Council approves sole‑source contract for enterprise GIS software (Esri)

The Government Operations & Regulations body approved RS 2025-966, a sole‑source contract between the Metropolitan Government and its GIS vendor to provide GIS software licenses, training, conference registration and related services.

Colleen Herndon, assistant director of GIS and data insights for Information Technology Services, told the meeting that the city’s enterprise GIS platform and tools (including parcel viewer and the open data platform) run on Esri and that the existing five‑year contract with that vendor will expire in January. “One of my teams manages all of our enterprise GIS services for Metro and Esri is the vendor that we implemented, through a contract, 5 year contract that is expiring in January,” Herndon said. She described uses such as the parcel viewer, the community asset and land program and other departmental applications that rely on the GIS platform.

A member asked whether conference registration and training referenced in the contract meant expenses would come from the convention center budget; Herndon and another member clarified the contract is not related to the convention center and that training and conference registration are for staff who use the GIS software. Another meeting participant suggested the conference registration line likely referred to sending staff to an Esri conference for vendor training.

The item was moved, seconded and approved by voice vote; no roll‑call tally was recorded in the transcript. The vendor named in the discussion was Esri (the transcript also contained an earlier rendering of the vendor name that differs from the vendor Herndon explicitly identified). No dollar amounts were stated in the meeting discussion provided.