety of contractors licenses for doing different types of commercial and residential work. ALL contractors must have a CCB license, with the required bonding and insurance. Landscape Contractors must have a Landscape Contractors Board (LCB) license.
BCD issues licenses for the Electrical and Plumbing trades. There are licenses required to do various kinds of plumbing and electrical work AND there is a requirement for an Electrical or Plumbing Contractor’s license (as well as a CCB license) to pull an electrical or plumbing permit. Just like with CCB, there are different contractor’s licenses that allow contractors to perform different types of electrical and plumbing work. In the BCD license software, BCD and CCB licenses are linked so if someone has a valid BCD Contractors license, they also must have a valid CCB license. However, having a valid CCB license does not guarantee that someone also has a valid BCD license, so you should always check an electrical or plumbing contractors BCD license before issuing a trade permit. Online, through ACA, to pull an electrical or plumbing permit you must have an electrical or plumbing contractors license associated with your online account (the system does not, however, verify that a contractor is working within the scope of their license so if someone has a limited contractors license you may want to double check the scope of permitted work). Online, to pull a structural or mechanical permit, you must have a CCB, Architects, or Engineers license. Both CCB and BCD licenses are updated daily in ePermitting. On January 22, 2018 City of Pendleton went live as an OSM Full Services agency. City of Pendleton was previously a Basic Services jurisdiction and tracked their legacy data on a spreadsheet that was converted into Accela. They are using the Building, Planning, and Public Works modules in Accela. Their inspectors are planning on using the Inspector App on iPads for more efficiency. Welcome City of Pendleton!
ePermitting has reorganized the following two important documents regarding browser settings and supported environments for the Civic Platform. Both documents are available on the Kayako Knowledgebase.
On Sept 13, 2017 we provided a sneak peek during an online focus training of a new web-based data tool that is being developed for us called Analytics Dashboard. A lot of feedback was provided during that training and we took it back to our app developers who incorporated the changes. We are expecting the Analytics Dashboard to be made available by the beginning of the year. You will be notified just as soon as it is available for your agency to use.
The ePermitting Help Desk will be closed on the following upcoming dates:
By default, inspection calendars block out the following dates for all agencies. If your agency deviates from this schedule, please email the help desk at ePermitsHelp.BCD@Oregon.gov to block out the appropriate dates.
The Building Codes Division (BCD) is in the process of procuring licenses for Bluebeam for interested ePermitting agencies. Bluebeam is a popular web-based electronic document review and mark up tool. Agencies who currently use Adobe Acrobat Pro for electronic document review have the option to switch to Bluebeam. One thing to keep in mind is that Bluebeam does not interface with Accela software at this time, like Adobe Acrobat does. This means Bluebeam reviews will have to be done outside of Accela by manually downloading and uploading the electronic plans in Accela. Please submit a help desk ticket if your agency is interested in using Bluebeam. We will also continue to provide Adobe Acrobat Pro licenses for those agencies not interested in using Bluebeam. BCD is also in the process of developing best practices for electronic document review to share with our agencies – more to come on this topic!
Monday, November 13, 2017 you will notice a change in the way that File Name is displayed in the Documents list. Currently in the File Name column, Accela displays the Document Name instead of the File Name if the document was uploaded in the back office. After the update, both the File Name and the Document Name will appear in the Document list separated by a slash (/). This will make sure that documents are consistently named across all modules.
Both the Android and iOS Oregon Inspection Scheduling Apps were updated so that they uphold both Lock and Hold conditions. Previously, inspections could be scheduled on permits where there were either Lock or Hold conditions applied. The Android version was released to the Google Play Store on Nov 7 and the iOS version should be released to the Apple App Store in the next couple of weeks.
There are two new reports available for both the Android and iOS Accela Inspector app versions! These reports are available for all Full Service agencies, including OSM, D14, and Lane County.
Android Inspection Summary Report Accela does not provide a built-in Summary report for the Android Inspector app so we in the ePermitting Program have developed one. This report is a replica of the Summary report that is built-in for the iOS version of the Inspector app. The content on this report is very basic and minimal. The only difference between the Android Inspection Summary and the iOS Summary reports is that the Android Inspection Summary report does not have the digital signature option. Unfortunately, we are not able to add this feature to any reports that we create for the Inspector app. This report is available for both Android and iOS versions. Mobile Inspection Summary Report This report was also developed by the ePermitting Program. It contains more information than the Android Inspection Summary and iOS Summary reports. For example, this report contains description of work, contractor information, along with the jurisdiction logo! There are instructions on how to access each report and an example appended to this newsletter. On a related note, we are in the process of fine-tuning all OSM inspection reports. More announcements will be made as we publish revised reports. The ePermitting Help Desk will be closed on the following upcoming dates:
On October 30, 2017 Columbia County went live as an OSM Full Services agency. Columbia County, also provides services for the cities of Rainier, St. Helens, Scappoose, Vernonia, Clatskanie, and Columbia City. As an OSM Full Service agency, they now accept Structural and Onsite applications online, along with automatically issuing trade permits, and providing enhanced services to their customers. Columbia County was a unique implementation because they are our first agency using all four of our OSM provided modules (Building, Planning, Onsite, and Public Works).
By default, inspection calendars block out the following dates for all agencies. If your agency deviates from this schedule, please email the help desk at ePermitsHelp.BCD@Oregon.gov to block out the appropriate dates.
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