Good evening and welcome to the Joplin City Council informal meeting for Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025.

We have two items on the agenda.

And let's get started with the first one on online building permits updates.

Hello AJ.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

Tonight we want to provide an update on the online building permits project.

So before we get uh to the website, um, I want to do a quick uh recap of how we got to where we are here today.

Uh so when we started working on this project, uh we quickly learned um that we were using our online our building software.

Um, we were not using it to its fullest capability.

Uh so we uh set out uh to correct that.

Um and we what we did is we updated all of our uh uh city addressing data uh so we uh made all of our addressing data and can in conjunction with Newton County and Jasper County.

Uh we also um set up an addressing protocol uh where we have active communication with uh Jasper County and Newton County.

Um we also have communication with um the emergency services, the post office, all the utility companies, and also even Google uh whenever any new addresses are established in Joplin.

Um as part of this configuration, we also uh set up all of our new permits, or not all of our new permits, all of our permits, uh we made sure that they were configured correctly in our software.

Um we also set up all of the inspections that all the uh inspectors perform across all of our departments uh for and we also associated all those uh inspection types uh with all of the different permits that we that we sell or provide.

Uh we also redesigned our uh building permit that we issue to our contractors that's required to be posted on job sites.

We did that to be conformed with the new uh city Joplin branding.

Um we also uh configured uh the access and authority for all departments that are involved in the building process.

Uh so this is all plan reviewers and inspectors.

We ensured they all had the access uh that they needed to do their uh their responsibilities uh in the building process.

Uh we also trained all city staff on how to use our building software.

We did that last May and April of 2024.

Uh we also developed training guides uh for city staff to use uh and also for future city staff to use on how to use our building software.

Uh we also updated our internal processes and procedures on how we issue permits.

Um at that point, uh, whenever we got to that point, we were ready to design and configure our online website.

Um we started that process earlier this year.

Uh once we got that uh configured and and designed, uh we didn't train city staff on how to use the online website.

Um we also trained intake staff on how to use that website as well.

So what can this website do?

So this website will allow contractors and homeowners to apply for building permits online.

Uh so when we go live, uh, which we will be going live tomorrow, uh, they will be able to apply for 11 different permits online.

These are going to be what we consider um over-the-counter permits.

Uh, when you think of over the counter, if you think of going to the pharmacy and you grab some medicine, uh, this is medicine that you can just purchase and then go home with.

You don't need a prescription for.

So the over-the-counter permits, this is gonna be like a standalone electrical permit, standalone gas permit, a standalone plumbing permit for both residential and commercial.

Uh so we will we'll we will be going live with 11 different permit types on our website.

Um contractors and homeowners will also be able to schedule inspections online.

Uh they'll also be able to cancel inspections if they need to cancel their inspection online.

They'll also need to be paid, they'll also be able to pay for their permits online using any uh major uh debit or credit card.

Um they'll also be able to print their permits online.

Uh this will set up as a PDF and they'll be able to download their permits and print them on any printer.

Um any homeowner or contractor can also review the status of their project and where their project is at with the city of Joplin.

So these are all major functions that previously uh contractors or homeowners uh had to call the city or come to City Hall to do.

Uh but these are all now functions that are going to be available for them online on our website.

Uh so taking a look, uh, this is the landing page of our uh online building permits website.

Uh and we wanted to uh try and keep this as simple as possible.

So there's a couple options on here.

So we do have a direct link to our GIS website.

We also will allow the select permit option is where you can select your permit and review the status of it and also pay for your permits.

You can print your permits, you can schedule your inspections from there.

We also give you direct access to being able to schedule your inspections with the link on the front page as well.

And of course, if you're going to submit a brand new application, we have a link there at the bottom.

So this is an example of when we're adding a brand new application.

So they'll select their application type.

Again, we're we're going to be going live with 11 different application types.

They'll enter in the estimated value of their project and they will select whether it's a public building, and then they will select whether they are hiring a contractor or if they're doing the work themselves.

And they will be able to search for their address in this software.

They'll be able to do that multiple different ways.

They can search for the address.

So this is the last step of the process.