SmartGov is live

New software will consolidate, streamline permitting processes across departments

Media Contact: Matt Gonzales, Building Department Director, 970- 970-369-5440, mattg@sanmiguelcountyco.gov

Lily Briggs, Plans Examiner, 970-369-5484, lilyb@sanmiguelcountyco.gov

(June 22, 2023) – San Miguel County, CO --- San Miguel County is excited to announce the implementation and launch of Brightly SmartGov software as of June 20. This digital upgrade will serve to consolidate and streamline the permitting process for the public. Those seeking permits in each of the Community Development departments — Building, Planning, Environmental Health, Addressing and Road & Bridge — will also benefit from direct and timely communication with county staff. 

In the past several weeks, county staff in each of those departments and the Information Technology department have been training on SmartGov to prepare for this week’s launch. The prospect of combining the permitting process into a single, user-friendly portal is exciting because the addition of SmartGov will be key to improved communication and ultimately, excellent customer service.

“The public will have more direct and consolidated communication with County staff,” said Building Department Director, Matt Gonzales. “This is huge to me. The public sees the County as one entity; internally as staff, we see ourselves through different departments. Over the course of the history of our organization, our departments have all developed their own permitting processes. There will now be one place to go to obtain permits. Payments will be able to be made online through SmartGov. Uploading supporting documents for a permit will be done through SmartGov.”

Implementing SmartGov comes at a key period in the county’s history.

“We continue to see unprecedented growth in our community,” Gonzales said. “Staff's ability to stay on top of various records, communications, permit management, enforcement cases, and more, has been stressed by the volume of development. By having automatic workflow and timelines triggered by SmartGov, I am very confident that we'll be able to more readily keep up with all of the various cases we deal with. Ultimately, I'm hopeful we'll be able to focus more on serving our community.”

SmartGov will provide a public-facing portal with each permit holder having an active online account, so people will be able to constantly check on permit statuses, inspection results, and see what's left for them to do in order to close a permit out. 

SmartGov will be a known quantity for area contractors who pull permits for work in the Town of Telluride. Tammy Brand, Telluride’s Historic Preservation, Planning and Building Coordinator, said the software has been in use for two years and proven to be a benefit to both the public and staff.

“I could say so many great things about building permits going digital,” Brand said. “At first there was a little hesitation, but now contractors do find it easier than the old paper submittal. The building community has embraced how user friendly it is, from applying and requesting inspections to instant emailed inspection results and Certificates of Occupancy. The best thing about Town and County both using SmartGov, is that it’s the same look, so there’s no new portal to learn.”

With five different county departments requiring permitting for various needs, SmartGov will bring those sometimes-disparate processes under one roof.

“The movement to SmartGov for the Community Development departments within San Miguel County will not only significantly streamline the process for the public to apply for permits, but allow for efficient communication between the applicants and the departments all under the SmartGov platform,” explained Lily Briggs, Plans Examiner for the Building Department. “It really is a monumental move for the County, where until now the five Community Development departments have had five different permit application and review processes. SmartGov will allow for efficiency, strengthened relationships between departments, and improved customer service for our permittees.”

Visit the SmartGov portal: https://www.sanmiguelcountyco.gov/226/Permit-Central