IT board approves Mainstar SaaS contract for permitting, inspection system

Waukesha City’s IT advisory board voted unanimously to approve a Software‑as‑a‑Service contract with Mainstar for the city’s permitting, code‑enforcement and inspection system.

Chris, an IT staff member who led the procurement, told the board the city’s on‑premises permitting platform dates to 2014 and the incumbent vendor signaled it would stop on‑premise support, forcing a cloud migration. "If they're gonna force us to go to the cloud, we're gonna take this as an opportunity to look around and see if there's a better product out there," he said, describing an RFP, vendor demonstrations and scoring that led staff to recommend Mainstar.

Maria Pandasi, the city’s deputy community development director, said roughly 6,000 permits, projects or code cases move through the software each year and that Mainstar’s customer‑facing portal and support impressed staff and peer jurisdictions. "The way it looks and the way it's formatted on screen is much cleaner, much neater, and we can customize that," she said, adding that auto‑issuance of vetted electrical and plumbing permits would continue.

Staff summarized cost and contract terms: year‑one licensing and migration costs are front‑loaded as a SaaS purchase; the contract shows a five‑year term with recurring annual fees and a guaranteed 3% increase each year beginning in year three. Staff said the city is not locked into a long‑term commitment and expects a notice period to terminate service. Integration options assessed in the RFP included nightly file exports, API capability, financial‑system interfaces and improved GIS handling.

Board members pressed staff on interoperability and operating‑budget impacts; staff said the five‑year display in the contract reflects the vendor’s pricing schedule but the arrangement operates on an annual renewal cadence and the city’s five‑year financial forecast already includes projected operating increases. One board member asked whether the contract carried other variable fees; staff said no additional bandwidth or storage surcharges were anticipated.

The board moved and seconded the contract approval and adopted the motion by roll call; the vote was recorded as unanimous. The board directed staff to proceed with contract execution and implementation planning.

What’s next: staff will finalize migration and integration schedules, carry the project funds forward from the approved CIP, and return with implementation updates as the vendor onboarding proceeds.