Cumberland County officials mark six months since CAMA go‑live, outline integrations and public access goals

Cumberland County officials on July 9 recognized the staff who led the county’s migration to Vision Government Solutions’ CAMA (computer‑assisted mass appraisal) system and heard a progress update on integrations, reporting tools and next steps toward broader public access.

The recognition and status report came during the county finance meeting after commissioners approved routine items. Kathy Waters, technical manager for the county’s assessment office, told the board the CAMA system has been live for about six months and that the project team is aiming to have “everything in place and moving forward by December.”

Why it matters: The county’s CAMA system holds property and ownership records used for tax assessment, permitting and collections. Officials said the new platform is intended to reduce manual workflows, improve data control and let residents and staff access more records and reports online rather than visiting county offices.

Waters described the transition as a large change after decades on older tools and emphasized the learning curve. “We haven’t landed yet, but we will land,” Waters said, adding the team has moved from vector sketching and legacy text‑based entry to windowed software, dashboards and report wizards.

Justin Smith, the county’s project manager on the implementation, said the new system is more open than the old one and is being integrated with other county systems, including GIS and building‑permit workflows. “The old system was really like a black box,” Smith said. “The new system is much more open.” He said work remains to automate ownership changes from the recorder of deeds, publish CAMA data to the county’s property mapper, and feed collections updates from the tax collections system.

Staff and work already completed: Commissioners and staff called up and thanked a large team that helped the go‑live and subsequent catch‑up work. County staff credited colleagues who established deed‑transfer and subdivision workflows, developed dashboards and automations for publishing parcel data, and completed backlogs of building permits and deed work during the conversion. Named contributors included Gary Ehrlich (property mapping supervisor), Julie Kurtz, Todd Chang, Jennifer McCann (report‑wizard lead), Winston (sketching lead), Raven Trimble, John Dyson and Michael (permit field work) among others.

Key near‑term projects and limitations noted by staff include: publishing online property records for public viewing; accepting digital address‑change submissions; integrating township building permits into the system; and stopping use of assessor field notebooks in favor of mobile/digital collection. Waters estimated the county is using roughly “at least 50%” of the new system’s capabilities while staff learn report wizards and dashboard features.

Implementation context and governance: Staff said a steering committee—Kirk Stoner, Mark Adams, Dana Best and Holly Sherman—met regularly to advise the project. The county also noted a vacant administrative assistant position on the tax administration support team; second interviews were scheduled the day after the meeting. No formal policy changes or budget votes related to the CAMA transition were taken at the meeting.

What’s next: County staff said they will continue training, build out report‑wizard templates, finish permit integrations and expand public access to records. Commissioners thanked the project team for the work during the conversion and for steps toward making assessment and land records easier for residents to access.