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Council reviews IT budget; director outlines new website, subscription notifications and desktop replacements
Summary
The Burton City Council heard the IT department’s budget presentation, which includes funding for a redesigned website with resident opt-in notifications, increased subscription costs, and replacement of end-of-life meeting workstations paid from the IT contractual services line.
The Burton City Council’s finance chair, Councilman Smith, opened the IT budget presentation, which highlighted increased subscription costs, a planned website redesign with a resident notification system and replacement of end-of-life meeting computers.
The IT director told council members the proposed notification feature would let residents subscribe to categories such as roads, water-main breaks, events and meetings and choose email or text messages. “So we started, the process with Revise for redoing the website. So they are building out a test bed for us, with, new design ideas,” the IT director said. The director added that the notification option would be integrated into the site and that the cost “will be coming from the IT budget contractual services.”
Why it matters: the proposal centralizes resident alerts and aims to reduce repeated requests to “check the website” by offering one-time subscription management. Council members also questioned how meeting-room computers are used and whether to replace, remove or convert them to laptops or tablets.
Council members asked whether the website and notification system are reflected in the current budget. The IT director said the contractual-services line already accounts for the vendor work. He described an expected delivery timeline of roughly one month for an initial example site to review. On device replacement, the director said existing hardware is “end of life” and that replacement machines would run Windows 11; he described the project as a one-time capital cost intended to last approximately five to six years.
Councilmembers debated continued provision of council/board desktops. One member said the in-chamber machines are “really slow” and that several councilmembers instead bring personal laptops. Another councilmember argued against removing the machines entirely, noting future councils might use them. The IT director said licensing for council email accounts will remain and that historically the city has not issued city-provided accounts to outside boards.
On outreach and subscriptions, the IT director said the plan is to place subscription signup “front and center” on the website home page so residents can register and manage categories. He described unsubscribe functionality built into the notification messages; once a resident clicks unsubscribe, the address is removed automatically from that category.
The council did not take a formal vote on the IT budget during the presentation; staff indicated the overall budget will be prepared for approval at the council’s first June meeting.
