The OROVILLE City Council on Jan. 7 approved a contract to implement a computerized maintenance management system to centralize work orders, asset inventories and maintenance records across public works and the sewer enterprise.

City Public Works Director Fred Belser told the council the CMMS will track assets from streetlights and trees to sewer lift stations and manholes, help prioritize capital projects tied to the city's pavement management program and allow field crews to create geotagged work orders from mobile devices. "It memorializes it, and we can track cost on how many times we've repaired the air conditioning system," Belser said.

Belser framed the purchase as not only operationally useful but required for the city's sewer collection system: "City of Oroville is required to have one because we operate a collection system," he said. He described the first-year cost as "around a hundred thousand dollars" and estimated ongoing annual fees in later years around $20,000, plus variation depending on modules selected. He said the Sewer Enterprise Fund would pay a portion of the cost and the city would allocate remaining shares across departments.

Council members pressed on implementation risks and staffing. Councilmember Weber, who said he has experience with CMMS programs, stressed that "data in, data out" governs usefulness and asked whether the system supports attaching photos and GIS layers; Belser confirmed it does. Councilmember Goodson asked about training and funding; Belser said field staff will have credentials to create work orders, managers will control GIS edits, and the vendor offers a cloud-based service to limit local server needs.

Belser and others described specific operational benefits: tracking hours spent on cleaning, documenting sidewalk lift conditions with photos to support future claims, monitoring pump run-hours at lift stations, and maintaining a streetlight and tree inventory with species icons to plan tree replacement. He said the CMMS will improve historical records for repairs and help set capital priorities tied to the Pavement Management Program (PMP).

Council discussion emphasized the need for agency buy-in and consistent, high-quality work-order entries to realize benefits. Belser said prior implementations took about a year to reach staff comfort, particularly when smartphone connectivity was less common, but he expects the city can move faster with the chosen cloud-based vendor.

The council approved the staff recommendation to proceed with the vendor selected through the city's RFP process. The staff record shows multiple vendors were evaluated and the recommended vendor offered a balance of functionality and price, according to Belser.

The procurement moves next to vendor onboarding, GIS integration and a planned presentation on the PMP to the council in February.

Ending: City staff said they will notify state regulators that the city is moving forward with the CMMS and begin onboarding. Belser said the system will be used to improve tracking for streets, parks, public works assets and the sewer collection system, and he recommended departmental commitment to ensure data quality.