One front door for Port Alder.
Plainspoke's answer to RFP 26-114. A permitting and 311 platform every resident can finish in one sitting, and every department can run from one record.
Thirty-three requirements, each one mapped to the page that answers it. Two we only meet in part, and we say which.
You told us where it hurts.
§ 1 · Page 2 · RFP section 2, current state
Section 2 of RFP 26-114 is the most honest thing we've read from a city this year. Here it is back, in your numbers.
calls per pothole. Residents ring back because nobody tells them what happened.
RFP 2.1(a)to issue a deck permit. Nineteen of them are spent waiting on paperwork that was missing at the counter.
RFP 2.1(c)weekdays only, by phone, to book a sofa pickup. Nearly one in five is missed and rebooked.
RFP 2.1(e)A resident should be able to ask the city for anything, once, and know what happens next.RFP 26-114, section 1.2, project goal
Plainspoke runs every request, permit and booking through one front door, on the web, in an app, over the phone or at the counter. Residents ask once. Staff see one record. Everyone gets told what happens next. The rest of this response shows how, step by step, and what it costs, line by line.
Civic software built by former city staff. We write forms the way people talk, and we've been doing it for cities like Port Alder since 2014.
- 31
- cities live
- 4.2M
- requests a year
- 0
- contracts lost at renewal
Follow a resident through it.
§ 2 · Pages 3 to 5 · RFP 3.1 and 3.2 · Resident experience, 30 points
Pick one of three journeys from your RFP and step through it on the new forms. Today's times come from your own call-center logs in Appendix B. Ours come from three cities running Plainspoke now.
Dana, here's what residents feel in year one.
§ 3 · Page 6 · For the City Manager · RFP 2.4, success measures
You'll answer for this project at two budget hearings before it's finished. These are the three things we commit to in the contract, each with a remedy if we miss.
- C1
311 goes live in June 2027, before your budget hearing.
Residents can report, track and get texts on every street request from month five, by web, app, phone or counter.
If we miss itWe credit 5 percent of year-one license fees for every month it's late. - C2
Deck permits go from 41 days to 15 by month twelve.
Measured from first submission to issue, the way your RFP measures it, and reported every quarter.
If we miss itTwo quarters running and we fund a review team on site, at our cost, until it's back under 15. - C3
Repeat calls about the same problem fall by half.
From 2.3 calls per case today to 1.1 or fewer, counted by your phone system and ours.
How you'll knowA one-page memo each quarter, written so you can forward it to council as it stands.
Cities that ran this play.
Their city managers will take your call. Contacts are in Appendix D.
fewer repeat calls in the first year, with 311 live in four and a half months.
days for a residential deck permit, first submission to issue.
of business license renewals done online in year one.
Marcus, it plugs into what you run. And you can leave.
§ 4 · Pages 7 and 8 · For the Chief Information Officer · RFP sections 4 and 5
Six city systems touch this platform. Tap any of them for how we connect, how often, and what happens when it's down.
Security, in the terms your auditors use.
If you ever leave.
Your data belongs to the city. Export every record, file and audit entry in open formats (CSV, JSON, PDF/A) from an admin screen, any day, without asking us. If you end the contract, we run both systems side by side and hand your team a full schema map.
90 days of parallel running, at no charge.Renée, every requirement maps to a page.
§ 5 · Page 9 · For Procurement · RFP section 9, evaluation
Thirty-three requirements in the RFP. Thirty-one met, two met in part, and we say which and why. Filter by the categories on your scoring sheet, or tap any row to jump to the page that answers it.
Everything section 8 asked us to submit.
No requirement matches that search.
For council, in plain words.
§ 6 · Page 10 · For the City Council · Written at a grade 6 reading level
- Any time
Residents can ask the city for help in one place, day or night. In English, Spanish, Vietnamese or Tagalog.
- $4.41
is what it costs for each resident, each year, for five years. Port Alder has 186,000 residents.
- $612,000
is what the city pays each year today for the old permit system and the overflow phone contract. Both end when this starts. Over five years, the new platform costs $1,040,000 more than the old way.
- June 2027
is when residents can report a pothole online and get a text when it's fixed.
- 90 days
of help moving to something else, if it ever goes wrong. The city keeps all of its data.
Every line priced. Every line can come out.
