The City of Wheeling’s new partnership with GovPilot will result in modernizing the Building & Planning’s Department’s approach to code enforcement, resulting in greater efficiency.

Director of Building & Planning Tom Connelly explained that via GovPilot, the City will implement a number of digital capabilities and public facing forms that aim to make operations more efficient and services more convenient for constituents.  GovPilot’s Report-A-Concern feature will soon be launched. This will allow residents to share non-emergency situations, including building and property maintenance issues like overgrown lots, dilapidated and unsafe structures, abandoned vehicles, etc., directly via an app on their phone called GovAlert, or from the city’s website.  The app, which is available for Apple and Android devices, is easy to use and will route citizens’ concerns directly to the appropriate staff person.

“Prior to GovPilot and their GovAlert app, constituents needed to either walk-in, call, email or file a request on the current 311 system to report issues. However, all of the staff’s follow-up activities were manually done.  This improved software, along with a tablet for use in the field preloaded with city code, will enable them to photograph a violation and quickly complete a violation notice.  This expedited process should allow the residents to see improved responses to their complaints and therefore improved conditions in their neighborhood,” he said, noting that all of the information is linked back to a Geographic Information System. “This new technology, combined with the enhanced penalty provisions recently adopted by City Council , will help address code enforcement and repeat offenders.”

City Manager Robert Herron said he is looking forward to the implementation of the GovPilot technology. 

“By streamlining the processes in the Building & Planning Department via technology, we will be able to address issues in a timelier fashion and garner the good results our residents expect,” he said.

Councilman Ben Seidler has been a champion for efficiency since he took office and is pleased the City is partnering with GovPilot.

“I am very much an advocate for proactive code enforcement and I have been working with the Building & Planning department on ways to improve their efforts across the entire City. The tools that will now be available via GovPilot will make an immense difference with regard to efficiency and will allow our code enforcement officers to be more productive and accountable moving forward, eliminating the frequent occurrences of code violations falling through the cracks,” he said. 

GovPilot is looking forward to the technology’s launch. Michael Bonner, the founder and CEO of GovPilot, said his organization is excited to work with Wheeling on its early stages of digital transformation.

“In partnering with local governments across the country we have found that digital processes generate significant increases in efficiency and productivity that have a positive impact on local budgets, services, and constituent experience. We expect to see similar results in Wheeling,” he said.