Committee advances $597,762 Pivot Point mobile app contract after cybersecurity assurances

The Budget, Finance and Audit committee advanced a proposed contract with Pivot Point Partners LLC valued at $597,762.50 to supply a mobile field application intended to increase efficiency in property appraisals.

Alvin Horn, the city’s deputy CFO and assessor, said the Pivot Point app is used by other Michigan assessing offices and allows field appraisers to take photos, make measurements and transmit information directly to the city’s mass-appraisal system. Horn said the tool can enable "75% of their work in the field" and that the application represents a substantial efficiency improvement over the city’s current mobile device solution.

Chief Information Officer Art Thompson addressed cybersecurity concerns raised by Council Member Young, saying the city has reshaped vendor controls and the contract requires the vendor to meet federal-style requirements (Thompson cited ISO 27001 as a contractual standard for logging and incident reporting). Thompson added the application “does not have Bluetooth capability” and that data is not stored locally on phones, instead reverting to centralized systems so records cannot be tampered with on the device.

Horn said internal safeguards prevent a single employee from changing a property value: field recommendations must go through a senior appraiser, a supervisor’s approval, a final signature and then countersignature by a manager before any value change is final.

A motion to send line item 7.1 to formal with a recommendation to approve passed with no objections.

The contract will proceed to formal council consideration and procurement for finalization if approved by the full council.