The Avalon council this week unanimously approved a one-year contract with CivicPlus to redesign the city website. The contract is for a maximum of $50,000.
Administrative Analyst Devin Hart (who wrote the staff report) told the council that the city currently uses four vendors for the one website.
Staff expects to consolidate those services by have CivicPlus provide the same services. This is expected to save both time and money.
The city received five bids. CivicPlus offered the highest of the five, but city staff argued that the offerings of the other four companies weren’t comparable, according to Hart’s staff report.
“Through an updated website, integration of push notifications, and development of a user friendly app, it is estimated City Staff will save hundreds of working hours spent on chasing paperwork, providing updates on status of citizen requests, and waiting on information,” Hart wrote in her staff report.
“If the City Council authorizes replacement of QScend and Grannicus with CivicPlus platforms including CivicOptimize, after year two there will be an annual cost savings of $3,543,” Hart wrote.
The financial impact of approving the contract: “$50,000 with $25,000 allocation in the midyear budget review for FY 2022-23- account #10135-5005 — and the remaining balance to be budgeted in FY2023-24,” Hart wrote.
Councilmember Cinde MacGugan-Cassidy said she “touched” Finance Department information on the website around 600-800 times a year.
“For somebody like me, this is huge,” said Councilmember Cassidy.
