Council hearing: Baltimore’s new housing permit system blamed for severe backlog; staff ordered to produce top‑10 fixes

At a Baltimore City Council Ways and Means Committee hearing, Interim Chief Information Officer Layla Layman told council members the recently launched housing permitting system has produced “significant challenges” that city staff are working to fix, and committee members requested a prioritized “top‑10” list of immediate corrections.

The issue matters because the permitting failures have created a backlog that residents and developers say is slowing construction, frustrating permit applicants and impairing the city’s strategy for addressing vacant properties. Councilmembers pressed staff for a plan and for faster fixes; a committee request will ask the Baltimore City Department of Information Technology (BCIT), the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and the Tiger team to supply the list ahead of the next permit‑office oversight hearing in July.

Layla Layman, interim CIO and interim director of the Baltimore City Office of Information and Technology, told the committee the problems stemmed from a mix of technology, people and process issues and from replacing an aging legacy system under a tight timeline. “The timeline was tight…and so, we were running up against a very aging system,” Layman said, adding that the city and DHCD selected the vendor after demos and joint criteria. She acknowledged the rollout produced a large backlog and said BCIT and DHCD have compiled user‑reported issues and identified a running list of high‑priority fixes.

Rob McBride, BCIT’s director of applications, described a technical constraint that complicated rollback and recovery: “Once you make that cut over and you have data in the new system, it's nigh impossible to go back because the data is in a different structure and you don't have the code to export that from that new system,” he said. McBride said the old system’s data remain backed up and available for reference, but making transactions in the new platform created a “point of no return.” He also said the city saw a surge in in‑person visits as the problems began: “There was a 200% increase in walk‑ins…as this problem started to snowball.”

Councilwoman Odette Ramos pressed staff on why the city proceeded despite warning signs and whether BCIT had been consulted on vendor selection. Ramos said the rollout has eroded confidence in city programs aimed at vacant properties and called the result “a disaster.” Layla Layman and application staff said testing occurred but that the magnitude of the problems was greater than anticipated; Layman said the city continues to identify and deploy parallel fixes, with one immediate priority being restoration of over‑the‑counter permits.

BCIT told the committee the permit team compiled a prioritized set of issues into a working list and is working in parallel on the top items rather than sequentially. Layman said the over‑the‑counter permit capability is on track for resolution by the end of the month. She also said the message board complaint feature — a frequent source of frustration — is not in the immediate top‑10 list, though staff are investigating solutions for it.

Committee members and staff noted outside teams are also involved: the committee heard that a Tiger team convened by the Office of Permits and Inspections is coordinating with BCIT and DHCD. The transcript includes inconsistent vendor name references (the transcript refers to “Acela” during questions and later to “Exela” as the vendor working on fixes); the committee asked staff to clarify vendor roles and commitments in follow‑up communications.

Action requested by the committee requires BCIT, the Tiger team and DHCD to deliver a prioritized “top‑10” inventory of immediate fixes and expected completion targets; council staff said they will follow up by email to formalize the request. The city administrator previously committed to present a plan before the next permit‑office oversight hearing.

Next steps: BCIT and DHCD will provide the committee the requested top‑10 list and estimated timelines; staff said they will continue parallel remediation work with vendor support and Tiger‑team coordination.