Dissatisfaction from staff and town residents has led to a decision to revamp the town's current website. From a staff point of view there is limited functionality, a lack of modern advances and inefficient interfacing on the existing website. Residents have complained about the difficulty in navigation and information tracking.
Parks and Recreation Director Breyana Brandt gave an update on the redesign and launch of the new website during the Nov. 13 town council meeting, noting that rather than have three separate websites for the town of Moraga, the Parks and Recreation Department and the Moraga Police Department, all will be located under the umbrella of the town's website.
After reviewing 10 responses to their Request for Proposals, staff agreed to contract with CivicPlus to design and develop the new town website. According to Brandt's staff report, "CivicPlus provides an integrated technology platform designed specifically for local government. The CivicPlus platform delivers web technology, website design, content management and mass notification communication tools. CivicPlus remains a prominent website service provider for local municipal websites in Contra Costa County with current customers that include the cities of Danville, El Cerrito, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon and Contra Costa County."
Parks and Rec currently uses CivicPlus - Civic Rec software for program registration and facility bookings. Additional benefits will include a government focused design; easy-to-use content management; accessibility; search engine optimization; secure hosting and ongoing technical support.
A one-time cost of $16,813 covers the design and development. An $18,000 one-time consultant services fee covers a projected 180 hours at $100 per hour. Both costs are budgeted in the current fiscal year. Ongoing maintenance costs begin the second year and are estimated at $3,775, an increase of $575 from the current annual maintenance cost of $3,200.
The projected timeline to initiate the new website begins in January. Various phases follow: analyze; design and configure; optimize; educate and finally the projected launch phase in May. At some point in time, the public's input will be sought in the hopes that the end result will be very user friendly and meet a variety of needs. |