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City staff ask for $550K to stabilize and upgrade Salesforce, citing mission-critical use across departments
Summary
City staff requested a one-time $350,000 and $200,000 ongoing investment in Salesforce to replace unsupported custom code, maintain the enterprise system, and support permitting, inspections and customer service across ten departments.
Ben Anderson and John Barker described Salesforce as the central platform for permitting, inspections, customer service and many cross-department workflows. Ben said the system has brought improved accountability and record-keeping but requires a substantial one-time investment to retire unsupported custom code and an ongoing funding stream to sustain vendor support and continued improvements.
Staff requested a $350,000 one-time appropriation in 2025 for required vendor work and an additional $200,000 annually thereafter. Ben said these funds would be used to modernize custom integrations, implement pending code updates, and provide sustained back-office support so the system is stable and responsive. "The $350,000 one time request in 2025 is to make sure that this program that we spent a lot of time building out continues to function," Ben said. John Barker noted staff evaluated other platforms and concluded that the cost and disruption of replacing the enterprise system now would be greater than investing to stabilize Salesforce.
Council members expressed concern about vendor lock-in, long-term costs, and whether alternatives had been fully explored; staff said they would continue to evaluate options but recommended the investment to avoid near-term operational risk.
