Minneapolis automates food permitting, removes ‘two-feet high’ paper stack
halbergman via Getty Images
By
Chris Teale
Having previously relied on handwritten permit applications and taking payment by phone, the city now uses cloud-based software to automate much of the process and make it more efficient.
Over the course of a typical year, Minneapolis hosts around 500 events involving food in some form, often accompanied by amplified music. All those events need permitting and inspection, a task that used to be daunting for the department responsible.
In the past, the Minneapolis Health Department had to deal with permit applications that were handwritten and so could be hard to decipher. They had to make copies of those applications to give to inspectors in the field, creating a “two-feet high” mountain of paper, a spokesperson said. And when it came to taking payment for an event permit, department staff had to take credit card information by phone and had no other way of taking money.
Now, that has all changed as the city has implemented a cloud-based work management platform from Smartsheet that automates much of the process and allows applicants to file for a permit online and make their payment in the same way. It also largely eliminates the challenge of staff having to parse through an applicant’s handwriting to work out what they want to do. Permit approval now takes half as much time, and the stacks of paper have been cut dramatically.
Scott Gehrig, a senior business analyst for health administration in the city’s health department, said it shows what is possible with automation and how staff work can be made more efficient.
“There's nothing manual about this,” he said in a recent interview. He first started working with the software in 2021 as the city began taking lead out of people’s houses.
Rather than submit a paper application, permit applicants go online and fill out a form that has various logic fields, meaning if someone says they have a license in another jurisdiction, the form automatically updates with additional questions to ask. If an applicant says no, it stays as it is.
That logic also applies to an applicant’s food and drink preparation. The city must ask every applicant if they use a licensed commercial kitchen to prepare food before the first day of their event, but if an applicant says they are purchasing their food on the first day of their event and then throwing out anything unused at the end of the day, they don’t need a commercial kitchen so are spared various questions about it.
Once an applicant submits their form, city staff go into the software portal and automatically generate a document for themselves and can even communicate with applicants via Smartsheet if they require more information or clarification. For example, Gehrig said that could involve fixing simple errors like an amplified sound permit putting 11 p.m. as an end time, when the city only allows amplified sound until 10 p.m.
The software then can generate a copy of the application for inspectors that they can view electronically if they choose, so removing the need for an original paper application to be photocopied and then stored for seven years, per city policy. And it integrates with DocuSign to allow applicants to provide credit card payment information online, rather than by phone.
“We never have to pick up a phone anymore,” Gehrig said.
This streamlined permitting process is part of a trend of governments identifying ways they can automate some of their front-facing services. Experts have suggested previously that automation can help leaders be more efficient.
In a recent op-ed for Route Fifty, Chris Estes, EY’s technology leader for state, local and education and a former state chief information officer and secretary at the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, said automation can mean a government that “functions more efficiently and feels more responsive and accessible to its constituents.”
Gehrig said others are intrigued by the prospect of automating their permitting workflows, including nearby Ramsey County, Minnesota, which contains the twin city of St. Paul. The technology and automated processes could be useful for both the private and the public sector, and make employees’ work more efficient, especially for agencies that work closely with the public in areas like permitting.
“The things that we're creating in Minneapolis are all things that I see a lot of businesses being able to use,” Gehrig said. “Using the same format across the board is a lot easier than using paper.”