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Wm <br />o <br />INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA <br />MEMORANDUM <br />TO: Board of County Commissioners <br />THROUGH: John Titkanich, Jr., County Administrator <br />PREPARED BY: Andy Sobczak; Interim Community Development Director <br />DATE: June 27, 2023 <br />SUBJECT: Request to Waive Bid Process for Community Development Software <br />It is requested that the data herein presented be given formal consideration by the Board of County <br />Commissioners at its regular meeting of July 11, 2023. <br />DESCRIPTION & CONDITIONS <br />The Community Development Department is transitioning away from CD Plus (our legacy <br />software) which has been used to administer planning reviews, permitting, code enforcement, <br />building permits, and the State Housing Initiative Partnership program (SHIP). While replacement <br />software for many of the Department's functions has been identified and/or is available from <br />multiple vendors, the SHIP program has more specialized needs. In addition, due to the recent <br />significant increase in SHIP applications, staff has been looking for ways to more quickly process <br />incoming applications to reduce the backlog. <br />After learning about a software provider (Neighborly Software) that specializes in SHIP <br />administration at a recent conference, staff reached out to several neighboring jurisdictions that <br />use this software. Based on those discussions, the feedback from Neighborly Software users was <br />overwhelmingly positive. <br />ANALYSIS <br />Neighborly Software simplifies the SHIP review process by automating the enrollment, <br />administration, and required reporting to state authorities. Currently, most of these processes are <br />done via paper hardcopy documents through CD Plus. There are 67 other jurisdictions in Florida <br />that use Neighborly Software to administer their housing programs, and 375 nationwide. <br />While a competitive -bid process is typically used to seek new services, such as housing <br />administration software, based on research by staff, no similar products to Neighborly Software <br />are currently available. For this reason, the other Florida agencies using the software staff was able <br />to contact, noted that they either declared Neighborly Software as a sole source to administer their <br />housing programs, or waived the requirement for bids. <br />