Public works committee advances waiver to buy new DPW operations software

Department of Public Works staff told the Washington County Public Works Committee on March 31 that the county’s fleet‑management software has reached end of life and should be replaced with a single, integrated operations and asset‑management platform.

Carrie (DPW) said the department has budgeted for a new application in the IT budget and asked the committee to consider a waiver from the county purchasing policy because the preferred vendor is not on contract. "We have some fleet management software that is end of life," Carrie said, adding the new system would consolidate fleet, operations, GIS, asset tracking and fuel integrations into one application.

Carrie told the committee the current fleet‑only upgrade would cost about $39,000 and that the new system’s total cost was recorded in the meeting as "$47.05"; an annual subscription fee was discussed as "40" during the presentation. Staff said the purchase would include migration of existing data to a cloud environment and work‑order functionality to replace manual and Access‑based workflows.

Committee members pressed staff on training, vendor references and whether the sewer district or other agencies could later adopt the platform. Carrie said the company provided full training and that several counties using the system had reported smooth migrations; she recommended onboarding DPW first and then demonstrating the system to other local agencies that might benefit.

After the presentation Chair (speaker 1) moved the item forward and the committee voted to advance the procurement request for follow‑up action.