PermitSF Contract: Scandal or Sound Decision?

The Facts

Ned Segal, Mayor Lurie's deputy overseeing housing and economic development, awarded a $5.9 million contract to OpenGov for the city's PermitSF overhaul.

OpenGov scored lower than competitor Clariti on some key metrics determined by city staff, and would reportedly cost much more than Clariti, according to Gabe Greschler and Josh Koehn at The Standard. However, OpenGov has many more clients and a longer track record than Clariti.

The Context

Both companies bring different capabilities and significantly different track records to government permitting:

OpenGov serves over 2,000 government agencies nationwide with comprehensive budgeting, permitting, and transparency software. The company has reached 500 permitting partnerships and claims to help governments increase efficiency by over 30%.

Clariti, formerly BasicGov, specializes specifically in permitting software for governments, though only serves "dozens" of governments across the country. City officials also noted concerns about Clariti's implementation delays at the Department of Public Works.

The GrowSF Take

This decision highlights a fundamental tension in government procurement: Should cities prioritize staff preferences and lowest bidders, or bet on proven scale and vendor relationships? As outside observers, we lack the information to fairly judge the merits of OpenGov versus Clariti.

SF's permitting system is genuinely broken, using 20 different software platforms that contribute to endless delays. And while we don't love that OpenGov was significantly more expensive than Clariti, we're not convinced that the lowest bidder is always the highest value. We also recognize that OpenGov's more widely-used platform may offer more long-term value and implementation guarantees, especially given the city's existing issues with implementing Clariti at DPW.

So we think there's more smoke than fire to this story, but if the city is going to pay a premium for OpenGov, we hope they negotiated strong performance metrics and accountability into the contract. The city deserves a permitting system that works, and we hope this decision helps deliver that outcome.