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City staff brief council on Community Connect one-stop online payments portal
Summary
City staff described a plan to consolidate multiple payment processors into a single Community Connect portal (Cassell) to reduce processing costs and daily reconciliation workload; the water department will be first to transition.
Randy (last name not provided), a city staff member, briefed the council on Community Connect, a Cassell front-end portal that would consolidate the city’s disparate online payment processors into a single account system.
Randy said the portal would allow residents to create an account, store payment methods (credit card or ACH), and perform city transactions through one interface. He said the city’s current annual card-processing cost is in the range of $50,000–$60,000 across all departments; Community Connect would replace processing fees with a $3,000 annual fee and eliminate per-transaction processing fees for the city.
The water department volunteered to be first in line for transition because water accounts already live in the city’s financial system; Randy estimated that transitioning water payments could take about a month. He said some systems, such as PGA-required golf tournament processors, may remain on separate platforms but could be linked through Community Connect.
Randy said convenience fees charged to users will drop (the meeting referenced a current $2.95 fee that would fall to roughly $2.00). He said Cassell would assume processing liability and that the city’s liability exposure would not increase. The city plans a module-by-module rollout, starting with water, then building permits and business licenses.
Councilmembers asked about data breach liability and timing; Randy said the liability remains with the processor (Cassell) and that he expects a relatively quick transition for water. The council did not take formal action; staff will proceed with vendor meetings and a phased implementation schedule.
