County green-lights OpenCounter rollout plan, staff to return with contract

Klamath County staff told commissioners they plan to use OpenCounter for online application assistance and start building digital permitting workflows with local software engineering support.

Staff said OpenCounter is an established platform with thousands of clients nationwide and that a local startup lacked the demonstrated security and banking integrations needed for the county’s planned rollout. Staff proposed a three-year contract term (reduced from an initial five‑year outline) to provide incentives for vendor performance while limiting the county’s long-term exposure. The county will also contract separately for local software engineering to create the underlying digital application templates OpenCounter will host.

Commissioners signaled support for the approach and asked staff to bring a contract to the upcoming business meeting so work can begin; staff said the migration and build program will take about six months and the county is aiming to have the system operational by year-end. Staff described the user experience goal as a guided, question-based workflow so a citizen can select a permit type and be led through the process online.

Next steps: staff will prepare a contract (three-year term proposed) for board consideration at the next business meeting and proceed with procurement for local software engineering capacity as needed.