§ 7 · Pages 11 and 12 · Price form, Schedule F · RFP 8.1, fixed five-year price
This is our bid as submitted, $4,100,000 for five years. Turn anything off and the form tells you what changes for residents and staff. The platform underneath is the same in every version.
Platform Five years
Hosting, security, single sign-on, accessibility, upgrades and support from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every weekday.
Same in every version of this bid. Everything else runs on it, so it stays.
Modules Five-year license
Forty permit types, the city fee schedule, plan review with markup and the inspector app.
Drop it and permits stay on paper at the counter. The deck journey in section 2 stops at step one.
One intake for phone, web, app, text and counter, with map pins, duplicate merging and status texts.
Drop it and potholes stay a phone call. Repeat calls stay at 2.3 per case.
All 9,400 yearly renewals online, with reminders and card payment.
Drop it and renewals stay on the current system until its contract ends in 2028.
Cases, inspections and notices, linked to the 311 complaint that started them.
Drop it and inspectors keep their spreadsheet, with 311 complaints emailed across by hand.
Implementation One-off, scales with modules
A team of five, two of them hired in Port Alder, configures all forty permit types and every 311 workflow.
City-led means your IT team configures and we review every build. It saves money and moves permits and licensing four months later.
Data migration One-off
Start fresh and old records stay read-only in the current system, whose license keeps running.
Training $175 an hour
Set it to zero and staff learn from recorded courses only.
Optional Five years
iPhone and Android, built on the same forms, in four languages, with push alerts.
Drop it and residents use the mobile site, which does everything the app does except push alerts.
311 in five months. Everything live in twelve.
§ 8 · Page 13 · Schedule D · Contract runs January 2027 to December 2031
Month one starts the week after award. Each go-live has a named owner on both sides and a council report the month after. Change the price form above and this schedule redraws.
Terms you can read in ten minutes.
§ 9 · Page 14 · Full contract in Appendix E
How you pay
Year one is invoiced quarterly, after the work is done. Years two to five are invoiced each July, in step with the budget council adopts.
The price can't go up
License fees are fixed for all five years. No inflation clause, no per-user charges, no fee for adding staff or departments.
Uptime and credits
99.9 percent each month, measured by an outside monitor you can see. Below that we credit 10 percent of that month's fees, rising to 30 percent below 99 percent.
Your data
The city owns every record. Export it any day in open formats. We never sell it, mine it or use it to train software.
Accessibility
Resident pages meet WCAG 2.2 AA, tested every release by people who use screen readers. Anything that fails is fixed within 30 days, or we pay for an outside fix.
Ending the contract
You can end it at any annual renewal with 90 days' notice, for any reason. We help you move for 90 days at no charge.
Insurance and liability
$5 million cyber cover and $2 million general liability, with the city named as additional insured. Certificates are in Appendix F.
Who you deal with
Jo Mbeki leads the bid and stays on as account lead for all five years. Implementation is run by a named lead on site in Port Alder three days a week.
What we don't know yet.
§ 10 · Page 15 · Open questions, stated plainly
Can we check contractor licenses live?
RFP 3.2.6 asks for live checks. The state registry doesn't publish an interface we can confirm, so until it does we check every night from its public download.
- Who answers
- Plainspoke and the state board
- By when
- Before signature
- Either way
- A live link later costs the city nothing
Three local hires, or two?
RFP 7.5 asks for three of five implementation roles hired in Port Alder. We've hired two and are interviewing for the third. We'd rather tell you now than promise it.
- Who answers
- Plainspoke
- By when
- January 2027
- Either way
- Unfilled by March, we add $40,000 of training
Which parcel map is the master?
The city's map and the county assessor disagree on 1,312 parcels. Permits need one answer, and it should be the city's call.
- Who answers
- City GIS team
- By when
- Month one
- Either way
- We load whichever you pick
Does the 311 change need union consultation?
Moving call-center agents to the new intake changes their daily work. If the agreement asks for consultation, we plan the 311 go-live around it.
- Who answers
- City HR
- By when
- February 2027
- Either way
- June go-live holds with six weeks' notice
Accept, and we start in January.
§ 11 · Page 16 · Notice of intent to award
Dana OkaforCity Manager, City of Port Alder
Priya RamanChief Executive, Plainspoke, Inc.
Questions go to Jo Mbeki, bid lead, on 555-0142. Jo answers the same day.