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City notes emergency procurement with KCI Technologies to address permit review surge; board seeks outcome metrics
Summary
Baltimore officials described an emergency procurement with KCI Technologies to supply engineering review capacity while three engineer positions remain vacant. Administration says KCI contributed to clearing tasks and the city will track review times and permit issuance outcomes.
City officials told the Board of Estimates on Dec. 3 that an emergency procurement with KCI Technologies is providing surge engineering review capacity while the Department of Housing & Community Development and other agencies fill three vacant engineer positions.
Commissioner Kennedy said the contract—an up to amount of $232,530—was used to deploy engineers to assist with high‑volume reviews such as solar installations, fire alarms and sprinkler systems. She said the contract was counted against task workload rather than permit counts: at the time of the presentation the administration reported roughly 1,700 tasks in progress (Aug–Oct) and said KCI began producing reviews in mid‑October.
"We're down to 15 days median for issuance of permits," Commissioner Kennedy said. She and other city leaders said many applications are awaiting information from applicants and that KCI added surge capacity while the city recruits permanent staff.
City Administrator Leach, Deputy Mayor Khalil Zaid and others emphasized that the procurement is a temporary gap‑filling step and that the city is pursuing a three‑pronged strategy of technology, people and process improvements. Leach described local HBCU fellowship partnerships (including Morgan State) as part of a pipeline to grow the in‑house workforce.
Board members, including Council President and Mayor, asked for clearer outcome metrics linking KCI hours and tasks to permit issuance and review time. Administration representatives said they will report review‑time metrics and comparisons that show whether interventions (for example, fast‑track initiatives and KCI support) improve permit throughput.
The board noted the item (no formal vote to adopt an ordinance was recorded) and members requested quarterly updates on permitting progress.
