Douglas County commissioners on Thursday approved a five‑year contract with Oracle America Inc. to replace the county’s current Acela permitting software and implement a new permitting solution.

The contract approved by the Board of County Commissioners covers a subscription component and implementation/consulting fees, with the motion recording a total price of $1,130,838.78 for a contract term running from Feb. 1, 2025, through June 30, 2030. The board also directed staff to send Washoe County and the 1NV group notice that Douglas County will terminate its Acela membership effective June 30, 2026, and authorized the County Manager to execute required documents.

County officials said the subscription portion of the Oracle proposal is $395,892.33 and implementation and consulting services total $734,946.45, which together produce the $1.13 million contract figure. Staff told the board the county expects annual software subscription costs of roughly $100,000 going forward and projected implementation‑period and licensing savings relative to the county’s existing package; finance staff said net savings versus continuing the current shared Acela arrangement would emerge after several years once implementation costs are amortized.

Tom Dallaire and Andrea Pauling of the county’s community development staff presented the item and described a multiyear effort to evaluate permitting systems. Dallaire said staff had repeatedly worked to adapt the shared Acela deployment to Douglas County’s codes and processes and that those customizations required outside programming and frequent workarounds.

Oracle Consulting representatives showed the county’s proposed citizen portal, online permit wizard, GIS integration and administration tools. Joe Rasecki, principal solutions engineer, emphasized automated workflows, a mobile‑optimized portal for contractors and the county’s ability to manage form and fee changes without outside programmers.

County Manager Jennifer Davidson told the commission the county will continue to evaluate one‑time financing options — including potential use of year‑end fund balances — to offset implementation costs.

The motion to approve the contract was made by Commissioner Tolbert and seconded by Commissioner Rice. The vote was recorded as unanimous: Chairwoman Charla Hales, Vice Chair Gardner, Commissioners Rice, Tarkanian and Tolbert voted yes.

The board also approved drafting and sending the required fiscal‑year notice to Washoe County and the 1NV membership that Douglas will terminate Acela participation effective June 30, 2026. County staff said the one‑year fiscal notice is required by the interlocal agreement that created the shared Acela instance in 2017.

Commissioners said they expect to coordinate training sessions and outreach to local contractors, fire districts and allied agencies before the new system goes live.