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The Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a new contract for the city website in the first monthly meeting.

According to a memo from Community Engagement Officer Emma Cook in the agenda, the city website’s current vendor is CivicPlus, but the city will be replacing the current vendor with Rivize, in a $28,900 contract.

“While Civicplus has managed the website for the contracted period, recent challenges have arisen. The increasing complexity of web technology and expanding demands for online services has led to difficulties in keeping the website fully optimized and accessible to user needs,” stated the memo.

“Revize has established a reputation for delivering award winning web solutions for government agencies and organizations. Their proposal offers a range of services tailored to meet the city’s needs.”

“The decision to switch contractors from Civicplus to Revize represents a strategic move to enhance the city’s digital infrastructure. It ensures that residents and stakeholders have access to reliable, up-to-date information and services through the city’s website, aligning with the city’s commitment to fostering transparency and engagement within the community.”

Alderman Jenna Amacher had a few questions, but said she wasn’t opposed to updating the city site.

“I was curious as to what this does, that we don’t currently have with our web technology,” she said. She also asked where in the budget the funds for the update would come from.

City Administrator Jason Quick said that while the web page may look good on the front end, some issues on the back end of the website were brought to his attention by the current vendor.

“The vendor told me that he had the opportunity to fix all of them, but it was going to cost us $4,500 for this module, $4,500 for that module,” he said. “Through subsequent conversations, I determined that our relationship with them was going to be transactional, not relational, and that’s not the kind of relationship I think that we should have with a vendor.”

Quick said the vendor explained to him that the website had 12 broken links, but he was not willing to tell Quick unless the city paid him $4,500.

He said that he then asked Cook to work with IT Specialist Adam Booker to find out if CivicPlus was the best option, or if they could find a better one. He said they recommended Revize, and pointed out the financial benefits to switching.

“I think that this is an excellent opportunity for us to move forward,” he said, and added that he thought they would have a better opportunity to communicate with citizens through the website if they changed vendors.

Amacher had another concern, which was the switching of contracts from CivicPlus to Revize. She asked if there would be any monetary ramifications in switching.

Quick said the change would be made upon the expiration of the contract with CivicPlus.

Amacher’s final question was whether it would be necessary for a Request for Proposal (RFP) to be made.

Finance Director Sue Wilson said in her evaluation, she did not think so, as in the contract with the new vendor they would actually be able to save money.

There was some further discussion amongst the board before Mayor Ray Knowis brought the vote forward. The motion was made by Berry, and a second was made by Alderman Derick Mann. The vote passed unanimously.