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Astoria council approves new municipal financial software; vendor name inconsistent in record

5737017 · August 18, 2025

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Summary

Council approved a contract to replace the city's Springbrook financial system with a modern municipal finance platform following an RFP process, but the meeting transcript records inconsistent spellings of the vendor name in different places; finance staff provided full proposal materials to council.

Lede: The Astoria City Council voted Aug. 18 to approve a contract to replace the city—s 14-year-old Springbrook financial software with a new municipal finance platform selected through an RFP process.

Nut graf: Staff said the selection balanced modernization needs and ongoing operating costs. The RFP produced six viable vendor proposals, narrowed to two finalists. Finance Director Hillary Norton assembled the full proposal packet for council review; council approved the contract by motion.

Body: City Manager Spencer Spence told council that an enterprise financial platform is essential for purchase orders, expense and revenue tracking and that staff pursued a competitive procurement to identify a replacement. The city received six proposals, scored them and shortlisted two vendors before selecting the preferred vendor.

Councilor Emily Davis praised staff for including the full proposal materials and scoring summary in the packet. The motion to approve the contract was made and seconded; council approved the contract by voice vote.

Vendor name discrepancy: The staff presentation and earlier discussion consistently named the chosen vendor as "Cassell" (or similar variants) while the formal motion recorded in the meeting transcript used the spelling "Kissell LLC." The transcript contains no additional documentation clarifying the correct legal vendor name. Staff materials included in the council packet were cited by councilors as the basis for their approval.

Ending: Finance staff will proceed with contract implementation and a multi-department conversion from Springbrook to the new system with timelines and training to be coordinated across departments.