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Port Angeles council approves switch to Laserfiche municipality license at $29,443.84
Summary
The City Council unanimously approved an annual Laserfiche municipality license purchase, citing expanded public access and modest annual savings; councilmembers asked staff to pursue website and records-search improvements.
The Port Angeles City Council unanimously approved the city’s purchase of a Laserfiche municipality annual license from Cities Digital in the amount of $29,443.84, including tax, and authorized the city manager to execute purchase documents and make minor modifications as necessary.
Deputy Director Goins told the council the city’s existing Laserfiche license (referred to in the packet as the current Laserfiche implementation) expires March 1 and staff recommends the municipality license because it offers additional functions at a lower annual price and provides unlimited public portal access. Goins said funding of $29,443.84 is available in the city’s IT 2025 budget.
The move generated questions from council members about public searchability, concurrent-user limits and how the records platform ties to the city website. IT department manager (identified in the packet as ITD manager Watercati) said the municipality license increases available user licenses, removes a 25-concurrent-user cap on the public portal and that much of the current service issues are organizational (how documents are indexed and exposed) rather than strictly software capability. Watercati recommended the platform as the city’s preferred records-management tool and said staff can work to improve metadata and public-facing search behavior.
Councilmember Lindsay criticized the current public experience and urged the city to develop a concrete plan to make meeting packets and records easier for the public to find. Councilmember Brandon and others asked technical follow-ups about metadata and API access; Watercati confirmed Laserfiche has extensible APIs and that staff has already applied metadata practices to many documents.
Councilmembers also asked staff to consider a single, consolidated presentation of annual software renewals at a future meeting so the council can review multiple renewals together. After a motion from Councilmember Lindsay (second not specified in the record) the council voted 6-0 to approve the purchase. The consent motion and the Laserfiche renewal were funded from the existing IT budget line; the renewal is annual and will return for future renewals.
The council’s action authorizes the city manager to finalize procurement documents and to make minor modifications necessary to administer the purchase. Staff noted additional work is needed to improve the public search experience and to coordinate changes with the city’s web platform.
