The Twin Cities are boldly going where no Maine community has gone before, and nowhere else in Maine will development be easier. Unique to LA, the twin cities have forged a collaborative union and invested into the EnerGov Solutions project, an innovative software solution that launches municipal Twin City development, and many other functions, well into the 21st century.

The project promises to streamline the development process so that codes, planning, permitting, and more, will be nearly identical regardless of which city a developer is working. Internally, the EnerGov project offers even more opportunities for greater productivity and further collaboration between the Twin Cities as the development phase of this project is only our first step toward the endless possibilities of this innovative technology.

Our initial application of this software includes 12 departments and 75 processes in EACH city. The EnerGov project is iconic for Twin City collaboration representing how staff from both cities converted ideas into results.

Working from recommendations and ideas suggested by the Lewiston and Auburn Joint Services Commission, staff identified how those ideas could be turned into results by using innovative technology, such as using the EnerGov software. City Councils from both Auburn and Lewiston voted unanimously to support the project in October of 2009 and make the joint purchase, which saved the cities $244,000 had the purchases been made separately.

Since then, staff from both sides of the river have worked together feverishly to rebuild the processes for development from the ground up. Even better, the entire process was built keeping the perspective of the customer in mind. Project Leader, and Auburn Assistant City Manager Laurie Smith said, “Everything we did and everything we discussed was from the perspective of the end-user, whether it was the homeowner, small contractor, or large developer. Our purpose was to make the process as easy as possible, saving everyone time and money.”

The result is that now the Twin Cities are working to adopt similar building, electrical, and plumbing codes, as well as to have identical building permit fees. Smith said to truly make this process work for the customer we had to offer more online services, e-mail and phone text inspection notifications for our customers on-the-go, as well as to offer as much development information as necessary to keep businesses building and productive.

The online services will offer greater public transparency as users will be able to identify those once-mysterious building projects by visiting the Twin City websites and reviewing permitting information.

The EnerGov project will continue generating efficiencies and increasing productivity as the data that the software captures such as inspection times and resources can then be converted into performance measurements.

Economizing city functions based upon field and financial data will allow city administration to make better decisions, thus furthering our efforts to reduce governmental expenses. Having similar platforms in each city will also create opportunities for employee sharing where staffing may be placed in either city depending upon service demands.

The EnerGov project is exciting for many reasons and on so many different levels. Perhaps the best part of this project has been the managerial collaboration each city has experienced throughout the process. The beneficiary of our collaboration will be our customers. Not just those customers who will enjoy the streamlined development process, but also those customers who work hard to pay for governmental services.

Using innovative technology to increase efficiency and productivity—the new economic measure of success—will promise to position Lewiston and Auburn as the leaders in local government management, efficiency, customer service, and economic development. Being in a leadership position will ensure we keep our foot in the door of economic growth and future opportunities.

Copy the Story Link