Geographic Information Systems Projects
Data Integration with City Business Systems
Need: City systems and users require timely, accurate property information. Enterprise systems lacked updates and were complicated to update due to the lack of a central data repository.
Solution: Interwest staff integrated information provided by the County of Sacramento Assessor’s office into the City of Elk Grove’s GIS databases. Now the data is centralized and updated regularly and is used by several City systems, reports, and quality control processes.
To ensure this information is maintained regularly and consistently, Interwest developed automated tasks which extract data from the county, transform it into city required formats and load it into the appropriate databases. Additionally, Interwest developed automated quality control alerts which send notifications when there are errors or omissions. This improves the speed at which problems can be resolved.
Benefit:
- SunGard Land Management is now updated monthly vs. bi-annually. This improved many business processes requiring accurate owner information
- Geoblade property information is updated without GIS staff intervention
- Special reports for business lines to monitor property transactions
Develop Web GIS Portal for Enterprise Access to Spatial Information
Need: City staff needed a tool to display a map with data from multiple business processes around the City. Staff needed the ability to search, analyze, and report the data to support everyday business decisions.
Solution: Interwest staff deployed the Rancho Cordova Parcel Viewer tool to virtually all City staff. This tool gives City staff the ability to easily exchange information with other departments, without being required to learn in-depth details of other departments’ business processes. With the extensive amount of City data displayed in an interactive map, staff easily queries the data based on location. Providing the data in a spatial manner, information can be analyzed based on its proximity to other activity or assets. Some of the data accessible through Parcel Viewer includes:
Hansen Operational Data including:
- Street Lights, Code Cases, and Building Permits
- Planning, Public Works, Building Map Layers
- Finance, Administrative Map layers
- Capital Improvement Program Map Layer
Benefit:
Code Enforcement Users are now able to view code violation locations and their spatial relationship to other map layers such as foreclosed properties.
Finance and Building Users can review developed parcels to ensure appropriate properties are included in finance districts. If there is a building not being assessed, this can be flagged for the next tax roll to ensure that future revenue is collected.
Revenue Database Streamline / Audits using GIS
Need: Revenue was being missed through the management of Tax and Fee District collection processes.
Solution: Interwest used GIS technology to quickly collect and analyze building permit information, fee district boundaries, and parcel information. Overlays were performed to compare which properties were paying into the fee districts and which properties were missed. The resulting information was then posted into the appropriate business systems including the County Assessor Tax Roll. In addition, easy to interpret maps were produced to allow for a comprehensive understanding of the geography of the districts.
Benefit: The customer now feels confident the revenues generated through tax and fee districts are accurate and current. In fact, increases in annual revenue have been accomplished. Communication with the development community has also improved through a better understanding of the district geographies.
