Meet Saline County
Saline County represents the heartland of American local government: a thriving agricultural community of 54,000 residents in north-central Kansas. The county balances a rich farming heritage with modern industry while offering small-town charm with big-city amenities.
Saline County proudly serves residents across 721 square miles, 18 townships, and multiple municipalities with 350.5 dedicated employees across 14 departments plus essential contracted services from legal counsel to emergency medical services. With eighteen rural districts and multi-county coordination, every efficiency improvement directly benefits hundreds of employees and thousands of citizens who call Saline County home.
When Daily Detours Derail Government Operations
Every task becomes an interruption when paper processes control your day. For Hannah Stambaugh, Deputy County Administrator of Saline County, Kansas, what should have been straightforward permit management became an endless series of daily detours that pulled staff away from meaningful work.
A citizen calls with a straightforward question about a septic system. What should be a quick lookup becomes an excavation project. Hannah and her sanitarians abandon their planned work to dive through boxes of documentation, spending hours researching permit histories and manually cross-referencing decades-old paperwork scattered across multiple files. One question. Hours of work. This wasn’t exceptional—it was routine.
These paper-driven detours happened multiple times daily, creating a cascade of delays that touched every aspect of county operations. While staff searched through filing cabinets and traced paper trails, citizens waited for responses, contractors faced project delays, and most critically, substantial revenue sat uncollected in an ever-growing accounts receivable backlog during a period when the county needed every dollar to support rapid growth.
“Building permits were operating from completely antiquated forms – a clipboard, pencil, and forms from the 1980s. It was all paper, and it just wasn’t efficient,” Hannah recalls, describing a scenario familiar to countless communities nationwide.
The operational challenges were multifaceted and costly. Hannah and her department’s sanitarians would spend hours researching septic system histories to answer single citizen inquiries. The paper-based system created systematic inefficiencies, including difficult citizen response protocols, time-consuming complaint resolution, and, most critically, a substantial backlog of unbilled and uncollected accounts receivable, representing lost revenue during a period of rapid county growth.
Strategic Solution Selection: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All
About our Client
CLIENT NAME:
CHAMPION:
Hannah Stambaugh
Deputy County Administrator
POPULATION:
est. 53,450 residents
Meet Saline County
Saline County represents the heartland of American local government: a thriving agricultural community of 54,000 residents in north-central Kansas. The county balances a rich farming heritage with modern industry while offering small-town charm with big-city amenities.
Saline County proudly serves residents across 721 square miles, 18 townships, and multiple municipalities with 350.5 dedicated employees across 14 departments plus essential contracted services from legal counsel to emergency medical services. With eighteen rural districts and multi-county coordination, every efficiency improvement directly benefits hundreds of employees and thousands of citizens who call Saline County home.
When Daily Detours Derail Government Operations
Every task becomes an interruption when paper processes control your day. For Hannah Stambaugh, Deputy County Administrator of Saline County, Kansas, what should have been straightforward permit management became an endless series of daily detours that pulled staff away from meaningful work.
A citizen calls with a straightforward question about a septic system. What should be a quick lookup becomes an excavation project. Hannah and her sanitarians abandon their planned work to dive through boxes of documentation, spending hours researching permit histories and manually cross-referencing decades-old paperwork scattered across multiple files. One question. Hours of work. This wasn’t exceptional—it was routine.
These paper-driven detours happened multiple times daily, creating a cascade of delays that touched every aspect of county operations. While staff searched through filing cabinets and traced paper trails, citizens waited for responses, contractors faced project delays, and most critically, substantial revenue sat uncollected in an ever-growing accounts receivable backlog during a period when the county needed every dollar to support rapid growth.
“Building permits were operating from completely antiquated forms – a clipboard, pencil, and forms from the 1980s. It was all paper, and it just wasn’t efficient,” Hannah recalls, describing a scenario familiar to countless communities nationwide.
