City looks to save dollars through partnership

Wauwatosa is working with three other similarly sized communities to get a deal on property assessment software.

The Common Council on Tuesday authorized city staff to contract with Vision Government Solution, at an anticipated price of a little more than $123,000 for software licensing and installation, data conversion and training.

That number could change if Brookfield, Waukesha and LaCrosse officials get on board with the purchase of the mass appraisal software. The more communities, the lower the cost, City Assessor Steve Miner said.

The four communities together bring just shy of 70,000 parcels, and the group has three years to recruit other municipalities. Cudahy is among the communities that have expressed interest, Miner said.

"There's a strong possibility of 190,000 parcels," he told the Budget and Finance Committee last week.

This initial foursome has established numerous committees involving assessors, information technology professionals and legal staff "sharing the workload of getting this product fine-tuned for Wisconsin," Miner said.

He hopes contracts will be signed early next year and staff will spend most of 2012 getting the software up and running for a 2013 citywide revaluation. The last assessment was conducted in 2006.

"We don't want to push that off another year," Miner said.