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Planning department unveils in‑house land tracker; staff seek $7,208 in out‑of‑class pay
Summary
Okanogan County Planning and GIS staff demonstrated a newly deployed in‑house parcel tracking application that replaces Riverbank and automates parcel lookup and reporting; director Pete Palmer asked the board to approve $7,208.53 in out‑of‑class pay for three GIS employees who developed the tools.
Pete Palmer, Okanogan County director of planning, presented a live demonstration of the county’s new in‑house parcel and permit tracking system — described in the meeting as a ‘debit tracker’ with an index page, live SQL backend, autofill for parcel numbers and Python‑generated reports intended for the county website. Palmer said staff migrated fully from Riverbank to the new system in recent days and that the county’s planning and GIS team simplified data entry, removed redundant fields and wrote standard operating procedures to support maintenance.
Cameron Burnett, Cam de Nervland and Gene Wilson of the GIS team walked commissioners through the new interface, which staff characterized as a live database that commits changes immediately to SQL and supports multiple concurrent users. Palmer told the board the county built three internal systems in‑house — permitting tracking, an interactive zoning map and this new tracker — at a small fraction of prior purchased software costs. “I think the cost savings alone was very well worth it,” Palmer said.
Palmer asked the board to approve out‑of‑class compensation for three GIS employees who spent development time on the projects while the department’s compliance coordinator position was vacant. Palmer said he saved roughly $15,000 in salaries while the compliance position was unfilled and proposed a 5% out‑of‑class supplement for the hours worked. He said the total amount requested for the three staffers was $7,208.53 and that he had submitted an agenda bill and proposed resolution; staff noted the clerk of the board had been out sick and the item did not yet appear on the printed consent agenda.
Commissioners praised the in‑house work and asked about ongoing maintenance; staff said the code was simplified, well‑commented and accompanied by SOPs so successors can maintain it. Palmer suggested the county could add more fields or reports if departments request them.
Action requested: staff asked the board to place a proposed resolution on the consent agenda authorizing out‑of‑class compensation totaling $7,208.53 for three GIS employees, and to confirm that the clerk will queue the agenda bill for approval at the next available consent agenda.