The operational challenges were multifaceted and costly. Hannah and her department’s sanitarians would spend hours researching septic system histories to answer single citizen inquiries. The paper-based system created systematic inefficiencies, including difficult citizen response protocols, time-consuming complaint resolution, and, most critically, a substantial backlog of unbilled and uncollected accounts receivable, representing lost revenue during a period of rapid county growth.
Strategic Solution Selection: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All
Recognizing that daily operational detours were preventing focus on core governmental functions, Hannah partnered with her IT team to evaluate permitting and licensing solutions. The selection process revealed a critical differentiator that would define successful implementation.
Configurability That Matches Operations
While competitors presented rigid “as-is” demonstrations, MCCi Community Development stood out through platform adaptability. Hannah explains the distinction: “The other software companies seemed like a one-size-fits-all solution, with no flexibility. We had to mold to their platform. MCCi solutions focus on how we operate.”
Partnership-Focused Communication
Beyond technical capabilities, the communication approach proved decisive. “They really listened to us, to our pain points, and worked with us to alleviate those pain points,” Hannah notes. “Even today, months after the implementation, MCCi is still checking in with us to gather feedback and offer support, and they’re always open to making whatever adjustments we need.”
This ongoing partnership ensures optimal efficiency, rather than simply deploying software.
Implementation Success: Changing How Work Gets Done
Moving from paper to electronic systems across management, administrative staff, and field employees required careful planning and support. The shift to more efficient operations needed new work approaches while keeping service levels high.
MCCi’s commitment extended beyond software installation to helping the entire organization work more efficiently. As Hannah describes: “The people at MCCi have gone the extra mile to help the entire department with the transition. They helped us to think differently about how we work.”
Hannah’s initial reaction to the platform demonstration was skepticism: “There’s no way it can be this easy.” However, implementation results proved transformational, delivering what she now describes as “mind-blowing” performance improvements.
Quantifiable Results: From Skepticism to Success
The accounts receivable backlog that plagued county operations became obsolete. Delinquency rates for inspection payments dropped by 90% through automated workflow billing that streamlines processes for both staff and contractors. “It’s all but eliminated getting our county counselor involved to send them letters,” Hannah reports, quantifying administrative efficiency gains.
Daily Productivity Gains
Environmental Health Specialist Seth Odette experiences tangible time savings: up to one hour daily. “There can be 4-5 different forms that need to be completed for a single job out in the field. Our old paperwork process required us to write and rewrite the same data — name, address, etc. — on each form separately. Now, the information is typed in once and auto-populated into all necessary forms,” Seth explains.
The solution’s integrated email functionality enables instant customer delivery, eliminating the download, save, and attach processes required by other electronic systems.
Operational Transparency Revolution
Dashboards provide real-time operational oversight on outstanding permits, pending jobs, and completed activities. The comprehensive notes feature creates accessible documentation for authorized personnel across departments.
Space and Resource Savings
Physical transformation accompanied digital efficiency. Kathleen explains the dramatic change: “This entire room used to be filled with boxes and boxes of paperwork. This software has saved me so much time that I’ve been able to enter 50 years of paperwork into the system.”
This digitization initiative reclaimed workspace while enabling instant access to historical permitting and licensing documentation from any location.
Enhanced Office Culture
The solution’s search capabilities address practical field challenges. Seth can locate job requests using minimal contractor information, even just a first name, eliminating time and frustration for all parties.
Citizens and realtors experience accelerated service delivery, particularly valuable during periods of real estate growth when rapid response drives satisfaction and economic activity.
Your Government Efficiency Success Story Starts Here
Saline County’s success demonstrates how strategic technology implementation can transform government operations and improve citizen service delivery. Their 90% payment rate improvement, daily productivity gains, and enhanced stakeholder satisfaction prove that outdated systems need not define operational limitations.
Ready to eliminate daily operational detours while dramatically improving service delivery? Discover how your community can achieve similar transformational results through proven digital solutions tailored to address local government challenges.