GAINESVILLE – A new way of doing business with the City of Gainesville is coming in November.
Gainesville Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Perry and Senior Finance Technician Tracie Morris briefed city council members at their work session Thursday morning about a move away from the current way of transacting city business online to a simpler, and less expensive interaction.
“Currently we have seven different companies that we’re using for our credit card fees and transactions,” Perry told council members. “And what we’d like to do is go to one, and that being ‘Government Window’.”
Perry said Morris started using Government Window on a small scale for business licenses and permits. “It kind of morphed into something greater,” Perry said.
Perry said Government Window has operated out of Woodstock since 2006 and was being used by over 300 government agencies.
“They’ve taken on and conquered every task that any government has given them so that’s why we’re wanting to go with them now,” Perry said.
“We currently use them in Municipal Court…to do our fines and tickets and we haven’t had any problems with them, so they are secure,” Perry added.
“What I like about them is there’s no contracts; right now we have several different contracts, one on top of another that range from one year to three years”
“Also what I like about them is there is no cost.”
Perry said he approached the opportunity with cautious optimism. “It kind of seemed a little too good to be true to begin with so I sat back a little bit and started calling a majority of the cities and counties (who use Government Window) to see how they liked them.”
“I got nothing but positive feedback.”
Perry said the interface customers will see when logging into the system is customizable. “I’m going to have a little chicken (icon) on there for the Chicken Festival…and they can prepay for the Chicken Festival.”
Morris said, “Our alcohol establishments, they’re going to be able to pay their alcohol/mixed drink tax.”
Morris added that the forms required as part of that process will be available on the website. “They’ll look just like what they currently fill out,” she said.
Perry said future plans for the website include phasing in water department transactions.
