County to explore Acela/OpenCounter digital permitting; staff cites roughly $50 per application estimate

County staff introduced Acela's OpenCounter portal and invited commissioners to provide a 'temperature check' on pursuing a digital front-end for planning and permitting.

Toby Morris, identified in the transcript as Acela account director, described OpenCounter as a front-end portal that walks users through dynamic questions, ties into GIS, and can auto-generate an estimated fee summary and project packet. Morris said the portal is intended to reduce repetitive questions and avoid "the spaghetti monster" of inconsistent staff responses.

Staff and Morris discussed rollout timing and a state-level filtering process that may delay full integration; Morris said the state conversion could take about a year for Klamath County to receive the latest platform release because of data-conversion work. Morris and staff provided a preliminary cost estimate of about $50 per application, using an example split of 700 planning applications and 300 public-works applications (roughly 1,000 total) to illustrate per-application cost when spread across users.

Commissioners supported further exploration. Staff said they would arrange demonstrations for staff and proceed with procurement planning and budget analysis if the board signaled interest.

Next steps in the transcript: staff will share example implementations (Fort Worth was offered as a demo site), schedule demonstrations for county staff and the board liaison, and return with more detailed cost and procurement information during budget preparation.