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Greenbelt budgets website migration, new microphones and modest PIO increases; translation remains on staff radar
Summary
The public information budget includes funding for a CivicPlus website migration, microphone upgrades under $10,000, increases for interpreting services and digital tools, and a modest overall department increase; staff said translation and bilingual distribution are goals but face cost tradeoffs.
Public Information Officer Chandra Andrews told council the FY2026 public information budget includes a planned migration to a new CivicPlus website with an anticipated June 30 launch, microphone upgrades that are budgeted under $10,000 and a department increase of roughly $36,000 to cover interpreting services, studio maintenance, social‑media scheduling software and event support.
Andrews said the vendor will install permanent, locked microphones on the dais and provide wireless mics for work sessions. She said staff has been consolidating website content across departments to simplify migration and expects the new site to go live by June 30.
Council members raised translation and bilingual publication options. Andrews said the printed City Connector mailer currently goes to the 20770 ZIP code as bulk mail and costs about $2,700 per issue in postage; printing runs total roughly $5,000 per issue. She said producing a fully bilingual City Connector would increase costs and add staffing or vendor expenses; staff flagged potential machine-translation or SharePoint translation tools as options to explore.
The budget also includes modest line items for event support (city holiday party, advisory board dinner) and subscriptions to analytics and scheduling services. The council did not act on the items; staff said they will continue to refine migration timing, translation tradeoffs and related line items as the budget process proceeds.
