Washington County, FL, Expands Online Services with CivicPlus®

Washington County, Florida, wanted to expand its online services for residents by providing a unified platform for public documents and the County’s code of ordinances. For residents to access the County’s documents and code, they had two limited options: drive to county hall or file a request.

With County Hall residing in the northern part of Washington County, it was inconvenient for residents who reside in the County’s southern areas to travel to the Municipal Offices to obtain code information. While filing a request saved some a trip, filling them became difficult for County staff as they had to flip through books and sift through cabinets to find specific lines of code or the corresponding document, resulting in a process that could take several days.

Seeing the need for a solution that would aid both staff and the community, Washington County partnered with its long-time codified, Municode (now CivicPlus).

The County added Online Code Hosting to its preexisting codification services and MuniDocs to handle its library of public documents. Now, any information a resident needs can be accessed online on one platform without the need to leave the house or wait for staff to complete a request. This level of transparency has reduced calls into the office, saving staff time.

A robust search bar helps staff narrow down exactly what they are looking for in a matter of seconds, alleviating the issue of navigating old code books and file cabinets. Uploading documents and code is simple which ensures all code information remains current. The platform even shows changes to code, granting more transparency to the Washington County community.