City of Columbus - File #: 0867-2021

• File #: 0867-2021
• Version: 1
• Type: Ordinance
• Status: Passed
• File created: 4/1/2021
• In control: Finance Committee
• On agenda: 4/19/2021
• Final action: 4/22/2021
• Title: To amend the 2020 Capital Improvement Budget; to authorize the City Auditor to appropriate and transfer $24,510,000.00 from the Special Income Tax Fund to the Auditor Bond Fund; to authorize the City Auditor to enter into contract with FAST Enterprises; to authorize the City Auditor to enter into contract with such additional vendors as may be necessary for a modern revenue management system; to waive the competitive bidding provisions to enter into such contracts; to provide funding for the implementation, support, hosting, and maintenance of GenTax Income Tax Revenue Management System; to authorize the appropriation of $24,510,000.00 in the Auditor Bond Fund; to authorize the expenditure of $27,000,000.00 in the Auditor Bond Fund; and to declare an emergency ($27,000,000.00).

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result
4/22/2021	1	CITY CLERK	Attest
4/21/2021	1	MAYOR	Signed
4/19/2021	1	COUNCIL PRESIDENT	Signed
4/19/2021	1	Columbus City Council	Approved	Pass

Explanation
Background:
This ordinance NO. 0867-2021 authorizes expenditures of $27,000,000 for the implementation and support of a modern revenue management system. This legislation authorizes the City Auditor to enter into contract with FAST Enterprises and other vendors necessary
The City of Columbus currently uses a collection of 125 legacy tax applications and batch processes maintained by the Department of Technology to collect, audit, and enforce the City’s income, admissions, hotel/motel, excise, and short-term rental taxes. The City’s current tax systems have limited interfaces with each other or other systems of record (such as the accounting system), making the back-end data processing and reporting necessary for audit and enforcement ineffective compared to modern tools. The complicated network of applications and processes makes the safeguarding of taxpayer information and federal tax information a significant, costly undertaking for both the Division of Income Tax and the Department of Technology. Finally, the systems have not kept up with technical advances in providing a modern taxpayer interface, leaving Columbus taxpayers without a viable online option for filing returns, viewing account information, or making payments. Due to the lack of modern online options for taxpayers, a significant portion of the Division’s incoming filings are received via mail, making the collection of income tax revenues not only inconvenient for taxpayers, but also highly manual for the City.
The Auditor’s Office conducted an RFP process in accordance with Section 329.27 of Columbus City Code for a new fully-integrated revenue management system and related professional services necessary to implement the proposed system.
Five (5) responses were received. The initial responses were evaluated using (1) quality and feasibility of the proposed project plan, (2) overall proposed system, (3) project resources and product efficiencies, (4) licensing model/ongoing maintenance...