Bradenton, FL

Bradenton, Florida is an older coastal community with many homes constructed in the late 1940s and 1950s, well before modern floodplain standards existed. This history continues to shape the local Building Department’s day-to-day work. A large share of the city’s housing stock sits within flood zones, key records often date back decades, and staff must make timely, accurate determinations of floodplain compliance. Simultaneously, Bradenton is adjusting to Florida’s milestone inspection requirements, which introduce new reporting obligations and significantly raise the accountability for building officials.

For the city, the challenge extended beyond simply collecting milestone reports or organizing floodplain documentation. The issue was verification: ensuring records were complete, accurate, and defensible without slowing down operations or overwhelming staff. With Forerunner, the department has moved away from fragmented, manual tracking to a centralized, map-based system that saves time, reduces risk, and allows staff to work with greater confidence.

Milestone Inspections: A New Level of Accountability

Under Florida’s milestone inspection requirements, building officials must submit an annual milestone summary report to Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation using their Building Official license number. By submitting the report, the Building Official is formally attesting that the information is complete and accurate for the entire calendar year. If buildings are missed or inspection phases are reported incorrectly, the risk, both professional and for the municipality, is substantial as responsibility rests squarely with the individual signing the report.

Bradenton officials recognized the gravity of this obligation and understood the city needed a reliable, defensible way to confirm which buildings had submitted milestone inspections, which were still outstanding, and whether the information being reported to the state reflected conditions on the ground.

When Inspections Lived in Inboxes and Spreadsheets

Before adopting Forerunner, Bradenton’s milestone inspection process relied heavily on email and manual tracking. Engineering reports were submitted via email, milestone documentation was stored in basic file structures, and a spreadsheet was used to track completion status, follow-ups, and potential Phase Two inspections. Even when documentation existed, locating it often meant navigating a maze of shared drives, folders, and inconsistent naming conventions.

More importantly, this approach offered no reliable way to verify completeness. True verification would have required staff to take the spreadsheet into the field, visit properties individually, and manually cross-check addresses. For a small department that is responsible for permits, inspections, and floodplain reviews, this workload could easily span several weeks - effectively turning compliance into an honor system.

Verifying Compliance at a Glance with Forerunner

With Forerunner, Bradenton has centralized milestone inspection records by attaching reports directly to individual property records. This shift eliminated much of the searching and cross-referencing that had slowed the previous workflow. Instead of tracking down emails or digging through shared drives, staff can now open a property record in Forerunner and immediately verify whether a milestone inspection exists and its status.

Deputy Building Official, Tamra Torani, shares, “Forerunner has made such a difference in our day-to-day processes. Our old system of emails, paper documents, and spreadsheets was so completely daunting. Everything was in so many different formats, and I could never feel confident that we were inclusive of the necessary data.”

The department can verify compliance visually. By viewing milestone data on a map, staff can zoom into condo-heavy areas and quickly confirm that required buildings have milestone records attached. When local knowledge suggests a building should be included but no record appears, the gap is immediately visible and easy to investigate. Forerunner’s geospatial capabilities shift verification from a labor-intensive exercise into a fast, intuitive review process that supports confident, defensible reporting.

Accelerating Milestone Inspection Reporting Timelines by 70%

The Bradenton team estimates that thorough verification under the previous spreadsheet-based approach could have taken weeks of staff time, particularly when layered onto existing workloads. This time was not spent simply maintaining records; it was spent chasing certainty, driving to sites, reconciling addresses, and attempting to confirm that documentation matched reality.

With Forerunner, compiling the milestone summary report for the state now takes approximately a day and a half - saving the team at least 70% of their time. Equally important, city staff feel confident in the accuracy of what they submit. This new level of visibility has transformed how the department verifies and reports information. As Tamra explains, “Forerunner has given us the ability to report information accurately and allows us to identify missing data and remedy the shortfalls efficiently. Forerunner’s ability to check the accuracy of information… is a game changer.” With Forerunner, the Building Department produces accurate, structured reports with clarity and confidence.

A Single System of Record for Floodplain Compliance

Milestone inspections are one part of Bradenton’s responsibilities. Floodplain compliance remains a daily priority, particularly given the city’s older housing stock and flood-prone location. Historically, flood reviews required staff to move between disconnected systems: consulting FEMA flood maps to identify zones, land development resources to confirm property details, appraisal data to assess thresholds, and physical file cabinets or scattered digital folders to locate Elevation Certificates and supporting documents.

Bradenton’s team reports that Forerunner fundamentally changed this experience by consolidating critical flood-related information into a single platform. What once required searching through dozens of file cabinets, tools, and repositories has become instantly accessible with Forerunner  -  making it easier to review historical documentation, close out long-standing items, and complete reviews without unnecessary delays. Matthew Rush, Building Official and Floodplain Manager, shared that Forerunner has “cut our flood review time by over 50%. Having all the information we need at our fingertips is extremely helpful.”

These efficiencies extend beyond internal workflows to public-facing access as well. Tamra notes, “One of the best features of Forerunner is the ability of citizens and owners to access information independently. Talk about a time saver! Forerunner has indeed made our work easier and information more accessible.” As older records are digitized and integrated into Forerunner, the city’s public information resources continue to expand - reducing staff burden while improving transparency for residents and property owners. 

Faster Decisions, Lower Risk, Greater Resilience

Looking ahead, Bradenton plans to expand its use of Forerunner to support damage assessments, maintaining flood-related records and damage history in a single, centralized system. For a coastal community, this continuity is critical. Understanding where flooding has occurred historically, where claims may conflict, and which areas experience repeated impacts allows staff to make faster, more informed decisions when time matters most. The city also plans to enhance residents’ understanding of flood risk via their Forerunner public website. 

Today, with Forerunner, the city has cut review and reporting time by more than half and replaced a fragmented, multi-system workflow with a single, address-based source of truth. For a small department, these results go beyond efficiency; they enable a shift from reactive problem-solving to reliable, defensible compliance - equipping staff to meet growing regulatory demands while maintaining public trust.