Committee approves contract with Granicus for legislative management software

The Budget, Finance and Governance Committee approved an agreement to implement a legislative management software platform provided by Granicus, a vendor the city selected through an RFQ process. The contract before the committee covers a three‑year period, includes a one‑time data migration fee of $15,000 and vendor-provided support and training.

Chief of Staff James Smith, who introduced the presentation, said the software “helps governments streamline the creation, tracking, and publishing of laws, the agendas that support that, and other facets of the public record that ultimately supports the process that is known as city council.” Deputy Chief of Staff Jen Beideman and project manager Dr. Wendy Ross walked committee members through key features, including Legistar (the core legislative workflow), Insight (an external-facing site to host calendars, agendas and video) and an e-comment/speaker sign-up portal for residents.

Beideman told the committee the vendor is used by thousands of jurisdictions and showed public-facing demos from Yonkers and Fresno to illustrate how public agendas, archives and searchable legislative files would appear. Committee members asked about timeline, historical data migration and ongoing costs. Staff said the vendor would work through a project discovery phase with city clerks and the PMO to configure the system, with a mock environment targeted for summer 2026 and a production rollout with historical data migration in fall 2026. Staff said the city’s interns have already compiled files to support migration from 2000 to the present; agendas and more detailed records will be available from about 2017 to the present, while annual proceedings will be available from 2000 through 2022.

On cost, staff said the proposal is a three‑year contract with a one‑time $15,000 charge for data migration; the vendor proposes a roughly 6% increase in the annual licensing fee after the initial term. Staff also told the committee the contract is a “not to exceed” amount and that some optional modules could be removed later if the city chooses not to adopt every feature. Project manager Dr. Ross said ‘‘the bulk of the cost of this system is what they offer,’’ and that negotiations during implementation will refine which modules are activated.

Members discussed how the platform would change current printed processes, compliance with the city charter and New York State requirements for printed proceedings, and whether the administration would use the system to originate legislation rather than only receiving finished transmitals. Staff said the city will retain ownership of its data and could migrate it away from the vendor later if needed. Committee members requested example links to other jurisdictions’ systems and asked staff to confirm whether the vendor can preserve the city’s bound proceedings and indexing requirements.

The committee moved and approved the introductory legislation authorizing the agreement. Committee directions included proceeding into vendor project discovery and providing sample system links and a written summary on archival/printing implications for the bound proceedings required by the charter and state law.