Crisfield previews iWORKS portal to let residents request services, apply for permits and track complaints

City IT and administration staff demonstrated the city's new iWORKS landing pages and customer engagement portal, which will centralize online permit and rental license applications, allow residents to submit complaints (potholes, water leaks) and provide automated notifications to responsible departments.

David Hirschoff showed sample permit and rental‑license pages and explained users can submit documents and make payments online once staff processes invoices. He said the customer engagement box will eventually include buttons for public works and utilities so reported issues are triaged and routed to the appropriate staff member; notifications can be sent by email and text message.

Council members asked whether complainants would receive a response; Hirschoff said submitters will get automated updates and staff will track requests in the system. Staff estimated roughly one month to get initial portals (rental/permits) operational and said a full rollout could be in place by summer, after which the portal will also surface third‑party inspection files and allow address‑based searches for active rental licenses.

Council asked for training and a tutorial for elected officials once the platform is implemented. Staff committed to scheduled tutorials and to making inspection and rental‑license data searchable in the system.